The best trips don’t always begin with months of planning or a passport stamp—sometimes they start on a Friday afternoon with a packed rig, a downloaded route, and just enough daylight to reach dirt before dark. Expedition Portal’s 36-Hour Adventures (36HRS) presented by General Tire is a video series about making the most of whatever time and terrain you have available.
In the series premiere, Jacob and Roman take a trusty 1996 3rd-generation Toyota 4Runner to Sedona, Arizona, armed with a packed checklist and a ticking clock. From hiking the iconic Devil’s Bridge and cliff jumping to putting the 4Runner’s new engine to the test on the slick rock of the Broken Arrow Trail and the steep descent of the Devil’s Staircase, the crew squeezes every drop out of the weekend. Throw in a campsite Jetboil steak dinner, some astrophotography, and a scenic drive up Highway 89, and it’s a textbook weekend escape.
Each episode of 36HRS joins a different member of the Expedition Portal creator community as they explore terrain close to home. From relaxed runs to true tests of the rig, kit, and crew, every adventure is built around one fundamental premise: You don’t need more time. You just need to go.
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Two dudes in their twenties, a supercharged 1996 Toyota 4Runner, and 36 hours to find adventure in Sedona, Arizona.
After Overland Expo West, Roman and I were given the keys to the 4Runner and told to have as much fun as possible. Future obligations limited our total time to 36 hours before we needed to mosey our way home, nearly 1,000 miles, to Bozeman, Montana. Before setting off, we made a checklist of activities to complete for the adventure to be successful. With most of my college career in Phoenix consisting of long weekends skipping class to explore Arizona, I already had a proven formula.
Checklist:
- Make a steak dinner
- Go on a trail run
- Test the 4Runner’s new engine off-road
- Cliff jump
- Sleep outside
- Try a local coffee shop
- Shoot astrophotography
First up was a trail run on one of Sedona’s most popular hikes, the Devil’s Bridge, a 4.2-mile round-trip hike with 500 feet of elevation gain. If you have a high-clearance 4WD (like our trusty 3rd-gen 4Runner), you can bypass the main parking lots and drive the very rocky Forest Road 152 to a secondary parking lot, which shortens the hike to 1.6 miles round trip. We chose this option so we could stretch both our legs and the 4Runners, and because I’m a lousy runner. After a short run and scramble up the red rocks, we were treated to incredible views of the Devil’s Bridge, a 50-foot-tall natural arch.
Once we made it back to our rig and changed out of our sweaty clothes, we were ready for some caffeine and routed our nav for FreeForm Coffee. I am very passionate about coffee; others might even call me a snob, so I was very excited to check a local coffee shop off our list. We tried their single-origin pour-over offering, iced strawberry matcha, and chocolate croissants. If you like coffee and are in the Sedona area, look no further than FreeForm. It’s now in my top five favorites in the US.
After fueling our bodies up, the heat of the day was at full blast, and we were ready to find a swimming hole. Just north of Sedona, we found a spot on Oak Creek with cliffs 10 to 20 feet deep and with (enough) water to jump. After confirming the water depth, Roman and I took turns doing gainers and cannonballs into the frigid water, fed by Flagstaff’s spring snowmelt. With another activity checked off our list, we were itching to properly test the 4Runner off-road.
In my mind, Broken Arrow is the must-hit off-road trail in Sedona, which made our decision on where to test the 4Runner easy. The trail is short and sweet with breathtaking views, but it also tests the limits of a vehicle’s articulation, clearance, and traction. After airing down to 20 psi on our General Grabber X3s, we made our way to Chicken Point. After a quick photo opp in some gorgeous early evening light, we headed up to the entrance of the Devil’s Staircase. winding through the concrete-like red rock with a handful of V-shaped obstacles for the 4Runner to try (and scrape its rear bumper on). After successfully executing the infamous Toyota wave on three wheels, Roman took over for the Devil’s Staircase. At a near 30-degree angle, the 4Runner screeched its way down every step, Roman’s nervous smile growing bigger and bigger as we went. After completing Broken Arrow and topping off with a full day of adrenaline, we were ready to find camp.
Southwest of Sedona, we found a group campsite overlooking the Mogollon Rim to park for the night. After setting up our Oz Tent and Goose Gear rear kitchen system, we were ready to cook dinner. On the menu was, of course, steak, with salad, bread, and glass-bottle chocolate milk. As I was hooking up the propane to our dual-burner stove, I realized that we didn’t have the correct hose fitting. Luckily, we had a Jetboil, but to our surprise, the fuel was nearly empty, and we were missing the attachment that allows you to set a pot/pan atop the burner. Our remedy was to set a fork between the burner and the pan so the flames wouldn’t deflect into the plastic—genius. The steak was on and en route to a perfect medium rare when the Jetboil ran out of fuel. With a fire ban in place, we had to be content with a very rare New York Strip. It was a lemonade-with-limes type of night.
After the sun had set, we were ready for some astrophotography. Much like our cooking snafu, the tripod we were planning to use somehow turned into a bipod. After many attempts to mend it, we diverted to setting the camera on our camp table, propping the front element toward the sky using one of our video camera grip attachments. Out of this jimmy-rig setup, we managed to capture a few photos worth keeping, but more importantly, we checked another thing off our list.
In the morning, we woke to paramotors and hot air balloons soaring above our Oz tent. Roman and I had completed what we set out to do and had an incredible time doing it. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world; if you’re looking for adventure, make a list of things that you enjoy, challenge you, or are new to you, and go do it.
Images: Jakob Aadnes, Roman Schnobrick
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