Easter Jeep Safari

We caught the ARB crew on the Hell's Revenge Trail in their newly body-wrapped HUMMER H3, Jeep Wrangler and Toyota Tundra. In the past year, ARB has developed an entire line of new bumpers, snorkels and racks, and new rooftop tent.

It's become a tradition each spring for me to head east to the Canyon country of southeast Utah for the annual Easter Jeep Safari. All of my friends think I'm just goofing off for eight days (and calling it work). There is some truth to both of those thoughts. For the latter, from a photographer's perspective, the EJS can be serious work if you plan your week properly. And it goes like this: drive 14 hours straight (783-miles from Sacramento), off-load the cabover camper, slip on my Bestop canopy, wash the rig, fuel up, scarf down a couple of 99-cent hot dogs for dinner, and sleep.

 

 

On Big Saturday, all trail groups line up on Main Street rather than their usual out-of-town rendezvous points. At 9 am, they all depart--there must be at least a thousand 4x4s on the street at once.

Day 1: Up at 4:45 am to shoot sunrise at Mesa Arch (hour each way), meet the guys from Warn at 9:00 to run Seven Mile Rim Trail. 5:30 pm schmooze with some magazine editors over a fish taco and a coldy. 10 pm: clean cameras, charge batteries, download images, check emails and tomorrow's weather. 11:45: bed. Day 2 starts at 4:45 again, shoot sunrise in Arches NP, wheel Steel Bender Trail with the Superlift and Dynatrac crew, dinner with the Jeep executives, clean camera gear, etc, etc. And so the week goes. But this is the stuff we dream about all year, right? So I'll quit whining.

 

 

Over one hundred manufacturers show up for the show on Thursday and Friday where you could buy everything from drivelines to fuel cells. 4 Wheel Parts brought their semi stuffed with gear and the crowd kept their sales guys busy for most of the day.

Recession, What Recession?
After last year's spike in fuel prices ($4.50/ga last Easter), we wondered if this year's EJS would resemble a ghost town rather than a spring gathering. There are some of the things we use as a barometer each year: traffic on Main Street, wait-times in restaurants, lines at the car wash, and how long does it take to get a coldy at the Moab Brewery. And our general take on the matter was, "What recession?" We were told that there were almost 1800 registered participant vehicles and we estimated another four-times that amount just show up. (If you don't register, at least go by Red Rock 4 Wheeler's booth and make a donation to the MUD fund (the land-use legal fund).

 

Though Easter week is a busy time in Moab, you can still find your own quiet corner if you choose a trail that is not being used for an official run.

Off-Road Adventures Trail Ride-Day 3
One of my assignments for the week was tagging along on the 4Wheel Parts/Off-Road Adventures trail ride. Yep, they rounded up the guys who supply the cool gadgets and gizmos that we ogle and awe over throughout the year, and took them wheeling on Behind the Rocks.
As in years past, Red Rock 4Wheeler member Tony Eyman stepped up to be trail boss for the day. And joining us were the guys from Pro Comp Tires and Pro Comp Suspension, Daystar, Rubicon Express, Rancho Suspension, Currie Enterprises, Optima Battery, BFGoodrich, Hanson, Mastercraft, and Smittybuilt. And did we mention Brent Goegebuer's Overkill buggy (featured in June issue)? Brent is the guy who organizes all the Truck Fests and Showroom On Wheels events for 4 Wheel Parts. After closely examining the extreme attention to detail that went into creating this buggy, and literally, overkill engineering, we think Brent needs to get out of the office more. It's the work of a madman.

Carrie Steiner drives one of the few hard-core Land Rovers we see on a regular basis and she is not afraid to push it to the limits.

Jeepers Creepers- Day 4
If you're a dyed-in-the-wool Jeep aficionado (round or rectangular headlights are okay with us), Jeep was on hand with a new crop of Jeep Underground rigs. Onsite were their latest secret projects including an un-lifted Hemi-powered Wrangler with 40-inch Mickey Thompson's, the Overland, a 4-door Wrangler specially equipped for world travel and a 2009 Grand Cherokee, the Grand Canyon II, set up with a Superlift 4-inch suspension, ARB bumpers and a list of Mopar accessories. To beat all, they took them all out to the sand dunes one day and let us media geeks take 'em for a spin. Two other big announcements on the Jeep front was American

This was one of the most gentle and graceful rollovers we have seen, and barely a scratch was incurred by the Jeep or the driver. Six friends later, the driver, without ever exiting the vehicle, was on his way down the hill... rubber side down this time.

Expedition Vehicle's (AEV) debut of the US version of the MILSPEC J8 (only been available for foreign militaries in the past). With a choice of V8 or diesel mills, a 5-speed automatic and a Dana 44/60 axle combination, this will be the hot ticket item for 2010. But only a limited number will be available.
Next up was the unveiling of the 2011 Grand Cherokee, which will be available with a HEMI, or a new 280 hp, 3.6-liter V-6. The last item in Jeep's bag of tricks is a newly released direct replacement Dana 44, equipped with 4:10 gears and an electric locker, for 1997 to 2006 Wranglers. A new 4-inch OEM suspension for the Dodge Ram trucks, a new line of tops from Bestop and a slew of other Mopar products rounded things out.

Potato Salad Hill is always a reliable circus act for spectators. It got its name after a Jeep flipped over and dispersed the contents of its cooler--potato salad, all over the slick rock.

What's hot... Day 5-7
The EJS runs the entire eight days prior to Easter and there were several hot tickets this year. The first was weather. Though it snowed the day we arrived, the next three were perfect days. Wednesday was sunny and good day for kites (so windy you'd need winch rope for string) and the final three were overcast but warm and no rain.
Next on the list are the organized runs lead by one of the hardest working groups of volunteers we know, the Red Rock 4 Wheelers. They spend countless weeks prior to the event working with the BLM ironing out details on 30-plus trail rides, organizing the trade show, and registering thousands of EJS guests.

The "Lower Forty" Wrangler was one of our favorite rigs this year. Sitting on an un-lifted chassis, the Jeep boys went to town with a Sawzall and die grinder to fit the massive 40-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claws and 20-inch wheels. The goal was to add ground clearance without altering the center of gravity. The roll cage was plumbed through body the tub and directly into the frame rails--did we mention the 5.7-liter HEMI, Dana 44 and Dana 60 axles? Can you spell fun?

If you have not been to the EJS in a few years, you'd be amazed at the manufacturers' show. At my first in 1995, there were but a few dozen vendors and a small raffle. BFGoodrich brought their semi and Ivan Stewart, and that was a BIG deal. Today, it has become a literal who's-who of all things off-road, and hosts hundreds of aftermarket manufacturers. Everyone from Pro Comp, Bestop, BFGoodrich, PIAA, Smittybilt, ARB and Jeepers Jamboree, to Tread Lightly, and Skyjacker Suspension were on hand to display their goods. I usually dedicate an entire day to drool over all the new gear. And if you didn't buy it, maybe you can win it as over $100,000 in prizes were handed out at the Red Rock raffle.
BFG presented the details of their 2009 Outstanding Trails Program (OTP). Each year, BFG selects a few trails across the country from hundreds of submissions. These are trails that receive significant use, are fairly well known (though this is not a pre-requisite) and may be under the political land-use looking glass. Working with local clubs, they make a generous $4,000 donation to be used as the club sees fit: trail markers, clean-up projects, toilets or trail maintenance. We commend BFGoodrich for putting their hard earned money to work to help keep trails open.

Not everything at the Jeep Safari is Jeep, and you don't need a mega-dollar rig to participate. At least half the field is made up of Toyotas, Samurais, Broncos, Scouts, Hummers and Land Rovers.

Moab itself is cool. A quaint little town set smack dab in the middle of the red rock country of Utah. And while the greater Moab area has thousands of miles of mild-to-wild dirt tracks, if you want to take a day off from the trail, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks provide some spectacular hiking and mountain biking trails, and are a photographer's dream.
 After 7 days of wheeling in almost perfect weather, and evenings grubbing down at some of our favorite eateries: Pasta Jays, the Moab Diner and our new favorite, the Baja Grill, the week was coming to an end. We'd done Seven Mile Rim, Metal Masher, Steel Bender, Behind The Rocks, Hell's Revenge and the Moab Rim.