Overlanding Around The World: USA
Two years on, and the Defender hasn’t missed a beat
We are celebrating the second anniversary of the start of Op Long Drive. On June 1, 2016, we left Greenwich, excited about the prospect of travelling the world but also a little apprehensive. It’s not every day you quit your job, pack up your life and put your trust in a Land Rover to get you around the globe. But two years on, here we are in the USA and the abnormal has become normal.
Our approach to distance has changed. We now think nothing of driving six hours to spend an hour at a destination, while back in UK it would have been unthinkable to drive more than three hours without at least spending a night. We feel more comfortable cooking outside on our two-ring Coleman stove than on an induction hob inside. We are more at home sitting around a camp fire in the middle of nowhere than on the couch watching Eastenders.
In that sense, we are feeling right at home in America with its endless wild open spaces offering up plenty of opportunity to engage low range and get away from the hustle and bustle of the cities.
After packing up from another remote camp spot, our destination for today is a big one: the Grand Canyon.
We join the throng of international tourists for the first glimpse of the vast canyon, and we gape at the layers of multi-coloured sedimentary rock formation carved out over millions of years by the Colorado River, which now lies one vertical mile below the rim. It has grandeur the likes of which we have only ever experienced in the presence of the highest mountain in the world, Everest. The Grand Canyon really is grand.
After spending a day trekking the famous Bright Angel Trail, we head further into Navajo country, the area which the native American Navajo tribe calls home. One local man tells us that the tribal area is so vast, it takes eight hours to drive across it – so we’d better crack on.
Our drive across Arizona into Utah is spectacular. We marvel at the arid desert plains surrounded by towering red rocks interspersed with river-gouged canyons as we tackle the winding highway to Zion Canyon National Park. Here, we get up at sunrise to climb the vertigo-inducing ridge to Angel’s Landing with its 1000 foot drops on either side. The view was definitely worth the effort of the climb.
Entering Colorado, the home of the Rockies, we climb higher and higher. Our chosen camp spot for the night is at an altitude of 3174 m. It is a chilly evening so we build a big fire and throw our BBQ grate on to cook up dinner and once in the tent we are always warm enough.
When we open the tent door the next morning, we are surprised to see two inches of snow; the first white morning on Op Long Drive. The novelty of high altitude camping soon wears off on Me-an as she starts complaining of a headache, a possible sign of altitude sickness, so we pack up and start heading down to where the air is a little thicker with oxygen.
We didn’t have any problems getting down the snowy mountain tracks, but our BF Goodrich All Terrain tyres have taken us over 50,000 miles from the UK on countless surfaces and are starting to look a little like slicks. With the aim to explore as much as possible in the Americas, Mary is going to need some new boots.
Having been so impressed with the performance and longevity of the ATS, we get in touch with BF Goodrich who are able to offer us a set of newly-released KM3 Mud Terrains. We are over the moon and intrigued to discover the differences between the two types of tyre for an overland application. They are waiting for us in Denver and we look forward to putting them to the test over the next six months.
Before leaving Denver, we visit a local Land Rover specialist who has been recommended to us. The love for all things Land Rover come through strongly as Matt, the owner of Roadside Werx, greets us. As the Pumas are not allowed to be sold in the US yet, the whole garage are pretty enthusiastic to see it. We get Matt’s opinion on the type of maintenance we need to be doing on the Defender at this stage of our trip. We leave with some great advice and a set of front brake pads to be fitted at a later date.
With Mary looking chunky in her new footwear and a clean bill of health, we head north out of Denver, ticking off Rocky Mountain National Park along the way. We head off-
road every night for a peaceful camp spot and a roaring fire and even with some tracks slightly wet after the fresh snow melt, I can feel that the new Mud Terrains are providing more grip.
In Wyoming, we learn all about the famous Buffalo Bill at the Buffalo Bill Centre of the West. As we approach Yellowstone National Park, our first surprise in this land of surprises is the level of snow, where the cleared roads form mini canyons of snow ten feet deep on the side of the road. As we drive through the park, Me-an narrates some information about the park from one of our guide books, so I have a little background. We park up and wander along, amazed by the landscapes created by the geothermal activity. The surprises keep on coming – no Yogi Bear, however.
It’s not often we have the chance for a bath on the road but when we do it’s normally a good one. With all the geothermal activity in the area it is only natural that there would be a hot spring. We wake up early and head to the Boiling River anticipating large crowds. However the track that leads to the spring states that it is closed due to high river levels with all the melting snow. We are the only ones around and decide to have a look for ourselves. It turns out that the juice is worth the squeeze and we hop into the lovely warm stream and have the place to ourselves for an hour.
We continue the routine of this abnormal normal lifestyle as we head up toward the northern frontier, the Great White North, and our first land border crossing in nine months: Canada - Land of the Free.