Now for more Jeeping fun. These next Jeep trips gave us a chance to start to figure out what Beauty is capable of. A stock Rubicon is pretty capable and we took her places we were a quite nervous about and she performed well. Although she got a few scraps, but that’s what a Jeep is supposed to have–Right?
The first two trips were in the area where my in-laws live in Southern Utah. We drove to the Tocquerville Falls. It isn’t too challenging of a 4×4 road, but it definitely required 4-wheel drive and high clearance. The drive was slow because it was fairly rough in some areas, plus Mike likes to take things slow in the Jeep. But we were reward by an amazing waterfall. The falls consist of two layers. The top layer you can drive across. Then it cascades down to another pool and layer and then it drops again into a nice deep pool and funs down the stream from there. It is beautiful, especially with the desert terrain around it.
The second trip was to the high point in Sand Hallow State Park called the Top of the World. I drove this trip and went with my sister. It was a blast to get to drive. Normally, when Mike and I are together, he drives because he gets car sick if he doesn’t. I love going with him, but I don’t get to drive and I love to drive. So occasionally I like to go without him so I can drive. It was a fairly simple drive. The only challenge was the deep sand we occasionally drove through, but Beauty handled it with ease.
In January, we attended the Xscapers Annual Bash at Lake Havasu, Arizona. Xscapers is a part of the Escapees RV Club. It is for working age RVers. It was a lot of fun. I will do a future blog post talking about the Bash. But what I want to share here is that as part of that bash they organized some Jeep trips. I went on the two trips during the week, the beginning and intermediate ones, by myself because Mike was working. Those two trips were a lot of fun but big groups of over twenty 4×4 vehicles. It was a beautiful drive. The desert is growing on me. At first I just thought it was ugly, but I can now see the beauty that it has. The first trip we drove to a place past the Parker Dam that you get a great view of Lake Havasu.
We both went together on the weekend on the advanced ride. The advanced ride was truly an advanced ride, and it pushed our abilities beyond what we had done before. It was great because we were with other, very experienced off-roaders and we watched them take the obstacles and then they would help me spot Mike or they would be the spotter on some of the more difficult ones. We scrapped up our skid plates (that’s what they are for) on some of the obstacles because our break over angle wasn’t high enough. But Beauty performed well and Mike gained confidence to take some of the more difficult obstacles.
The ride we took was to Rovey’s Needle and Cattail Cove. Rovey’s Needle is a pinnacle in the middle of nowhere. It has a really cool pitting in the rockface and a hole you can climb through the center of it to get to the other side. The back side had a flat area where many people can stand and take in the view. Someone had even hauled a bench up there. It was pretty cool.
Then we continued on to Cattail Cove. The trail was in a dry river bed and so we fairly regularly had to drive over large rocks in the river bed. It was the most challenging things we had done so far. I learned a bit about spotting. Some of the vehicles that were with us were pretty built out and so more capable then our stock Rubicon, but we were able to do almost everything all the others did, with the exception of one really big obstacle that we choose to go around.
After the bash, we headed to Quartzsite and met up with Mike’s parents and their friends. We did a bit of off-roading with them. One trip was to a place called Dripping Springs. There was an old ruin of a cabin and a spring that came out of a cave in a rock. The area was also covered with petroglyphs. It makes a lot of sense that a water source in the desert would see a lot of Native American activity. It wasn’t a difficult road until the very end as we dropped down into a fairly narrow wash. But even that wasn’t that difficult.
After leaving Quartzsite, we joined some friends of ours whom we had met at the Bash in Lake Havasu to boondock just outside of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. While there, we did a nice easy drive to see the Palm Canyon and Skull Rock.
Palm Canyon is just that, a canyon where some native palms have survived since the area was a lot more moist. They are in a canyon where they apparently get water and enough shade that it isn’t too hot for them. It was pretty cool to see palm trees in the middle of a rather bleak desert. Cacti were more likely and they were abundant.
Then we drove to a place called Skull Rock. Why? Because the rock looks very like a skull. It was pretty cool.
Our most fun trip but also our most stressful trip with these friends was to a place called Martinez Lake. The drive to the lake can be done without too much trouble, however, there is a wash that 4x4s like to take to challenge them and it delivered. It challenged us. We climbed up rock faces that were up just above my waist. We did things we never thought our stock Rubicon could do. With great spotters to help us, Beauty did amazing things.
One of our friends who was on this trip with us, has a YouTube channel called Wheelin’ with the Wendes. They did a video of our adventure which I have linked to here. It’s pretty long if you don’t want to watch the whole thing. I have also linked some shorter videos below of us getting over two of the more difficult obstacles. It takes a team!!! Thanks to our fantastic new friends for helping us make it safely and with only a few scratches on the rock sliders and bumper. 🙂
After we went through the wash that was so challenging we had lunch and then we decided to go exploring a bit. That turned out to be even more nerve-wracking as we drove along narrow ridges and up and down steep canyon sides. It was a bit stressful. After a while, we both had, had enough adventure. You can only have adrenaline for so long until it starts to just feel like too much. We did make it through and it was truly a blast.
We did get a few scrapes on our rock sliders and the bumper, but that is what they are for. I think we definitely have a lift in our future.
This trip was an absolute blast. We are so grateful to our friends for inviting us to go with them. It really pushed the limits of Beauty and our driving skills, but thanks to the team, we made it through and had so much fun. What an awesome group of friends!! We are blessed to know them!
