Beiträge von Philippe

Zitat

Does anyone know a source where one can online query the ownership status of an area in the US?

I agree with Volker, the situation is very complicated on Navajo land, even if you buy an official permit at a Navajo Visitor Center or Chapter House.

Each Navajo family (and even each Navajo) decide if they accept visitors or not on "their" land (in fact they have not the property of these lands, it belongs to the Navajo Reservation which gives a family the right to use it).

For example, the Navajo leaving near the Hopi Clown accepted me to go to this place only because I had a permit (that he verified very closely) but also because I was able to talk with him about people of his family that were leaving there before. But he asked me to not disclose this location because he didn't want more people there even with a permit. The other Navajo who was very angry against us in 2009 ('"I will call my brothers to beat you") told us "I don't care any permit given by these Navajo guys from Cameron, here it is my land !". The Navajo who is leaving near White Mesa Arch used to accept visitors with a Navajo permit but he doesn't accept any more since last year, as this place became more popular.

In a general way, if there is a remote place in the Navajo Reservation that is still confidential with very very few visitors a year, you have a chance to get there with a permit and a respectful attitude with the locals. But if this place become popular (for example because somebody published the coordinates on the web) you can be sure that it will be very soon forbidden for everybody (that's exactly what happened to the Hopi Clown). So, people should think twice (or more) before publishing this kind of coordinates on the web !

Zitat

Schade. Dann kann ich den Klumpen ja wieder von der Liste im Mai streichen

I am sorry for these bad news, but I don't want people to drive in the middle of nowhere for nothing (there are some patches of deep sand in the 2 miles before reaching the wash) or to have trouble with the Navajo landleaser. Six years ago, I had trouble with a Navajo in an area not far away from this one and I can tell you that it was not fun.

Zitat von ElCuruba

Alle notwendigen Informationen, um legal zum Hopi Clown zu kommen, findet man hier:

http://www.thewave.info/AdeiiEichiiCliffsCode/Map.html

It is not legal any more to get there, as you can read on the same website http://www.thewave.info/ in the update of "January 25, 2015 - The Hopi Clown / Tohachi Wash" section :

"Update - I recently received an email which indicated that a gate on the road to Tohachi Wash will be locked going forward, and that the local leaseholder will post no trespassing signs shortly. For now the Hopi Clown is off limits".

I have met the landleaser in 2014, he told me that he doesn't want visitors and photographers on his land and that he wants to protect his cattle living in the wash. You cannot avoid the landleaser as the only access to the wash is via a dirt road just in front of his house. After talking with this Navajo guy, I wouldn't dare to trespass his land, you can beleive me !

If the coordinates of this place would'nt have been published on the web, there still would have been only 1 or 2 visitors a year (like in previous years) and the landleaser wouldn't have locked the gate and added "No trespassing" signs. Because of this broadcast of the coordinates on the web, now nobody is allowed to get there...

I recommand Steve, Suzan or Kurt from Paria Outpost to visit White Pocket and Coyote Buttes South but if they are not available, or for people prefering a guide speaking German, there is also Charly Moore from Overland Tours, a German guy who likes to tell that he’s from the Berlin Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

He has quite a special look with all his tatoos and have a great sense of humour that could be appreciated by some members or this forum.

I met him in April 2006 when I was for the second time on my own at White Pocket, alone with my daughter. We were outside the SUV after taking a picture not far away from WP when he drove to us and get out out of his car to meet us. Because of it special look I was a little bit nervous but he was very friendly and asked if we needed some help. We talk together and he told us that he liked to get there alone to feel the wilderness as at that time very few people were coming there....

Philippe

Zitat von Dude

Gute Frage, geht mir genauso !

Wer zum Geier ist Kurt ?

Hello Tilman,

Kurt is a friend of Suzan and Steve (I know Suzan and Steve since 1999) and he works for them as a part time job (when they ar not available to guide people themselves), the other part time job he works in an refuge for animals. A few months ago, Kurt guided some of my friends to CBS + WP : they appreciated him a lot as he was friendly, talkative and didn't count his time to show them as much as possible in this beautiful area.

Gruss

Philippe

Pictures of Sedona are wonderful especially the panorama which is amazing.

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von wernerw

Ich kenn die Anmietstation in der Bush Street nur vom Anschauen, weil ich meist vis-a-vis wohne und dort parke. Lange Schlangen habe ich erst einmal gesehen.

Use Streetview on this page and you can see a line at Alamo / National on Bush Street (but I don't know when this picture was taken by Google).

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von buffaloman

Nebenbemerkung: vor ein paar Wochen standen eine ganze Menge wranglers bei Alamo in Denver in der 'speciality car' line - die aber online gar nicht buchbar ist. Ausserdem duerften die Preise aehnlich horrend sein wie bei Farabee oder anderen reinen Jeep Vermietern

Hello Ulrich,

My own experience (that may not apply to others) : in May 2010 I rented (from Europe) a standard SUV at Alamo in Denver. This day (quite late...), there were very few SUVs available on the line where they mixed several Midsize SUV and crossover, only one Standard SUV (Ford Explorer) and 2 Jeep Wrangler. Holding my Standard SUV voucher, I asked the employee if I could choose any of the SUV on this line (with no additional fee) and he answered me "Yes uou can". I insisted, telling "Even a Jeep Wrangler ?", he answered me "Yes you can, with no additional fee". Eventually I choose the Ford Explorer because I wanted to sleep in my SUV in the wilderness and because I didn't plan to drive hard dirt roads during this trip.

I think that the answer of the Alamo employee for this kind of demand depends greatly from what they have available at the moment on the line. As there were only one Standard SUV when I asked, they would probably have been happy that I took a Jeep Wrangler to let the lonely Ford Explorer available for a family (for exemple).

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von Dude

Von anderen USA-Reisenden hab ich schon gehört, dass sie bei der White Pocket Anfahrt den Reifenluftdruck abgesenkt haben zwischen 15-20 psi und dass es anscheinend etwas genutzt hat.

Thank you Dude and Buffaloman for your advices about this subject.

I confirm that lowering the tire pressure to 20 psi was helpful when I visited CBS with Laurent Martres in his own SUV, as he did that when we left the House Rock Valley Rd and then we had no problem at all in the deep sand even between Paw hole and Poverty Flats. As he had a powerful compressor, we could reinflate the tires when we were back to House Rock Valley Rd.

Gruss

Philippe

I forget to precise that when the Echo Park Road is wet and dangerous, the rangers usually close it to avoid accidents. They say that under the sun the road needs about 5 hours to dry at some point and to be reopen (during my last trip, I had to wait they reopened the road, fortunately spending some time at Harper's corner was nice)

Gruss

Philippe

Hello Westernlady,

2 more advices to visit this nice park :

• I don't know if you are interested in petroglyphs but the Mc Kee Springs ones are in my opinion some of the most interesting in the Southwest and a few miles further is the beautiful Island Park Overlook.
• Time permitting, you can do the off-trail hike to a superb overlook on Steamboat Rock (picture below, the hike is decribed in Photographing the Southwest Volume 3).

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von Truman

it means, that we are always flying to Las Vegas and then move up to northern arizona and southern utah. That is the fixed thing in our plannings.

I understand. That's true that Las Vegas is an excellent starting point for visiting the wonders of the Southwest.

Have a nice Sunday

Philippe

Hello Christian,

Zitat

Some stuff we are able to dig in somewhere in the wilderness, where we know, that we are coming back a year later, so that we do not have to take it with us on the flight.

Good idea ! It means that you know one year in advance where you will begin your next trip, nice planification !

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von raigro

Hello Philippe,

thank you for sharing your experience with tire repairs with us. I think your emergency kit (or kits) is a good idea and I will check if I can buy such a tire repair kit and the "air transfer tube". As you mentioned, the weight restrictions on planes do not allow to take too much stuff with you, but the "tireless tube repair kit" and the "air transfer tube" are light weighted and cheap.

Hallo Rainer,

I have not still experienced this stuff by myself (fortunately ) but I bought it following the advice of the guy who fixed my tire in a truck garage.

The Tubeless Repair Kit is from RoadPro (but there are some other brands), the air transfer tube is the Tire Air Jumper (http://www.tireairjumper.com/ ) and is not found everywhere.

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von Truman

Friends of us, who are doing a lot of 4wheeling, also always use such a kit if they have tire problems.

Hallo Christian,

And they have probably a compressor in their car, as the friends who join me in their SUV 4WD, which is much better than my poor air transfer tube. I hesitated to buy a cheap compressor but with the new liimitations of the bagage weight on the planes, I didn't.

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von wernerw

Ist das das gleiche wie Fix-a-flat?

I had several flat tires and the 2 times I wanted to use a Fix-a-Flat instead of using the spare tire (because the spare tire was blocked under the car and impossible to remove or because it was at night and pouring rain) it didn't work, I could see the green/yellow stuff getting out the hole (that was not big) out of the tire .

As one time a friend of mine had 2 flat tires on his way to Toroweap Point and was in a big trouble, I tried to be well prepared in that case as I drive quite a lot on dirt roads.

For each trip I still buy Fix-A-Flat, but I have also bought for less than 10$ a Tubeless Tire Repair kit (look here) which can work in many cases (it doesn't seem very difficult to use as I have seen when a guy from a garage used it to fix one of my tires).

The first problem is to find where is the hole (if it is a small one) but if you have used the Fix-A-Flat before and it didn't work, at least it will have show you where the hole is and you could stick a tape to mark it.

The second problem is how to inflate the repaired tire in the wilderness without any compressor (even if there are some cheap ones in stores like Target). For that, I can use a second Fix-A -Flat if I have still one left but I've also bought for about 10$ an air transfer tube in a shape of a spring with 2 valves (I found it in a truck store) which could allow me to transfert 1/4 of the air of 3 tires into the repaired one, so I should have 4 tires with each 3/4 of normal air pressure (driving slowly that could be enough until I find a station where I can reinflate all the tires).

I don't know by experience if that works well as I never used it, but I feel more secure to have that tuff in my SUV.

Gruss

Philippe

Hallo,

I appreciate the tolerant words that have been written by some of you in the previous posts, including moderators/supervisors as Westernlady, Desert-gerd and DocHoliday.

What seems quite surprising (and rather funny) for me is that for some of the members of this forum there are only 2 distinct categories of people : the "tellers" (of the location of remote places) and the "non tellers" (the "bad guys"). Somebody is considered as an ugly "non teller" even if he spends most of his leisure time to help the others and to tell them 98 % of the locations that he knows, just because he refuses to disclose 2% (or less) of the locations for some reasons already explained before.

As an exemple (I am not the only one), I can be considered here as a "non teller", even if I spend a lot of time to help the others about the Southwest by telling and publishing about 98% of my knowledge about this subject :

• in the 3 volumes of Photographing the Souhwest of Laurent Martres (and also in the previous edition black & white of these guidebooks) went I spent countless time to cowrote a lot of information that most of you have probably used for they first trips in the Southwest. Have a look of what Laurent Martres wrote about this collaboration in the Aknowledgements at the beginning of these guidebooks.
• on the french website www.ouestusa.fr which is without a doubt the "number one" specialized web-site in French telling precise information about the "off the beaten tracks" places in the Southwest and how to get there (including maps). This website is a collaboration with my friend Thierry ( http://ouestusa.fr/auteur.htm, this page has to be updated...) who technically realizes this website : since years I look everywhere for interesting new places in the Southwest, I found their location (it can take a lot of time and be a collective job), I go there and I explore them in depth, then I give Thierry the information and during his next trip he goes directly and without loosing time to the best spots, then he writes the webpages about these places (except when he hasn't been himself to some places, so I write the web page by myself), and we add a selection of pictures of the both of us. As we could not have enough time to do everything, we prefered to combine our skills : I do most of the "job" before and during the first visit, he does most of the job after his trip to publish the information. My personal website www.phschuler.com is just a way for me to publish my own pictures, especially those that are not already published in www.ouestusa.fr , the more personal ones with friends, and some pictures not from the Southwest...
• on the USA section of the french speaking web site Voyage Forum http://voyageforum.com/resultats_destinations/etats-unis/ , probably the leader among the french speaking forums about traveling, where I have written (under the name of Sedonax) over 1500 public posts (and even more private posts !) to help the others and mostly to answer questions about "off the beaten tracks" places and seldom seen locations (I let the other members answer to questions about welknown locations). If you have a look on the trip reports in this report about the Southwest, a lot of them thank me (as Sedonax or Philippe) for my help and many say that I made their trip much better than they initially planned.
• answering more than 1000 private messages on Hotmail to people (from France, from Europe and even from America) asking me advices or locations of seldom seen places. Except for the few 2 % places that I don't disclose (and during my trips in the wilderness), I always answer by giving the requiest information. Unfortunately the members of Discover America forum have only asked me about these 2 % "non disclosed" places, so I answered them without giving the requiest information.
• last but not least, if on Voyage Forum or by mail exchange I find that somebody is especially kind and deeply interested in visiting the "off the beaten tarcks" places, I give him my phone number and I can spend several hours to help him to organize his trip day by day and to advice him to visit seldom seen places that often he had never heard before. I've done that dozens of times since 5 years.

I tell you that stuff not to "show off" or to make "advertising" about that I do (always for free, I don't sell anything) or to justify myself, but just to prove that the opinion that some members of this forum have about me, as only a "pictures shower" and a "non teller", is not only false but is totally opposite from the reality ! In France (and French speaking countries), quite a lot of the Southwest afficionados thank me to be the most helpful french speaking guy to help visiting the "off the beaten tracks" places in the Southwest.... and since 5 years none even one of them told me or wrote (on forums or by mail) any complain or "not so kind words" when I refused to tell them some information about King of wings, Red Canyon or Blue Canyon or some Indian remains... Some of them just answered : "It doesn't matter, we understand your reasons, we still have many places to visit in this aera and by the time we have done that, the information about these still "secret places" will probably be published on German websites and forums".. and they are probably right !

Gruss

Philippe

Hello Helge,

"Viel Grusse" for you too !

That was unexpected and interesting to meet in a so remote place last May ! (please send me the "group picture" that you shot with your tripod). I hope that the rest of your trip was nice.

Zitat von Helge

Der "hostile Indian" wohnt vielleicht direkt neben den roten Felsen, 650m von der Stelle entfernt, wo wir geparkt hatten:
35°53'27.57"N 111°14'22.78"W

I asked him about this specific place, as I have been there in 2007, but he didn't want to answer me very clearly, he talked about "his family" leaving there.

Gruss

Philippe

Zitat von WeiZen

Just my 2 cents: a promise is brocken if someone pubished a picture. The picture is the evidence

The promise is always "do not disclose information about how to go to this place" (for the reasons I have already given on my last post) and it is never "do not publish a picture of this place" as the pictures of this place have already been published on the web by some professional photographers (as Fatali, Tom Till, Muench , Dykinga... ) or some afficiodanos of the Southwest who have galleries on the web or in magazines like Arizona Higways... and almost always by the guy who told the information and asked for the promise (he looked for the place and found it most of the time because he is interested in photography).

I respect the different opinions expressed by several people of this forum (even when I don't agree with them) about to disclose or not to disclose some places .... and I just ask them to respect at least my decision to not break a promise (whatever is the subject) even if they don't understand it or do not approve it or do not act this way.

Philippe

Hello Lal@,

Trying to read/translate your unintelligible post, I am wandering if you are drunk tonight...

If you are (too much beer...), please don't visit an Indian Reservation or you will be in big trouble with the Tribal Police.

Gruss

Philippe