Calvary 4-Wheelers

A mild version of Behind the Rocks was on the menu today. I was a bit surprised to wake up to cloudy skies as the last weather report I had heard was for good weather through our entire stay. It was not meant to be. The temps today were considerably colder than the day before and the wind was piercing. We met at McDonalds and then headed south on the main highway to the trailhead to air down. This didn’t take long as people were anxious about getting back into their warm vehicles.

We progressed up the hill to the first obstacle, Guardian Hill, which is a steep rock hill climb with a few small ledges, challenging but not extreme. Just before this obstacle, the clouds started spitting rain on us. And before the entire group was up this obstacle, it started to snow rather heavily, making the rocks wet and slick. We all made it to the top of this obstacle, but it wasn’t without some excitement as Leona needed a little assistance to get over the top and a couple others flirted with rollovers as they slid around on the wet rocks.

We arrived at High Dive, the first extreme obstacle on the trail. It is a very steep decent about 30-40 feet long over very large boulders. It was still snowing and fairly cold but we decided this was a good spot for lunch as different members of the group debated lines and considered whether they would tempt fate. Only one person in our group, Brian, decided to challenge High Dive, but did so with a winch attached to the rear of his Jeep so as not to slide down uncontrollably. Taking his time and being very careful, he made the trip down easy enough. The rest of us took the bypass which was merely hard and not insanely difficult.

High Dive is followed immediately by Upchuck, a near-vertical climb about 5 feet tall straddling a large crack. Only Stan and I attempted Upchuck. Stan was successful after some stacking of rocks, but my wheelbase was just too short and the rocks too wet for me to get my rear tires on the rock.

As we continued on, the weather began to clear off. By the time we reached Balcony Arch and Picture Frame Arch, it was partly cloudy and was warming up some. After some pictures, we made our way to the next obstacle, Hummer Hill. This was a very steep dome shaped rock that only a 4door JK and Stan in his ZJ attempted. Both were successful and enjoyed the ensuing adrenaline rush! The pictures simply don’t do justice to the steepness of this rock!

The next obstacle is called Rollercoaster. It is two steep, downhill plunges where most vehicles would lose traction and slide down some small length of the rocks. Fortunately the descents are not too long and there is plenty of room to land at the bottom. From here we took a long detour around White Knuckle Hill.

We circled back around and were able to come out at the bottom of this hill to see why it is deemed White Knuckle. Again, pictures don’t do justice to the 6-foot plus straight vertical drop of this obstacle. It’s extreme and we were glad we bypassed it.

It was getting late so we turned around here and did some backtracking to a turnoff that would take us to a county road instead of continuing down Hunters Canyon. There were a few sporadic obstacles along the way to make things interesting. We were very late getting out of the trail and back into town, but the majority of the group decided to stop in at Pasta Jay’s for dinner. No one left there hungry.

[Part 1: Beginning to High Dive][Part 2: High Dive & Upchuck]
[Part 3: Upchuck to Rollercoaster][Part 4: Rollercoaster to end]

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