Carrizo Plain National Monument, California [Off The Beaten Track Episode 13]

We go camping and dirt roading in our first visit to Carrizo Plain National Monument in Central California!
The main points of interest featured in the video are:
* The Soda Lake: www.blm.gov/visit/soda-lake-o...
* Caliente Mountain Road
* Selby Campground: www.blm.gov/visit/selby-campg...
* KCL Campground: www.blm.gov/visit/kcl-campground
* The 18-mile dirt section of Soda Lake road
Interactive maps and GPX downloads may be found here: four.wheel.travel/map/carrizo...
We created two accompanying videos of the dirt road sections covered in this video. We didn't 'hyper-lapse' them (they are real-time, each one is about 1 hour), but you can playback in 2x on CZcams to see the whole drive more quickly. You may want to mute the audio (truck and road noise), but they do make glorious screensavers! ❤️
Caliente Mountain Road, unabridged: • Caliente Mountain Road...
Soda Lake Road dirt section, unabridged: • Soda Lake Road Dirt Se...
The main BLM site for the Carrizo Plain National Monument is here: www.blm.gov/programs/national...
Carrizo Plain Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrizo...
Follow us on Mastodon at overland.social/@fourwheeltravel or sign up for a Mastodon account on our overland-themed Mastodon instance at overland.social!
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▶ Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:04 Soda Lake Road approach to the overlook
0:32 Soda Lake overlook
0:52 Soda Lake shore
1:31 Start of Caliente Mountain Road dirt road section ascent
4:43 Caliente Mountain Road summit
5:35 Start of Caliente Mountain Road descent toward Selby Campground
7:05 Selby Campground
7:54 Toward KCL Campground
9:04 Start of Soda Lake Road 18-mile dirt section
The playlist for this series is here:
• Off The Beaten Track -...
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▶ Social Media Links:
* All The Links: four.wheel.travel
* CZcams: / fourwheeltravel
* Instagram: / four.wheel.travel
* Mastodon: overland.social/@fourwheeltravel
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▶ Gear we use
* GoPro Hero11 Black Mini: amzn.to/3tHQoyc
* GoPro Hero11 Black: amzn.to/3fQw4Hf
* GoPro Hero7 Black: amzn.to/3Lld3s0
* GoPro Suction Cup Mount: amzn.to/3Dyc59X
* RAM Mounts X-Grip Phone Holder: amzn.to/3UmBAB5
* RAM Mounts Suction Base: amzn.to/3xt3OQU
* Garmin VIRB 360 Camera: amzn.to/2RSPyze
* Tube Mounted base for Rotopax: amzn.to/3nI4g8L
* General Rotopax Accessories at Amazon: amzn.to/3ySw4gU
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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#carrizo #camping #dirtroad

[@Mainsail333]

Wow, Great Video. I was just up there on Tuesday (5/7) this week and it was totally different; the grasses and the flowers were completely brown as the temperatures had started increasing. On the plus side KCL campground was almost empty, even better I drove the whole length of Soda Lake Road and didn't see a single vehicle.

[@fourwheeltravel]

Thanks for watching & commenting! Interesting that the grass browned up so fast, it was pretty green just a few weeks ago. Hopefully we’ll get back out there over the summer.

[@3nineteen319]

I was there around the time you were. We may have driven past each other. :)

[@fourwheeltravel]

Seems like a good time of year to visit, though still a bit wet in places. Nice to see green grass though. We’ll be back for sure!

[@Huffylives]

Oh wow! Didnt realize how recent this was shot. I’m going in 2 weeks, and I’m so excited! I’m hoping things dry out enough to explore the elkhorn side. I think I have a local who’s gonna show me around. Thanks for the video! Great stuff as always.

[@fourwheeltravel]

Thanks for watching & commenting! We had a blast and will definitely go back over the summer. Miles and miles of dirt roads in there.

[@Huffylives]

@@fourwheeltravel coming from SF, my plan was to camp at Williams Hill Sunday, drive the rest of the way to Corrizo Monday. Camp in Corrizo and head back Tues. But seeing this, I think I may try to get down to Corrizo Sunday to get as much time there as I can fit.

[@fourwheeltravel]

@@Huffylives Right that'll add a couple hours to the drive, but there is definitely more to do at Carrizo. We're based right next to Williams Hill, but have not camped there, probably because it is so close to home. We drove 101 to Paso Robles and then took Creston Road to the 58 and then to Soda Lake Road.

[@Huffylives]

@@fourwheeltravel gotcha. That makes sense! I’m thinking the same but stay on 58 down to Elkhorn. Any thoughts on that? That would take us in past Wallace Creek. I think there are some dispersed camp sites on the south end of the lake I may check out. That or Selby I reckon.

[@fourwheeltravel]

@@Huffylives didn’t get to visit that side of the plain so don’t have much useful input there. Interested to know how that goes!

[@FrameOfSight]

Nice video thanks for sharing...
I am curios how you are getting such clear video from your camera. In side the cab or outside? And so clear... N0 bugs or reflection? Very nice.

[@fourwheeltravel]

Thanks for watching and commenting! In this case, I used a GoPro (a Hero 11 Mini) on an external sucker mount mounted to the roof of the truck cab, externally. I've used variations in previous videos on the same theme, sometimes with multiple cameras. Currently editing a video using an Insta360 X4 mounted in the same place to get multiple camera angles from one camera; the raw footage looks decent, and we'll see what the uploaded result looks like. You can see the GoPro camera mount in this shot: czcams.com/video/NM8BUBIpVok/video.htmlsi=pCJpv54VKHVUOwVf&t=326

[@FrameOfSight]

@@fourwheeltravel Your X4 footage from the link looks very nice. I don’t get such quality using my X3 in 360mode.

[@fourwheeltravel]

@@FrameOfSightsorry, I wasn’t clear. :) This video was just the GoPro & my iPhone. The upcoming vid is an X4 - not published that one yet.

[@FrameOfSight]

@@fourwheeltravel ok I understand I thought boy the X4 is great . Looking forward to more of your videos. Just happen to run across it today.

[@fourwheeltravel]

Checked out and subbed to your channel. Nice Carrizo footage and drone shots!