It wasn’t exactly Dickens with his ‘Tale of Two Cities’, but Monday marked Quadratec’s second trail day with two vastly different wheeling locations.
The first was Pritchett’s Canyon, a 9-rated trail on Moab’s 1-10 trail ranking system made up of steep inclines, harrowing declines, multiple ledges and piles upon piles of rocks. It’s an axle bending, bumper smashing, off-camber monster of a trail that can put fear into even the most veteran of drivers.
Our second run Monday was a trail off the beaten Moab path called White Wash Sand Dunes – a long and, you guessed it, sandy expanse filled with a few rocky ledges and drops, and splattered with the occasional steep inclines that required somewhat precise tire placement.
Certainly a tale of two trails. But overall, a good look at the vast differences Moab offers for those who attend the Easter Jeep Safari.
Pritchett’s run was sponsored by Rock Krawler and spotted by its super-talented owner Jeremy Purick. We also enjoyed the company of Vision X, Rigid Industries, and SpiderWebShade. Although the trail is somewhat short at just under five miles off-road, it more than makes up for that with numerous intense obstacles that annoy even the most well-built of rigs.
These include Chewy Hill, which is a slippery test that can throw drivers very off camber, while also containing numerous medium to large ledges that must be overcome. It was also the cause of one rollover when a JK found itself unable to hold the line.
Another is the infamous Rocker Knocker, which is a double ledge requiring perfect execution. Even those who succeed in overcoming Rocker are usually pushed to the brink of tipping over and the obstacle unfortunately lived up to its Jeep-eating rep Monday, breaking one vehicle’s axle while damaging several others.
Axle Hill waits just a few yards up the trail and forces riders to navigate up from the wash bottom in two stages. The first part is very slippery, and is often the site of many rollovers, but thankfully not Monday for us. The second part is very steep, with ledges that can lead to dangerous off-camber positions.
The last two obstacles faced Monday were Rock Pile and Yellow Hill.
Rock Pile is an 8' ledge that can be a severe test to some of the best rigs around, and usually requires stacking of loose rocks in order to be successful. There is a bypass, but even that sometimes can require a winch line. Thankfully, everyone tackled and overcame.
Yellow Hill finished everyone up on a very uneven and slippery ledge of some multi-colored rock that required caution, as a single mistake could easily turn into a multiple roll. Luckily, no one else ended the ride on a bad note.
The day’s second run saw us head out to White Wash Sand Dunes for a run hosted by Skyjacker. This event offered everyone a look at a pretty trail not usually traversed by the Moab-going crowd.
Over an hour-and-a-half northwest of Moab, White Wash gave riders a different view of Utah four-wheeling as gone were the red rocks and fins. Instead, you have miles and miles of beach-type sand and numerous high dunes that did spin out a few Jeeps and forced riders to back off and re-try.
There was the occasional slickrock and rocky, muddy stretches, but this one was mostly about sand navigation.
While the trail wasn’t an axle-breaking adventure, there were several interesting obstacles including the opening one which made riders throttle through about 30 yards of steep sand leading to a rocky ledge which needed to be walked up, before dropping off to the passenger side.
Another was a slightly challenging incline stretch of slickrock, broken up by a somewhat deep channel that forced drivers to put their passenger tire high on the rock to overcome, while walking up.
Luckily, our spotter for the day was the highly experienced, and trail veteran, Clifton Slay, who helped everyone through.
On the way out was many more miles of sandy terrain which gave riders another chance to have fun testing out their skills on a surface not often associated with the Moab area – which everyone did to perfection.
Joining us Monday, besides the fantastic folks at Skyjacker, were Bestop, Magnaflow, Daystar, BedRug, and Fab Fours, as well as dozens of other well-built Jeeps and nice enthusiasts.
