A Tribute to Lava

In March of 2011, I said goodbye to my trusty college car, a 2000 Toyota Corolla, and said hello to the future. Just 16 days after I picked up the keys, I headed to my favorite Death Valley National Park and took this photo to commemorate the new era ahead. I captioned it “The hope is that these wheels will take me to places that the little Corolla could not, and in this inaugural road trip it did just that.” My first brand new car was a maxed out Nissan Xterra Pro 4X. It had 60 miles on the odometer. It featured part time four wheel drive, bilstein shocks, an electronic locking rear differential, and a built in roof rack. Inside it had the premium sound system and leather seats. And it fit me like a glove. The color was “lava red” and I quickly named the car Lava as I have an affinity for volcanoes.

The fiery theme was echoed by the console. All the lights on the inside were amber hued. I was enthralled by this new machine that could take me places I had only dreamed of going before from my time in the flat lands of Indiana in my corolla.

In the first two years I explored all over Death Valley National Park, including my first visit to Saline Valley in 2012.Slowly I broadened my horizons. In 2013 I purchased steel rock sliders from White Knuckle Off-Road. I then went on a road trip 10,000 miles across the country, visiting national parks all over and visiting family back in Indiana. Along that trip I hit 40,000 miles in Grand Teton National Park.

Slowly over time I made additional modifications. When I wore out my stock suspension, as evidenced by bottoming out just driving on city streets, I upgraded to an Old Man Emu suspension which lifted about 1.5 to 2 inches all around. I had roof rack mounts for my Hi-Lift jack and a shovel.

One of the biggest game changers for me was that the Xterra allowed me to sleep in the car. For my solo photography missions, this meant that I could just get up and go fast and that I could really sleep anywhere I could get my car to. So many photographic possibilities opened up as a result.

One of the neat quirks about the Xterra was that one of these Rubbermaid Action Packer boxes perfectly extended the rear folded down seat in addition to providing a bunch of storage. This was a perfect sleeping platorm extension.

Everywhere I asked Lava to take me, she took me without complaint and with expert capability.

By the time I hit 100,000 miles in 2017 while photographing a superbloom of wildflowers, I had replaced the rear bumper with a heavy duty Shrockworks one with a spare tire carrier, and I had installed a ladder on the back and a roof basket on top. For my solo adventures deep into the desert i could carry two full size spare tires. I could climb up onto the roof and take photos from an elevated position, which had been a long time goal. For the exterior, my modifications were nearly complete.

On my second trip to Carrizo Plain just two weeks later, I assisted in the rescue of a woman who had ended up uninjured after her car careened down into a ravine. I took a photo with the CHP helicopter that landed to aid us.

The final modifications I did on the outside were rotopax mounts in the roof basket, maxtrax traction boards that I would strap on with ratchet straps, and a heavy duty aluminum radiator skid plate. I would attach a trasharoo bag to the rear tire. I loved that the roof rack design allowed two 2 gallon rotopax that would not stick out at all on the top. I also had a bike carrier that would plug into the tow hitch. Here you can see also the hi-lift jack was moved to the rear bumper when I acquired that. The shovel in 2016 I swapped to a Crazy Beaver Tools heavy duty one, which was 100% an impulse buy based on the teeth and the color scheme (and the brand name). It proved a useful upgrade digging in hard packed desert dirt.

When installing the radiator skid plate, a mounting bolt inside the frame came loose. In order to make it work I had to use an aircraft drillbit (super long) to drill a 1/2″ or so hole through the frame from the top to mount a 8″ or so 1/2″ diameter bolt through.

On the inside, I did some minor modifications in the cockpit area. I mounted an Ultragauge to monitor the enigne and give distance to empty when off-roading. In the center of the dash I screwed a RAM ball mount to the right of the stereo to mount my iPad. And I had adhesive mounted indoor/outdoor thermometer with the remote temperature sensor in the roof basket and rokform phone mounts and various bluetooth phone audio adapters and extra USB ports.

In the back I installed a Nisstec utiltiy rack, which really upped my game with sleeping as I could move everything on top of the shelves when i sleep as well as keep lots of things mounted in the car at all times so I could be ready to go. Above it I had a Raingler ceiling net where I kept lightweight things like my complete set of Weathertech sun shades.

For all of 10 years, the Xterra was pretty much flawless. The first sign of trouble happened in fall of 2020 when she developed an exhaust leak. We made it home but it was real sketchy and she had lost some power. It was promptly fixed. At this point she was at over 170,000 miles and some big maintenance things were approaching. At the end of 2021 I got a code for a catalytic converter. I replaced the primaries reluctantly. Then I noticed something disturbing happening. A sporatic roughness that appeared out of nowhere returning home from a trip. I started getting a code for misfires in cylinder 6. She was just about due for spark plugs so I went ahead and did that thinking it was an easy fix. The misfires came back. Then I replaced the coils. And it came back. We pulled the spark plugs and examined them, and number six was corroded. The head gasket had cracked at 186,000 miles. My father had just passed away. My Mom was visiting at the time. I said basically “just fix it” to the local shop that I had been going to and they set about a top half engine rebuild because the thought of sourcing a new engine or buying a new car was way more than I could bear at the time. Thousands of dollars and weeks later, I had her back. But she was running hot. It turned out to be the thermostat. Once that was fixed she was basically back to her old self. A few other things here and there, but adventures resumed.

This year, 2025, would see her magnum opus of adventures and her demise. On the agenda was the White Rim Trail, and the Maze District in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The White Rim Trail is an absolutely famous off-roading route. Not super difficult, but with challenging grades and over 100 miles of dirt and rock. And in the Maze District we would go to the Dollhouse, 87 miles from pavement and with an entire day’s worth of seemingly endless and challenging off-road obstacles. To start the year the starter died. So that was replaced. And before the trip I replaced the front suspension with a fresh set of Old Man Emu shocks and springs (eliminating an incredibly annoying squeak in the process), as well as a brand new set of BFGoodrich KO3 tires. I was nervous about the trip. But the Xterra did spectacularly overall, conquering all the off-road obstacles. A field repair was done to a fried electrical relay from a dedicated line to a voltage converter, all aftermarket things. She scraped the rock sliders and skids a bit but it was amazing. But just as I got home, trouble re-emerged when I got a code for P0420 catalytic converter bank 1. Sigh. Lengthy discussions with my mechanic ensued, and various things were tried in hopes that a brand new oem catalytic converter had not died after only 39,000 miles (the originals lasted 176,000). I did the math for how much maintenance was costing me at this point and it was the end. I was spending more than a new car payment would be. I just had to figure out how to sell Lava, as you cannot pass smog check in California with a bad cat, and it seems that’s what I had. Ultimately I ended up replacing the catalytic converter and selling the car to Carvana. A bit of an unceremonious end but I am grateful for all the adventuring Lava allowed me to do. She was a truly life changing vehicle.

When we reached the Dollhouse, I gave Lava a hug. I was so proud of her. I met a park ranger along the way who said he had an Xterra and would not take it there, but his was all stock. Lava made it there, and all the way home. It was her last, best trip with me. She was the best. As far as vehicle goes, she will always have been my first love.