Did you ever notice how lame your hometown seems after being away on vacation? We just got back to smelly, noisy, asphalt-encased Los Angeles after a week in warm sunny Moab for the 40th annual Red Rock 4-Wheelers Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) and we're bumming! Moab is like Mecca for off-roaders, and this annual event is like spring break in Mecca. We start counting down to that week on January 1, and this year's trip to the home of red rock couldn't have landed on a better week. The weather was awesome, the people were happy, and the 4x4s were overflowing from parking lots, main streets, auto parts stores, and of course the many trails.
We saw just about every make and model of 4x4 in Moab, and that has to be one of our favorite parts of EJS because we love checking out 4x4s almost as much as we like four-wheeling. This year the staff of 4-Wheel & Off-Road took our 2005 Ultimate Adventure trucks (the yellow Chevy Ultimate C10 stepside and Clampy the rust-bucket Toyota) to Moab and stuffed them through a few trails while out looking for feature trucks and wheeling action. So if you want to see our finished 2006 UA trucks, head to the 2007 Easter Jeep Safari as they will surely be there. Otherwise, come for the action that Moab always has. We can't promise great weather next year, but we're sure the wheeling will be awesome. For more info, contact the Red Rock 4-Wheelers, P.O. Box 1471, Moab, UT 84532-1471 or on the Web at www.rr4w.com.
If you've never been there, Easter Jeep Safari in Moab should be at the top of your list of wheeling destinations. From stock Jeeps to full-blown tube buggies or giant wheeling trucks there are plenty of trails to run, rigs to check out, and scenery like nowhere else. We go every year. It's kind of like Christmas, only better.
Tom Allan from PSC Motorsports told us he was going to have his new Bruiser Chassis buggy ready for Moab, and we even went to the trail looking for it. He said it was running some custom hybrid Ford 9-inch/Unimog portal axles and an LS1 V-8 engine. Apparently it was very well camouflaged because we never saw it running Upper Helldorado. (We're so funny, we make us laugh.)
BJ Imlach was crawling up...
BJ Imlach was crawling up around Area BFE while his friends tried to send him every which way. We're not sure about the cowgirl boot hanging off the rear bumper of BJ's CJ-5 buggymobile, but we're sure it has some deep-seated significance. Ahh, Moab. It's all about fun.
Moab has plenty of great trails,...
Moab has plenty of great trails, among them Coyote Canyon, an exciting find that was opened a few years back by some experienced wheelers and offers narrow chutes with aggressive technical rock fields. We highly recommend it, but bring strong parts because even the bypasses can be tough.
By the end of the week this...
By the end of the week this writer had battered Clampy through a number of trails, but it wasn't until I headed up Coyote Canyon (found along the entrance to Area BFE) that I really started abusing that little truck. A busted radiator slowed me down for a bit, but before long I was back at it.