What constitutes a pinnacle overland vehicle? It’s a difficult question since we all have different priorities and objectives, but first and foremost, it should facilitate experiences. It’s about ditching the devices and getting outside, visiting new places, and igniting our curiosity about the world around us. It’s sharing the great outdoors with those closest to…
Get your tickets to THE BIG THING 2026!
Year Two of The Big Thing Is On!
After a massively successful inaugural year in 2025, Overland Collective’s The Big Thing is back at the XOverland Ranch for a second go. Situated on 500 acres in Montana’s Yellowstone Country, this community-focused event will again feature world-class trainers providing hands-on instruction in areas like expedition prep, recovery, overland cookery, and out on the test…
Into the Valley of the Grizzlies
The graceful placement of enormous paws straddles the yellow line while small ones are clumsily dropped around on either side. It is a fragile relationship with the residents, who give them a wide berth, as Momma grizzly makes her way through the middle of town with her cubs in tow. Curious, they dart around while…
We Will Roam Launches 5-part Australia Overland Series
Following the release of overland series from Bound for Nowhere, Roam Overlanding, Gon Dirtin’, and yours truly (Desk to Glory), Expedition Portal and Overland Journal’s next XOverland-produced series sees 2020 Overland Film Festival winners Ant Austin and Emma Brentnall of We Will Roam return to the wheel after a long and unexpected hiatus. Over a…
Expedition Portal’s 2025 Overlanders of the Year :: Leigh and Stephanie Dearle of GrizzlyNBear Overland
The American author Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” The 2025 Overlanders of the Year, Leigh and Stephanie (Steph) Dearle, live this idea fully. Since 2017, they have traveled full-time in their Land Rover Defender (“Bear”) and Four Wheel Camper (“Grizzly”), covering more than 242,000…
Beauty and the Beast: Facing the Sublime in the Italian Alps
Photography by Richard Giordano In A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), Edmund Burke identified the sublime as the overwhelming sensation we feel in response to intense natural phenomena. Burke believed that sharp cracks of lightning, dizzying heights, hurricanes, storms, and waterfalls instilled a sense of…
2025 Off-Road Expo with Expedition Portal and Hankook Dynapro Tire
The southern California coast in October is just about perfect. Temperatures are pleasant throughout the day, and the crowds of vacationers are relatively light. The Expedition Portal team visited Costa Mesa to attend the 2025 Off-Road Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds and explore the area from the beach up into the mountains. The event…
The Last Drive: Twenty-one years of Landcruising Adventure
Photography by Coen Wubbels It’s pitch dark when we wake up. For minutes, complete silence surrounds us—until the coffee maker starts gurgling. I pour two mugs of steaming hot liquid to warm us up and fill the thermos for the road. Our 26-year-old Toyota Starlet is ready to go, loaded with a hundred of our…
Desk to Glory Launches “Why We Overland” 6-Part Film Series
If you cast your mind back a little more than a decade ago, when Instagram had barely come on the scene, TikTok was the sound a clock made, and XOverland had only uploaded a handful of videos to YouTube, you may remember a time when blogs reigned supreme. As my own long-term travel ambitions began…
Desk To Glory on Traveling the Silk Road
In this Overland Journal Podcast episode, hosts Scott Brady and Ashley Giordano discuss Ashley’s Silk Road journey through Central Asia. Ashley shares stories with her husband, Richard, about their route planning, lessons learned, and the adventure of traveling through Turkey, Georgia, and Uzbekistan, including the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Corridor. They cover the regions’ cultural…
The Alcan 5000: Is This the Last Great North American Rally?
Lead image: Tedrick Mealy In September 2025, my wife and I finally checked one of those “someday” adventures off our bucket list—the infamous and prestigious Alcan 5000 Rally. If you’re reading Expedition Portal, chances are you’ve already heard of it. The mythical endurance rally runs roughly from Seattle to Fairbanks and back, covering over 5,000…
Transglobal Car Expedition: The First Wheeled Surface Navigation of the Earth Through Both Geographic Poles
Photography by Max Badulin Their mornings start no different than ours—with a hot cup of coffee. Once the dregs are drained, though, their days differ wildly. Drinking water is from snow melt, the sun never drops below the horizon, and daytime hours are spent checking ice thickness and hacking ice hummocks with long, sharp spears,…
Roam Overlanding Launches 7-part Africa Overland Series
Following Bound for Nowhere’s 5-part video series, the “Applied Theory of International Overlanding,” Expedition Portal and Overland Journal’s next XOverland-produced series sees South African filmmaker Adrian Abrahams undertake an unforgettable journey spanning 40,000 kilometers across Southern Africa and beyond. Now available on the Expedition Portal YouTube channel, “Reasons to Roam” follows Adrian as he embarks…
Overlanding with Purpose: Remote Journeys with TrailRecon
Join Matt Scott and Scott Brady on the Overland Journal Podcast as they sit down with Brad Kowitz from TrailRecon. They discuss his remarkable career transition from the US Navy to creating noteworthy content in the technical four-wheel-drive world. Delve into topics such as expedition planning, vehicle builds, medical preparedness in remote travel, and the…
Yak Overland :: Exploring the World in a Land Rover Defender
Join Scott Brady and Matt Scott as they talk to David and Ellie, the adventurous couple behind Yak Overland, on this episode of the Overland Journal Podcast. Discover the incredible stories from their journeys through Central Asia and the Pan-American Highway in their trusty 1997 Land Rover Defender 110. They share their experiences at overlanding…
INEOS Grenadier Oktoberfest: The Largest Gathering Yet
The dust was still hanging in the air when we pulled into Moab’s rodeo stadium. Ahead of us were row after row of Grenadiers and Quartermasters—bone-stock, lightly kitted, and fully built. We’d just made the thousand-mile sprint from North Idaho to be here, and this was the moment we realized it was worth it: the…
Proof of Concept: The TruckHouse Takes on Pearl Pass
Pearl Pass has always carried a reputation. In Colorado, it’s shorthand for something stubborn, something reckless, something earned. The road was first cut in the 1880s when Aspen was a silver boomtown and Crested Butte still a rough mining camp. Mules and men scratched their way across the Elk Mountains, hauling ore and supplies along…
Iconic Rebelle Rally Locations to Incorporate into Your Next Overland Trip
Lead photo by Nicole Dreon In one week’s time, over 60 teams will gather in Mammoth Lakes, California, to begin the 10th edition of the Rebelle Rally. The rally route—which leads competitors through eight days of off-road navigation using maps, compasses, and roadbooks to locate checkpoints throughout the deserts of Nevada and California—is completely confidential….
Exploring the Wilderness: An Interview with Tony Crooke from GME
Join Scott Brady in this episode of the Overland Journal Podcast as he chats with Tony Crooke, a legend in the Australian overland community and the marketing manager for GME. They discuss Tony’s passion for the outdoors, bushwalking, and the importance of nature in everyday life. The conversation spans various topics, including the Australian landscape,…
The View from the Passenger’s Seat :: Taylor Pawley on the Rebelle Rally and the Navigator’s Life
Taylor Pawley has racked up some serious hardware as a navigator in the Rebelle Rally over the years, including a second-place overall in 2020 and first-place overall in 2019 with her driver for the upcoming 2025 event, Rachelle Croft. But co-drivers might be the most unsung people in motorsport—toiling for hours behind the scenes to…