Where Have You Off-Roaded Today? 3rd Gen

Start the trail early in the morning. You will need to get a permit from the Canyonlands visitor center which means you will need to pay a park access fee, around $30, because the entrance to the White rim trail is inside the park. They will tell you to plan on 2-3 days to do the trail, Phhhht, we did it in 7 hours 45 minutes and still stopped to take pics, have lunch and see tall the sites. Murphys Hogs back near the middle of the trail will be your first steep ascent and can scare the shit out of the un-initiated. Hardscrabble climb out near the end will be the second VERY steep climb out with tight twist and turns with AWESOME views of the near vertical fall off if you make a mistake, but it is about the 3/4 mark of the trail. As always make sure your vehicle is in great shape before attempting, bring plenty of water and having spare gas is always a plus, but not required. Enjoy.

 

Thank you!! I have the annual National Parks pass from the USGS (hopefully you do too...it is free to all veterans) so hopefully that will get me inside the NP and then just pay for the trail permit?

 

You totally just turned me off from wanting to do this trail!

 

Move this to the top of that list my friend. And it only takes 9 hours to drive to Moab from my part of California, 11hrs, 17 minutes for you. WELL WORTH IT!!!!!

 

There is no cost for the permit. Its just like having a burn permit, it means you got the briefing from a ranger and they know you are out there.

 

Somewhere in southern Utah, photo courtesy of the 4Runner Experience.

 

A little nature time. Some nice bush walking, and hundreds of fresh elk scat piles. There are some large elk herds around this area.

 

I would love to do this one day! Where is it and do you need any special permits or anything?

 

That is one of the dangers of this trail. Its "Deceptively" easy meaning you could do it in a Subaru or even a Prius dry, but if it rains even just a little bit those switchbacks and steep climbs become slicker than ice!
Not joking.

 

Arizona Peace Trail, between Bullhead City and Kingman.

 

Got up against the side of this rut and got a bit of trail rash from it all down the passenger side today.




But ended the ride at this beautiful, albeit difficult to get to, spot so how could I possibly be mad at that!




You can see the tail light & rub from the rut here (bare metal scrape and dent just above rear door handle) but that wasn’t everything that ended up happening today.



On the last quarter mile of the trail, as beautiful as it was somehow this stick got up between the plastic and steel bumper and smashed some stuff including one of the headlight mounting tabs

 

Damn, that's some pretty hefty damage for one trip! But looks like an awesome destination. Where is this?

 

BFE, southern Ohio.

I’ve used some PDR techniques and already fixed the fender and the dent that ran along the big scratch, I’ll wash the truck really well over the weekend and do some minor paint touch up.

 

Desert Trails.

 

Box Canyon N.El of Florence, AZ. Even made it up the waterwall with my new suspension!


Heading in



And this is why they call it a box canyon.



Made it up the waterfall with my new suspension and lift. At first I was going to turn around but decided to go for it.


Heading out the other end

 

Got any suggestions for mild routes in Ohio? My folks near Dayton like taking their (stock) 21 4Runner Off Road out on weekend day trips, but there's not a lot of adventure in SW Ohio.

 

Yes, i actually work based out of Dayton. What level or trails are they after? from forest roads to crawler trails most people don’t realize we have a little of everything, on public land, within 2 hours or Dayton.
For forest roads tell them to hit up Vinton furnace state forest (where these pics were taken but that’s a much more difficult trail). For something a little more they could try some unmaintained roads in the Tar Hollow region, a lot of stuff there, all public, but lots of it isn’t on google maps. A few off the top of my head that is on google is Pleasant Ridge Rd, Pole Ridge rd and Election road. Have them hit those roads and give you feedback, those are pretty tame but will require 4LO and some thinking, not just forest roads by far.

I could potentially take ya’ll if you/they would prefer being shown vs. just trying to map it.

 

Bone stock 4Runner, not looking to do anything crazy. Interested mostly in just off the paved roads and any sites/sights of interest. Most they've done are some backroads out here in Oklahoma, which are soft sand at the worst, traction wise, some mild/moderate ledges and small rocky trails. Would prefer to keep them out of the rivers and mud, they're almost 70. they just don't really know any dirt backroads in Ohio. I've taught them how to use Gaia GPS, so any simple route files would be great. I will pass along your recommendations, thanks!

 

Ubehebe Peak, DVNP.