Vegas and Valley of Fire trip

[dean hanson]

Years ago, I took my 73-23 GMC on a trip with 4 adults and 5 children,
pulling a small trailer from SF Bay area, to Bakersfield to Death Valley,
then out of the park West bound to Bishop and 395 North, several attempts to
cross over the Sierras, ending up back over I80. The kids kept track of the
altitude changes and our best estimate was over 125,000 feet. Yes, a lot of
it was in low gear. GREAT trip.



Dean C. Hanson 75 Avion under resurrection



P.O.Box 2096

Fremont, Ca. 94536

(510) 657-9600

 

[Carl Stouffer]

This will be the third January in a row that we are going up there to visit my daughter's family and celebrate my birthday and my granddaughter's
birthday,

The first trip we did a day trip to Valley of fire (we had driven through it before) and liked it so much we decided to stay a few nights in the
campground there. It is a beautiful place.

We plan to leave Thursday after work and drive from Tucson to Gila bend, then proceed to Burro Creek Recreation area, near Wickiup, AZ. for the second
night, bypassing Phoenix for the most part.. From there, we will head to the Clark County Shooting Complex on Saturday AM, which is convenient to my
daughter's house in North Las Vegas. They have full hookups for $25.00 per night and the shooting stops in the early evening.

Next stop will be Valley of Fire for a couple nights with some hiking and sight seeing involved. The next leg will be down the North Shore Road to
Boulder Beach Campground for two nights, then we will work our way back home at a leisurely pace. The trip is about 1000 miles. Very much looking
forward to it.
--
Carl Stouffer
'75 ex Palm Beach
Tucson, AZ.
Chuck Aulgur Reaction Arm Disc Brakes, Quadrabags, 3.70 LSD final drive, Lenzi knuckles/hubs, Dodge Truck 16" X 8" front wheels, Rear American Eagles,
Solar battery charging. GMCSJ and GMCMI member

 

[sandra price]

Sure sounds like a fun trip, Carl.

We envy you.

Sandra and Bob Price

> This will be the third January in a row that we are going up there to
> visit my daughter's family and celebrate my birthday and my granddaughter's
> birthday,
>
> The first trip we did a day trip to Valley of fire (we had driven through
> it before) and liked it so much we decided to stay a few nights in the
> campground there. It is a beautiful place.
>
> We plan to leave Thursday after work and drive from Tucson to Gila bend,
> then proceed to Burro Creek Recreation area, near Wickiup, AZ. for the
> second
> night, bypassing Phoenix for the most part.. From there, we will head to
> the Clark County Shooting Complex on Saturday AM, which is convenient to my
> daughter's house in North Las Vegas. They have full hookups for $25.00
> per night and the shooting stops in the early evening.
>
> Next stop will be Valley of Fire for a couple nights with some hiking and
> sight seeing involved. The next leg will be down the North Shore Road to
> Boulder Beach Campground for two nights, then we will work our way back
> home at a leisurely pace. The trip is about 1000 miles. Very much looking
> forward to it.
> --
> Carl Stouffer
> '75 ex Palm Beach
> Tucson, AZ.
> Chuck Aulgur Reaction Arm Disc Brakes, Quadrabags, 3.70 LSD final drive,
> Lenzi knuckles/hubs, Dodge Truck 16" X 8" front wheels, Rear American
> Eagles,
> Solar battery charging. GMCSJ and GMCMI member
>
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>

 

[scott nutter1]

Dean,
Does the government know that you have disclosed to us civilian peons that your GMC has reached altitudes in excess of 125,000 feet....

We now declare you as Aurora 1, Space Force West, Merica USA!! (Hide from the little black helicopters)!!

Scott
--
Scott Nutter
1978 Royale Center Kitchen, Patterson 455, switch pitch tranny, 3.21 final drive, Quad bags, tankless water heater, everything Lenzi. Alex Ferrera
installed MSD Atomic EFI
Houston, Texas

 

[Carl Stouffer]

Bit of a trip report here:

We left Thursday, 1/10 after work and drove about two hours to Gila Bend, bypassing Phoenix, and stayed in a truck stop back lot. Pretty noisy and I
wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it was free and got us out of town. Left there Friday AM and after a stop at Sam's Club in Surprise, AZ for
gas, proceeded up US-60 to Wickenburg, where we got onto US-93 up to Burro Creek Recreation Area, a wonderful little BLM campground about 22 miles
south of Wikieup, AZ. After a nice overnight stay there, we proceeded up to North Las Vegas via 93 and I-40, through Kingman where we stopped for Gas
and some groceries.

The bypass around Boulder City etc, South of Las Vegas (I-11) is now completed and it took us up to the 215 freeway which is almost complete around
the west and north sides of Vegas. We stayed for three nights at the Clark County Shooting complex where they offer full hook-up sites for $25.00 per
night. This location is very convenient to my daughter's house which is less than five miles away. After a nice visit with my daughter's family,
including birthday cake for me and my three year old granddaughter, we headed out to Valley Of Fire State Park, one of our favorite places and an
extremely scenic park. It rained all day on Tuesday, the day we were traveling there, so we had to settle for a visit to the visitor center and a
nice drive.

Nicer weather Wednesday made for some nice hiking and picture taking, then we were off to Boulder Beach along Lake Meade via Route 167. Got there
plenty early to go down to Hoover Dam and take a tour, then back to the coach for some relaxation before heading out the next morning for a hike along
the historic railroad bed where they hauled materials through to build the dam, then headed back down to Burro Creek again for the night Friday
evening.

The rest of the trip was a leisurely drive back to Gila Bend, where we decided to camp at a quiet spot in the desert, leaving us with a short drive
home on Sunday,

The GMC performed nearly flawlessly with only a few minor problems (minor roof leakage, a broken hinge pivot on the refrigerator door, and a lost
front Dodge hubcap). I can't say enough about the Jim Bounds camshaft in my new engine. The road (US-93_ between Kingman, AZ and Wickenburg) has a
lot of very long grades on it. My vacuum gauge was reading anywhere from 2" to 23" of vacuum depending on the side of the hill we were on, for miles.
The engine never missed a beat, and I never had to downshift, in spite of towing the Tracker and a combined weight of about 15,000 lbs. we never got
down below 45 on even the steepest, longest grade. Also no sign of 'vapor lock' at all (finally).

Total mileage was 1022 miles round trip. It was a very fun trip, as are most of them. It's always good to get away for a while. We were completely
unaffected by the partial government shut down other than that the federally managed campgrounds were free and had limited services (doesn't really
make sense, you'd think they would want to still make what money they could).
--
Carl Stouffer
'75 ex Palm Beach
Tucson, AZ.
Chuck Aulgur Reaction Arm Disc Brakes, Quadrabags, 3.70 LSD final drive, Lenzi knuckles/hubs, Dodge Truck 16" X 8" front wheels, Rear American Eagles,
Solar battery charging. GMCSJ and GMCMI member

 

[LQQKatJon]

Good news!

too bad you are so far away, we could buy a pair of hub caps and split the set. I lost one of mine this past spring. I never did get around to
changing them from Dodge to GMC.

I did see however they offer a "blank". I plan on ordering soon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-2002-DODGE-RAM-2500-PICKUP-TRUCK-CHROME-WHEEL-HUB-CENTER-CAP-NEW/231159189492?fits=Make%3ADodge&epid=21025009480&hash=item35d2294ff4:g:XAkAAOSwMmBV3hzP:sc:USPSFirstClass!56301!US!-1:rk:48f:0

but I am not sure how well they will stay on since hey are not a OEM cap.

--
Jon Roche
75 palm beach
St. Cloud, MN
http://lqqkatjon.blogspot.com/

 

[Carl Stouffer]

Jon,

Those look nice. They seem to have the same clips on the backside as the OEM ones. I already ordered one from Ebay, It would be good to have an
extra one anyway.

I'm not sure how or where I lost it, it just wasn't there any more at our last gas stop. First issue I have had with those in over 8 years.
--
Carl Stouffer
'75 ex Palm Beach
Tucson, AZ.
Chuck Aulgur Reaction Arm Disc Brakes, Quadrabags, 3.70 LSD final drive, Lenzi knuckles/hubs, Dodge Truck 16" X 8" front wheels, Rear American Eagles,
Solar battery charging. GMCSJ and GMCMI member