Cliff Bandringa
Posts by Cliff Bandringa:
San Jacinto Fault Tour
Along with our other road trips along California’s San Andreas Fault, this tour is a bit different as it visits a sister fault to the San Andreas – the San Jacinto Fault. The San Jacinto is a major parallel fault sharing much of the stored-up energy from the sliding action between the North American and […]
White Rocks Area (GSENM)
In a small corner and seldom visited area of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in Utah lays a labyrinth of wild and crazy rock formations simply known as White Rocks. This place is a big treasure chest of unusual geologic formations, from over a hundred hoodoos or toadstools, to rock layers that seem to be […]
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) covers a large area encompassing many different scenic areas and unique places of interest all nestled in south-central Utah. GSENM’s large size and and wide diversity often makes it misunderstood, simply because there’s so much to know and absorb. The video that accompanies this article (see below) will hopefully […]
Black Mountains and Inscription Canyon Petroglyphs
The Black Mountains cover a very remote portion of the Mojave Desert northwest of Barstow and make a great one-day exploring trip. Our road trip starts on Harper Dry Lake (where Howard Hughes once tested aircraft), takes you into Black Canyon to look for petroglyphs, past an old stagecoach stop, through an area known for […]
St. George Roadcut Reveals Colorful Geology
Southwest Utah is well known for its dazzling scenery thanks to the world-class geology that is in plain sight for everyone to enjoy. Most of this scenery is created by natural erosion that goes on continually for centuries, exposing the hidden beauty underneath.
Santa Clara Volcano Hike Near St. George
The area around southwest Utah is packed-full of small volcanoes known as cinder cones. Hiking to the top of one of these cones can offer great views of the awesome scenery below. This virtual hiking tour will take you up one such cinder cone on the edge of Snow Canyon State Park, just ten miles […]
St. George Historical Walking Tour
In the heart of downtown St. George sits the Pioneer Courthouse, a historical building that was the cornerstone of this once young and emerging community. The following article will explain how the Pioneer Courthouse came into being, along with detailing a walking tour to nearby historic buildings in St. George.
Sevier Lake & Crystal Peak Road Trip
This road trip adventure takes us to the vast Great Basin Desert of western Utah. When we decided to find an ideal spot to view the October 2023 annular eclipse, we headed to an area north of the town of Milford, which is 50 miles north of Cedar City. After watching the eclipse, we noticed […]
Tybo Ghost Town and Project Faultless
Join us on a back road adventure to a very remote ghost town in Nevada called Tybo. Along the way, we’ll pass right through an active facility that was going to be the operations center for Nevada’s next nuclear test site, with its first detonation that was to be known as Project Faultless.
Eagle Crags Hike Near Zion
Just south of Zion National Park is a seldom visited hiking trail that offers great views of the surrounding landscape as well as a look into Zion Canyon itself. The hike up to Eagle Crags offers some of the best epic views of the impressive and colorful landscape in this area. Hiking this trial is […]
San Andreas Fault in San Bernardino
Along with our other road trips along California’s San Andreas Fault, this tour takes us through the streets of San Bernardino, Highland, Yucaipa and Oak Glen, which are all cities within the region known as the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. Similar to our tour of the San Francisco Peninsula showcasing the San Andreas, […]
Kaiparowits Plateau Road Trip
The Kaiparowits Plateau is a remote mountaintop region in south-central Utah that is inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and recently renowned for its treasure chest of dinosaur fossils. The plateau also offers a combination of road trips, either leaving out of the towns of Big Water or Escalante. On the trip showcased here, we’ll […]
Grand Canyon Flightseeing
Being one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon is an amazing, jaw-dropping sight to see. There are lots of ways to see the Grand Canyon. Most people see it from its South Rim, fewer see it from its North Rim and even fewer people see it from a remote viewpoint […]
Fall Colors Above Cedar City Utah
Would you like to see some of the best fall colors in all of Southwest Utah? And maybe the best fall colors in the tri-state area of Arizona/Nevada/Utah? Then head to the mountains above Cedar City, Utah, near Cedar Breaks National Monument (or as the locals call it, Cedar Breaks).
The Wave: Our Experience
We’re going to take you on a tour to a place called The Wave, which is a World Famous sandstone formation that everyone wants to visit. From our own personal experience, we’ll share with you what we saw and a lot of things we wish we had known about, before we went.
Gold Butte National Monument
Gold Butte: How to visit – What to see Ready to go on an overland adventure that is seemingly far, far away, yet close to civilization? Nevada’s newest National Monument, Gold Butte, offers a lot of wide-open desert scenery, colorful and uniquely shaped rock formations, dozens of archeological sites, and miles of back roads to […]
Mojave Desert Aviation Tour
A road trip through the Mojave Desert doesn’t have to be all about looking at the scenery. It can also include visiting places where aviation history was made and is still being made today. We’ll take you on this easy road trip that stretches between Victorville and Palmdale and show you where aviation evolved and […]
Zion’s Observation Point: Hiking it the Easy Way
Of all the wonderful places to hike and visit in Zion National Park, only one destination offers a spectacular view looking down the length of Zion Canyon. That destination is Observation Point. Click image to watch Virtual Video Tour and see viewer comments. Then come back to get the rest of the story. Trip Specs […]