Off-roading @ Cleveland National Forest

My BF thought it would be nice to take a random trip to the wilderness. I have not been camping since probably age 7 and the most I've seen much of was some desert in Joshua Tree and whatever is in the back section of Home Depot.

The road is cut through the mountains (hills?) and is windy and scary. I don't think I could've driven that. We went on some dirt roads too with a lot of cracks and bumps. It was fun going down that but probably scary going up it.

It was about 5:30pm, approximately one hour left of daylight. I took these pictures with my iPhone 3G (getting the 4 in January), so the quality isn't very good. Not much to say here, the pictures speak for themselves :)

Note: Pictures are clickable for a bigger version :D

The road looks much steeper in person! I have issues with heights but am fine when I'm buckled in well (car, rollercoaster, to the front of an Enrique Iglesias look-a-like whilst jumping out of an airplane, etc).

The roads are wide enough for only one car. There are some shoulders here and there so you have to pay attention in front of you and let others pass. Although some places are curved so much you might not be able to see someone with all the blind spots, so one of you better be good at driving in R :)

Pulled over at a creek, which was dry ATM, and looked around.

One way to enjoy the scenery:

Dried creek, hopefully it will fill up this Winter and I can see it in the Spring :)

You can see where the water level is on the rocks:

This was all the water :) and someone/something had marked it:

Ground:

I guess I took the picture while moving. Ended up looking like an impressionistic Pollock... something. Turned out pretty nice I think :)

He thinks this is some sort of poison plant. I didn't try to find out.

I had been telling my friend Bill about how I was going to the forest to go bug hunting and we actually found one :) A stink bug:
 

There were a lot of pics I didn't get to take. I think people consume themselves too much with taking pictures. I think its more important to really be immersed in what's going on and to form the memories and experience that way. There have been times I've taken hundreds of pictures and when I looked at them later, didn't even really remember being there.

Early on in the trip we saw a young buck :). He was stunning, gorgeous, and HUGE. I could tell that he was young because his antlers were stubs really. He was on the road facing left and ran off when I screamed.

I hope we will be able to go again soon, maybe when there is some water. It might be extra pretty after some rain. To see green is a very nice change from the usual desert tan and asphault/concrete colors. There are some other cool roads to drive on although we probably need a 4WD. Some day :)

We may try out the Elfin Forest as well. It's less driving and more hiking, which can be a problem considering my polymorphous light-eruption (PMLE), although it would be worth it to see some elves in their natural habitat. We'll see!

:)