MIND


blowing


Total Escape is California, off the beaten path

Record Snow, Damaging Floods, Falling Trees, Blooming Wildflowers Deep mountain snow, road closures w/ rocks slides, landslides, flooded creeks and overflowing rivers. If you are indeed traveling the back roads, then you want to be prepared for delays. Check your driving route / road conditions and always have a plan B. The wildflowers are popping early this year! Due to the abundant rain, we already have epic blooms in California. Get outside soon and find a non-muddy patch of earth, and make sure to bring a picnic!

#totalescape

SHTF: the crisis economy is underway. Surviving this coming year is more important than planning some silly road trip. From local flooding to landslides on the burn scars, to trees collapsing, increased grocery bills and gas prices, electrical power outages to a potential world war - we have more to worry about than ever before.

Here at Total Escape, we are used to promoting local vacations, maps and gear - but now that business model seems almost irrelevant. Helping you evaluate the current situation, future mishaps and plan for the rest. Preppers at heart, we left our city-life behind (over a decade ago) and encourage others to become more self-sufficient. Rural California Directory Learn to grow food (indoors and out), heat with firewood, filter water, fill sandbags, make repairs, and survive days without electric power. Sharing our most watched You Tube channels, we also have pages planned for food production, soil building, composting, firewood, chainsaws, fencing, keeping chickens and much more. As we have learned of recent, the system is frail and nothing is guaranteed.

Seed Starters



California Escapes



California Maps

all local: updated monthly

ancient: 26 years online!

We're still here, thousands of pages and decades later. Way outside the city limits, beyond the county line. No wifi, no smart meters, no gaming addictions, no traffic lights, no city noise. Rural living in California still exist. Hike on the weekends, bike to work, boating mid-week, we have you covered for destinations. Find a new boulder garden, a big waterfall, trailhead or an ancient lava cave. Total Escape - Two whole decades online. Not quite obsolete.

Craving the Wild? Before the tweets, the constant memes and paralysis of our current culture, DanaMite started this travel web site way back in 1996. Catchy phrases like, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) did not yet exist.


Total Escape features abundant real photos of real places. Secluded destinations, camping and lodging, examining the best back roads, side routes, the topo maps (to get you out there). Locals-only travel tips, gear reviews, festivals and events. This unique travel site is updated every month, for more than the past 2 decades!

Juicy content specific only to California. Focusing on outdoor destinations, small towns and budget-minded travel since 1996, we've recreated the weekend getaway - without the crowds. Escape the matrix, the city life, the traffic jams and learn how to avoid the tourist traps. Drive on past the factory outlet malls and the water slides, we've got much more to show you. Way out there, on the back roads, and in the backcountry.

Wilderness in California - more nature, less people.

hike. sled. skate. ski.


Site Founder

camp diva DanaMite

Who is DanaMite?
About

archives, online history

Archives
Local Road Trips

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Guided Trips
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small towns, rural calif

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Explore the Site


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California Scenic Drives

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Rural California

Destinations

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California Gear

Gear Shop

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Outdoor Maps California

Map Store

state atlas, camping maps topographic

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find us on social media, on occasion

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blog articles, outdoors in california

Camp Storage

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Peppermint Pink Lupine on Figueroa



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