July 2003 - Whippersnapper

Avalanche Ranch, Colorado

Trail Rating - 2 Diamonds 

Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal

(Click for larger images)

This trail had a few gotchas and some very challenging lines. 

Here's one of the gotchas.  If you slipped off the line it was real easy to get the front tire wedged.  This would explain the broken birfield joint and D44 outer hanging on the tree just before this obstacle.  

After trying to winch Mark forward we tried pulling him back which freed his tire. 

Pat coming thru the same spot.

The next obstacle was a large set of boulders.  The rock on my drivers side was roughly my wheelbase, so the front climbed it fine but when the back tire was starting to climb the front was clawing forward and managed to wedge itself in.  

The winch wouldn't budge the rig so we used the hi-lift jack to get the tire to pop out of the crack.

Once I was thru Jack came got wedged in the same crack, although not as bad as I did.

We were able to winch him forward.

Pat coming thru the same obstacle.

The next section had three different ways to get to the top of the hill.  I tried going up thru this boulder field but was rejected, not enough tire to keep my diffs above the rocks.  I ended up trying the next route and after getting pitched into a tree was able to continue to the top.   

The vertical wall at the top was pretty impressive, the first try I got hung up on the frame, I backed off and adjust my line to the right a little more and crawled right up.

Jack came up the same way I did, he got some good air coming up the wall but hung up on his frame rails and ended up winching the last portion.

Pat and Mark to the first route to the top, the last ledge required a good bump to get over it.

The last obstacle at the top stopped us cold.  The tree on the drivers side made it impossible to avoid the diff grabbers with Toyota axles and 38" tires.  even if you could ram the first diff over, the rear one would get hung up.  We all took the cable on this one.    

We didn't realize it till after we were all up that there was a bypass to this obstacle to the left.

Come Sunday morning we were all wheeled out.  We broke down camp and headed back to Arizona.  We stopped at the Navajo Dam and took a few pictures.

Our route back actually took us down the face of the dam.  We all made it back to Phoenix in one piece, rigs a little more worn but we had a great time.  I definitely want to go back.  The trails are very challenging and we haven't even seen a 3 diamond trail yet!  With the lake close by and trails just minutes away from your campsite, this is by far the coolest placed I have wheeled outside of Phoenix to date.  Kudos to Steve and Jen for setting up a great 4 wheeling destination.