jeeping – Ulen Adventures

7-11 October 2020. Palo Duro Canyon, TX.

7-11 October 2020. Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. During the summer of 2019, we participated in a Jeep Jamboree event in Wyoming. We had such a good time, that we signed up for a Jeep Jamboree in Texas for 2020. It was supposed to happen in May, but was rescheduled for October. So, with very little rest at home after our Utah adventures, we headed toward Amarillo and the Palo Duro Canyon for this year’s Jeep Jamboree Event.

Palo Duro is a 60 mile long canyon that opens up in the middle of the desert. It is the second largest canyon in the US. The websites claim it is the most spectacular and scenic spot in the Texas panhandle. The canyon descends down to 800 ft, but where we were it was closer to a 500 ft drop. The Jeep Jamboree people hooked up with a private landowner (cattle rancher) who owns a huge amount of the canyon and lets large groups explore his property (you have to watch out for cows!). (There is also a Palo Duro Canyon State Park – same canyon, but further west – which is not where we were, they don’t allow 4×4’ing).

The rancher allowed our group to dry camp on the ridge above the canyon, then in the morning, the Jeep Jamboree folk took about 140 jeeps (in eight groups) down the very steep and narrow trail to the canyon floor. We chose to be in a “mid level skill” group and were surprised by the constant obstacles that we encountered, but we had a great time for two days of hard wheelin’.

Here are some of the Jeeps lined up and waiting their turn to head down the canyon trail.

To head into the canyon, we left the “Main Road” and took the “Horse Trail”. That was definite foreshadowing of the difficulty level for our adventure.

Our GPS said this trail was a 500 ft drop to the canyon floor, but quite the view going down!

At the bottom of the canyon, you get see the beauty of the area. – and how dry it is…

Many of the trails didn’t look much like trails.

Sometimes you had to help each other get through!

This obstacle was called Coyote Crawl. If your Jeep has good articulation, you drove through it like this.

If your Jeep articulation isn’t great/ or you forget to undo the sway bar, then this happens. Oh dear!

Why are all these jeeps waiting patiently coming off the hill?

Because this guy’s tire came off his rim! Got it patched up and off everyone went.

We had a slow climb getting out of the canyon!

It was a bit foggy in the rancher’s field the morning we left.

We are already making plans to do another Jeep Jamboree Event in 2021!

26-28 July 2019 – Ouray, Colorado

Colorado has so many beautiful areas where outdoor recreation thrives. Ouray is one of our favorites. Ouray calls itself the Switzerland of America. There are mountains, streams, passes and gulches, abandoned mines and mining towns, wild flowers, trails and waterfalls.

Cindie and Howard Parks led a group of us through these beautiful mountains and showed us some areas we hadn’t visited before, but for sure will come back to again.

Here are some of my favorite photos from this adventure.

Max and Brendan inching along the cliffs

I like this photo because you can see the Colorado Four Wheelers sticker!

Kevin and Rebecca tucking under a shelf **this shelf fell down just a few months later!

Brendan using every inch of his articulation!

Summer 2019 – Jeep’n Adventures.

We spent a lot of the summer Wheeling in Colorado with our Jeeping friends! Here are some highlights of the ‘Day trips’:

1 June 2019 – Longwater Gulch – Just a couple of us spent the day exploring Longwater Gulch. This was our first trip to the infamous “gulches”, where there are politics aplenty trying to get these trail closed to “wheeling”.

Evidence of old forest fire at Longwater Gulch.

At the bottom of Longwater Gulch. Don’t cross the river!

15 June – China Wall – This was “gate opening day”. China Wall is adopted and maintained by the four wheel club we belong to, Colorado Four Wheelers. The trail is closed from January to mid June to allow the wildlife to breed.

Climbing one of the China Wall obstacles

A littler driver challenging his truck on the obstacles!

29 June – Saran Wrap and Eagle Rock – A little more challenging than China Wall, here are some shots from another club run close to Colorado Springs:

15 July – Schubart Loop – Mason came down and visited, so we took him on a quick journey up to the mountain.

20 July – Breakneck and Browns Pass – Met up with the club again, beautiful area near Fairplay.

30 August – Wheeler Lake – Another run with the club:

Water on this trail, too – bushes were pretty scratchy! Did some paint damage!

Broke the valve stem and had to change a tire 🙁

15 September – China Wall – back to China Wall for a clean up day

Climbing up the China Wall at China Wall

So, we had a lot of one day adventures – but stay tuned for some bigger trip blogs!

22 May 2019, Antelope Canyon

Near Page, Arizona, there is an amazing sight on Navajo land. Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon, formed by water running through sandstone, and famous for the colors (which change based on the time of day and/or season). You can only visit with a Navajo tour guide, but luckily, the locals have set up tours that are run efficiently, and still allow you to take as many photos as you want. Here are a smattering of our photos. If you think they are cool, I probably have a hundred more!

Staring upward at one point – you can see the outline of a seahorse!

Coming out of Antelope Canyon (looks different from the outside)

23-29 March 2019. Moab Adventure.

I am really late posting things we did over the winter; and in my posts about the Easter Jeep Safari, you couldn’t really see the beauty of the area. We also went to Moab with our 4×4 club on 23-29 March. Since this was our first trek out there with our Jeep, we took things slow and did a lot of tourist trails instead of the harder Jeep roads. Here are some cool photos:

Heading to trail head along Road 279 with Jeep Club

Shafer Trail near CanyonLands National Park

Colorado River near Thelma and Louise Point

Onion Creek Trail – we counted over 30 water crossings on this trail

Chuck at our lunch spot above Thompson Canyon

Back with the Club heading to Top of the World

Here’s Chuck on Top of the World (1000 ft straight down)

Ice Cream Sundaes from the Moab Diner! Yum!

18-20 April 2019. Easter Jeep Safari

18 April. The fourth trail we signed up for was a hands on “learn how to get unstuck (recovery)” course at an area called “Behind the Rocks”. We spent the morning out there with winches and high-lift jacks, then headed out for a little trail ride. We did one tough obstacle, it’s called Roller Coaster. There’s actually one more little ledge at the top that didn’t get captured on the video.https://youtu.be/hoj2PhNmrKk

Climbing the “roller coaster” “behind the rocks”

19 April – The next day we spent exploring the vendor show. (They only have it on 2 days of the Easter Jeep Safari). There were plenty of vendors and things to see and buy, here are a few pictures of interesting rigs:

Chuck checking out a Jeep prototype truck at EJS

I think we saw a TV show where this was constructed. Very interesting in person

At the end of Friday is a huge Raffle. We walked the half mile from our campsite to the Raffle, expecting to maybe win a T-shirt if we were lucky, but instead we won FIVE huge tires! (Weighing 50+ lbs a piece). We panicked a bit, because we didn’t know how we would get them back to our campsite, and for sure we had no way to get them home. Luckily someone offered us some cash – that was much easier to carry!

At the raffle, we actually won FIVE huge 35 inch tires!

20 April. On Saturday, all the people go down town and everyone departs for their rides at the same time. (They call it BIG SATURDAY) Sort of like a parade – but everyone starts from a different street and criss-cross and head out to the trails – so more like a water ballet…the whole town is full of Jeeps for about 5 minutes!

We joined our last group and headed out to Fins and Things. It’s in the same area as, and is very similar to, Hell’s Revenge, except it’s a lot closer to the ground. Climbs are steep, but short. It’s rated a 4. https://youtu.be/lKFPrwuOMps

Another view of that same play area:https://www.facebook.com/karen.ulen.5/posts/1170735536438976

We had a great time on the Easter Jeep Safari, learned some stuff, met some new friends, got a bit sunburnt. We will be back another year!

21 April. On the way home, we had a flock of mountain sheep visit our campsite.

This guy and his family came to our campsite on our way home

17 April 2019 – Tip Toe Through Hell

Our third trail during the 2019 Jeep Safari was called “Tip Toe through Hell”. This was a slightly less scary version of the famous “Hell’s Revenge” trail. We ran the entire length of the trail, but bypassed the four main “roll-over obstacles”: Hell’s Gate, The escalator, the Hot Tubs and the Tip Over challenge. This was a much different experience than our last two trails. We had about 35 vehicles in our group, and there were quite a few other people running the trail in their own small groups or on their own.

The sign marking the beginning of Hell’s Revenge Trail

Our group gathered at a local restaurant and paraded to the trail head

We had many more people in our group on this trail – 35!

The first 100 yards of the trail were the most tense. The trail was marked, but you couldn’t see the tire placement from the driver’s seat. The steep drop offs really played with your mind!

https://youtu.be/kHhO2mSqn-g

The beginning “fin” was the scariest part of this trail – steep drop offs on both sides

Staying the trail means following the tracks, no matter how crookedy they get

We had lunch at Hell’s Gate and enjoyed watching others make the climb

Our group meandering along the fins of Hell’s Revenge

And some quick video that Chuck took! https://youtu.be/WNDCj7UM2ww

15 April 2019, Elephant Hill

The second trail we tackled at the 2019 Easter Jeep Safari was called Elephant Hill. This trail actually started 60 miles our of Moab in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The park limits the number of people who can drive this trail, so you must get a permit to run it. Our group had only seven vehicles – all Jeeps!

Yes, you had to go down the switchbacks backwards (no room to turn at the corners)

We had a chance to get out and hike a bit, here we are climbing through a slot canyon:

Karen at a wider part of the slot canyon.

Eating Ice Cream sandwiches at the end of the hike. (Love the technology that lets you bring freezers into the wilderness)

We also got to hike to a view point of the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers – Very Spectacular!

The confluence of the Green River joining the Colorado River

The trail back up Elephant Hill is a bit steep…

Here is a video that the guy behind us took of the ride, because we were in front of him, We star in it!

13 April 2019 Easter Jeep Safari

This year was the 53rd annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. People call it a “Sturgis for jeepers”, so we thought we’d give it a try, since we now have a Jeep and we really like Sturgis. In fact, it is only a little like Sturgis. It is much more organized and a lot less people.

Chuck started preparing months ago. Although we have been to Moab frequently on our dirt bikes, riding those trails with 4 wheels is much different that riding on 2 wheels. The trails have ratings, and we chose some mid-level ones that looked like they would challenge us. Then we had to wait for the sign up period and try and get signed up! We were lucky to get 5 trails this year. We did miss having Easter with the family, but we did have fun!

We tried to sneak out of Colorado between snowstorms, didn’t quite make it. But we arrived safe and sound

The trip started with a typical Colorado Spring snow! But it made for a peaceful night, we were the only ones camped at this 100 site campground near Blue Mesa Reservoir.

Our first trail meet up was at 730 in the morning on Saturday. About twenty vehicles met to start our adventure on 7-Mile Rim. We filled out our waivers and headed up the hill.

Our first trail at 2019 Easter Jeep Safari was 7-Mile Rim.

When they say “Rim”, they mean “cliff”.

This is the “rim” you can see highway 191 down in the valley

There was much more to the trail than just edges, though:

The scenery along 7-Mile Rim was spectacular!

Heading toward the Monitor and the Merrimack for our lunch stop

The whole group lined up in front of “Merrimack”

Jeep was out on the trail taking photos of some of their concept vehicles

Tom Cruise was photographed on the left spire in a Mission Impossible film

We had a wonderful time on this trail and met some great people. Here is some dash cam footage to give you a better feel:

Short video of start of 7 mile rim trail

15 November 2018, Phantom Canyon

Decided to take a Sunday Drive – Hey we knew it was Friday, but the weather was supposed to suck on Sunday… and we are retired and don’t always remember what day it is, anyway.

In all our 26 years here, we have never before traveled over Phantom Canyon Road. So we decided to try it. Phantom Canyon Road is built on an old railroad track. The railroad was used to bring gold down the mountain until 1912. We took the route down from Cripple Creek after a wonderful 49 cent breakfast at Bronco Billy’s. The road meandered down among boulders and trees and over old bridges and through tunnels. I think it went from 9500 feet to 5500 ft in elevation. I’m sure this will not be the last time we take this route.

Upper part of the road was especially beautiful

Leftover bridge from when this was a train track

October 2018, Jeeping

September and October Jeeping, Colorado. Well, now that we are back from our Alaska trip, we have spent a couple of weekends getting re-aquainted with Jeeping. We have taken three excursions with the Jeep, and here are some photos:

RAM Park. We went to a charity event at RAM off-road park in Colorado Springs. This is a place where you drive around and up and down through all sorts of obstacles. By the end of the morning, Chuck was feeling very confident with some of the Jeep’s capabilities. This Jeep (a 2012 JK) has WAY more capabilities than our old one (a 1978 CJ5)

Our friend, Ward showing us how “Easy” you can climb

Side by sides can really fly! I’m glad we did not get one of these!

CHINA WALL. In early October we met a fun Jeeping club in Colorado Springs, and went with them on one of their runs to “China Wall” – out near Tarryall Reservoir. There were 19 vehicles playing on the rocks at China Wall, the basic plan was to go out, eat some chili, then head back to the highway after dark. Here are some photos:

Group gathering at the trailhead – bits of color and some snow!

The group gathering for Chilly Chili dinner

BEAR CREEK GULCH. That was so much fun, we went on another run with them The next weekend to Bear Creek Gulch, (south of Canon City) – only eight vehicles this time, not as much rock climbing, either, but great views!

Stopped here with a nice view of the Sangre’s

Happy Jeeping!

31 May 2018, Ouray CO Jeeping

Ouray Colorado, 31 May 2018

After our successful evening ride, we were excited to be up early and spend the day Jeeping. We drove south to Corkscrew gulch – a little muddy to start, but lots of trees – until we got to the switchbacks (yuck!), but beautiful views of the famous red mountains!

The trail was wide near the bottom of the switchbacks at corkscrew

The red mountains had just the right amount of snow to show off how red they were!

Still a bit of snow above tree line – corkscrew gulch

We then headed along a shelf road to Hurricane Pass – here is a video clip Chuck took of the shelf road

Plenty of snow on the way up to Hurricane Pass

Chuck’s video clip coming down California Pass:

Did some water crossings on the way down.

We needed this car wash at the end of the day!

Had a lovely lunch among some dandylions

May 30 Ouray Colorado Jeeping

Ouray Colorado Jeeping – May 30 2018

Our friends from Minnesota, Ike and Joann, wandered through Colorado and decided to rent a Jeep in Ouray. Since that is close by (ha! Only 300 miles!) and our Jeep needed some exercise, we decided to drive out and join them. The people in Ouray (rhymes with Hurray) believe that Ouray is the Jeep Capitol of the World. It is certainly beautiful and a lot of fun. Many of the trails were still not open because of snow – but we found some great places to see!

We arrived just after the rain stopped, at around 5pm, so we decided to try a “romantic evening ride” up Yankee Boy Basin: