- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I had the pleasure of showing a handful of RME friends the challenging trails around Grand Junction this weekend, this trip was brought up in the '2017 Wheeling Goals' thread by Jinx. We ended up with a perfect sized group of 5 rigs, all built with enough capability to run these trails, but still challenge the drivers.
We met up on Friday mornings, ready to run 21 Road (aka Hunter Canyon). 21 Road is a favorite of mine, it's the reason I first visited Western Colorado back in 2001 and part of the reason I live here now! The canyon is massive, scenic and very beautiful... especially this time of year with all the green trees and foliage! Our group consisted of Carl Whitmore in his TJ on 35's (ILean on here), Jason Dalley and his wife (pile of parts) in the Orange CJ/YJ7 on 38's, Mike Strange (drstrange) in the black TJ on 35's, Chris and Charlene in the XJ on 35's (JPMoab on here) and finally Glen (GER4x4) in the awesome stretched YJ on 40" Nitto tires.
Little Backstory... The Grand Mesa Jeep Club has adopted 21 Road, what most people don't know if how close this trail came to being closed not long ago. An endangered Toad was found living in the canyon and the BLM was considering shutting down motorized travel in the canyon, but with some creative efforts and the Grand Mesa Jeep club adopting the Toad as well, it remains open for all to enjoy. The GMJC also re-routed the 4x4 trail out of the wash and around a natural spring where tadpoles that grow into the Toad are most prevalent. The re-route is signed and blocked and the part of the trail that is bypassed doesn't have any challenging obstacles, so there is really no loss. Without the creative work from the GMJC, 21 Road and the Toad are both protected and make a great example showing other clubs how to overcome trail challenges!
Drove to the staging area, unloaded and headed into the mouth of the canyon, dropping into the bottom of the wash right away. The lower part of 21 Road is mostly mild, but there are a handful of places where there are massive boulders that you have to drive around/over/thru in order to continue. Everyone carefully picked their lines, some leaving paint behind, others getting caught up on diffs and skid plates. There was a bit of water trickling down the canyon, making for even less traction in the parts you needed it the most!
Chris and the Cherokee were having a hard time getting between 2 of the bigger rocks, he ended up squeezing thru a hole that was less than XJ width and had the drivers front tire 3-4' up in the air... then after moving forward just a few inches, the Jeep rocked forward, the opposite tire come off the ground and the drivers side upper door and roof smashed into the big rock, causing a decent bit of damage!
The re-route around the protected area for the 21 Road Toad...
We met up on Friday mornings, ready to run 21 Road (aka Hunter Canyon). 21 Road is a favorite of mine, it's the reason I first visited Western Colorado back in 2001 and part of the reason I live here now! The canyon is massive, scenic and very beautiful... especially this time of year with all the green trees and foliage! Our group consisted of Carl Whitmore in his TJ on 35's (ILean on here), Jason Dalley and his wife (pile of parts) in the Orange CJ/YJ7 on 38's, Mike Strange (drstrange) in the black TJ on 35's, Chris and Charlene in the XJ on 35's (JPMoab on here) and finally Glen (GER4x4) in the awesome stretched YJ on 40" Nitto tires.
Little Backstory... The Grand Mesa Jeep Club has adopted 21 Road, what most people don't know if how close this trail came to being closed not long ago. An endangered Toad was found living in the canyon and the BLM was considering shutting down motorized travel in the canyon, but with some creative efforts and the Grand Mesa Jeep club adopting the Toad as well, it remains open for all to enjoy. The GMJC also re-routed the 4x4 trail out of the wash and around a natural spring where tadpoles that grow into the Toad are most prevalent. The re-route is signed and blocked and the part of the trail that is bypassed doesn't have any challenging obstacles, so there is really no loss. Without the creative work from the GMJC, 21 Road and the Toad are both protected and make a great example showing other clubs how to overcome trail challenges!
Drove to the staging area, unloaded and headed into the mouth of the canyon, dropping into the bottom of the wash right away. The lower part of 21 Road is mostly mild, but there are a handful of places where there are massive boulders that you have to drive around/over/thru in order to continue. Everyone carefully picked their lines, some leaving paint behind, others getting caught up on diffs and skid plates. There was a bit of water trickling down the canyon, making for even less traction in the parts you needed it the most!
Chris and the Cherokee were having a hard time getting between 2 of the bigger rocks, he ended up squeezing thru a hole that was less than XJ width and had the drivers front tire 3-4' up in the air... then after moving forward just a few inches, the Jeep rocked forward, the opposite tire come off the ground and the drivers side upper door and roof smashed into the big rock, causing a decent bit of damage!
The re-route around the protected area for the 21 Road Toad...
