TDS Safari and Death Valley Desert

For the last couple weeks, I've been a couple different places in So. CA and So. NV, and here are a few highlights.  First TDS, Desert Safari.  What an awesome event this year, and a great cause for helping to save trails and keep our sport alive.

There were thousands of participants at Safari, and part of the fun is the first trail ride morning when everyone lines up near camp to start the day.

Event staff and helpers get around in whatever it takes.  The desert was full of side by sides, quads and dirt bikes, besides the 1200 or so registerred 4x4 rigs in the event.

The "raffleman" did a great job and he had plenty of helpers.  With about $122k in prizes, the average prize was around $800 EACH.  Totally awesome.  About 2500 folks filled seats at the raffle, with the 100 plus vendors surrounding them.  It ia always quite the sight.

Here, Greg Mulkey of Raceline Wheels (Allied) gave away the first prize package with his bitchen beadlocks as part of the deal.  Raceline Wheels is also one of my Jeep sponsors and a proud sponsor of BlueRibbon Coalition.

After TDS, I headed to Death Valley area, with our camp headquarters in Beatty, NV, just the other side of Daylight Pass and the town of Rhyolite.  My club joined me and we had a few days of fun wheeling.

Glass Bottle House at Rhyolite, NV

Learning to Geocache -- which is a kick in the pants by the way...an adult treasure hunt.  Mike Stoller here is our champion cacher -- well, Tami his wife is, but Mike seems to be in all the pics.  Way fun stuff to do.

Mark Foley from my club got "engaged" to geocaching in DV, with this ring he found in the cache.  Ok, he put the ring back but still enjoyed the "engagement."

Flourspar Mine cabin, just outside Beatty, with a good view of the desert.

This is what the "settling" of the west, and the 49ers, were all about.  Can you imagine??

I found this fixer-upper in Rhyolite.  Yup, it's an Impala.  Needs work.

If you've never done Death Valley, I highly recommend you put this on your list of adventures.  I would be happy to point you in the direction of some pretty cool stuff.  This trip was my 27th week-long venture in this marvelous place.  Yea, I know...27 years...I must have seen it all, right?  Nope.  Still finding a few new things to see each year inspite of the National Park Service and mis-guided members of Congress making way too much of it Wilderness.