January 2014 JOTM Winner!

January 2014 JOTM Winner!

Congratulations to Ryan “RKB84” for January 2014 JOTM Winner!

Ryan and his best friend went overlanding over the summer of 2013, about 53 days, throughout North America. 13 states and 4 Canadian provinces, including Alaska, all west of the Rocky Mountains. It was a fantastic journey! This particular photo was taken on Night 3, July 29th, at the White House Trailhead BLM camp site, in Utah near the Arizona border, west of Lake Powell. It was at the southern edge of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Ironically, there is a 5-star Amangiri resort only a few miles east of the site, starkly different from our minimalist BLM camping!

The photograph was taken his friend via a 30-second exposure, to capture as much starlight as possible and get the awesome milky way in as much vibrancy as possible. The night sky in southern Utah is incredible! The red dirt on the front bumper is from the allowable off-roading they accomplished earlier in the day at Capitol Reef National Park.

The Jeep is a 2012 JKU Rubicon named Trixie, which he came up with as an older name attributed to the 1941. She is mostly outfitted with AEV equipment that they assembled themselves.