Stumbling across a mountain bike trail from one of my favorite Forums and weekly websites to visit, The Expedition Portal, I naturally thought, we could drive those 200+ miles in our truck. A small GPS route and some hopes of forgotten camp sites and hot springs were all that we needed to us on the road. From the northern California coast we set out across the state spent a few days exploring the Lava Beds NP and went across the border into SE Oregon. Growing up in Washington we didn’t explore Oregon very much. We spent the month of June hitting up so many amazing and beautiful places I now feel like I have barely scratched the surface.

The SE area highway rode the border of Nevada for a bit and part of our off road trail took us into the area known as the tri-corner area as Oregon, Nevada, and California came together to form all sorts of different volcanic landscapes. Gas stations far between (please plan accordingly) and unused land as far as the eye can see. The Hart Mountain Reserve being most of what we encircled took us up mountains, through Canyons, fjorded small streams, and descended some scary switch back trails in the truck that once at the bottom I couldn’t believe we drove down. But it made for some amazing quiet nights watching the stars go by all the way to some of the craziest winds I’ve ever suffered through in a tent. It is a harsh and beautiful place. I highly recommend it.