Report RME Trip to Colorado; 21 Road and Billings Canyon

I had the pleasure of showing a handful of RME friends the challenging trails around Grand Junction this weekend, this trip was brought up in the '2017 Wheeling Goals' thread by Jinx. We ended up with a perfect sized group of 5 rigs, all built with enough capability to run these trails, but still challenge the drivers.

We met up on Friday mornings, ready to run 21 Road (aka Hunter Canyon). 21 Road is a favorite of mine, it's the reason I first visited Western Colorado back in 2001 and part of the reason I live here now! The canyon is massive, scenic and very beautiful... especially this time of year with all the green trees and foliage! Our group consisted of Carl Whitmore in his TJ on 35's (ILean on here), Jason Dalley and his wife (pile of parts) in the Orange CJ/YJ7 on 38's, Mike Strange (drstrange) in the black TJ on 35's, Chris and Charlene in the XJ on 35's (JPMoab on here) and finally Glen (GER4x4) in the awesome stretched YJ on 40" Nitto tires.

Little Backstory... The Grand Mesa Jeep Club has adopted 21 Road, what most people don't know if how close this trail came to being closed not long ago. An endangered Toad was found living in the canyon and the BLM was considering shutting down motorized travel in the canyon, but with some creative efforts and the Grand Mesa Jeep club adopting the Toad as well, it remains open for all to enjoy. The GMJC also re-routed the 4x4 trail out of the wash and around a natural spring where tadpoles that grow into the Toad are most prevalent. The re-route is signed and blocked and the part of the trail that is bypassed doesn't have any challenging obstacles, so there is really no loss. Without the creative work from the GMJC, 21 Road and the Toad are both protected and make a great example showing other clubs how to overcome trail challenges!


Drove to the staging area, unloaded and headed into the mouth of the canyon, dropping into the bottom of the wash right away. The lower part of 21 Road is mostly mild, but there are a handful of places where there are massive boulders that you have to drive around/over/thru in order to continue. Everyone carefully picked their lines, some leaving paint behind, others getting caught up on diffs and skid plates. There was a bit of water trickling down the canyon, making for even less traction in the parts you needed it the most!














Chris and the Cherokee were having a hard time getting between 2 of the bigger rocks, he ended up squeezing thru a hole that was less than XJ width and had the drivers front tire 3-4' up in the air... then after moving forward just a few inches, the Jeep rocked forward, the opposite tire come off the ground and the drivers side upper door and roof smashed into the big rock, causing a decent bit of damage!





















The re-route around the protected area for the 21 Road Toad...

We made it to the overhang and took a break for lunch, enjoying the shade and cooler air... it was pretty warm in the sun, so this was a welcomed break!












After lunch, a few of the guys decided to play on a optional route as you exit the overhang... I think everyone that went thru the optional route ended up leaving paint behind and gathering some scratches!










Someone else left a trophy.... or a warning?

From this point, the trail gets tighter and the rocks get bigger... this is where the real fun starts!

Carl found a great natural suspension-test... Mike's TJ with the rear ORI Struts was like a slinky, keeping all 4 tires on the ground! Stable and flexy, it was pretty impressive to see working...



















We made it to Carnage Corner, with some of the biggest boulders and obstacles that left little in the way of good options... most everyone in the group need a little winching, tugging and a lot of careful driving and spotting. It was pretty challenging, but we all made it thru with some careful work.

We had reached the end of 21 Road, but there were still some crazy optional challenges that the big-tire'd rigs decided to play on.... it was impressive to watch both Jason and Glen work their way over these massive off-camber obstacles with huge holes and even bigger rocks! Both cruised right thru with minimal trouble!





















From there we climbed out of the canyon bottom into the Bookcliffs, thru the maze of oil field roads and down 16 Road and back to pavement. We drove thru the farmland in Fruita back to the trailers and loaded up around 4 PM.

On the way into town, Carl had a new vibration and found that the front driveshaft had taken a beating on the trail and a front axle shaft u-joint had spit out a cap as well. We spend the evening back at my place getting Carl's TJ ready for the next day on Billings canyon. Carl replaced a u-joint in the driveshaft and axle shaft, finding that the new caps were a bit loose so we got out the welder and tacked the caps in place as a last-minute fix to keep the joint & shafts together. Don't mind the shorts or safety-sandals worn while welding...

https://greg-catherine.smugmug.com/Travel/21-Road-RME-Trip/i-9mPSGPd/A

Man that looks like a way cool trail.

BlueWolfFab said:

Man that looks like a way cool trail.

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It's fun, very difficult and can really be testing... since it's in a sandy wash, there is a lot of gravel, sand & water that gets on the rocks and tires making you slid off your line and get hung up. Bigger tires and taller vehicles tend to have an easier time for this reason, IMO. The chance for sheetmetal damage is high, so if you want to run 21 Road and you have a lot of body you need to be OK with the idea of getting some pretty serious carnage. I was curious how our group would do, since 3 of the rigs were full-bodied on 35's.... we did better than I expected, but I think everyone got more damage than they expected/hoped.

On Saturday we met a little earlier and headed to the Billings Canyon trail head, it was overcast and there were dark clouds that were threatening rain. We unloaded, headed to the start of the trail, passing a large group of people at one of the parking areas. It ended up being The Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO), in conjunction with National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC), Colorado State Parks and Wildlife, the US Forest Service, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of a three day workshop on trails, and trail building. Jeff Bates from the Grand Mesa Jeep Club was showing the group Billings Canyon trail, as they also have adopted and done a massive amount of work managing this trail. There were probably around 50 officials checking out these trails.... now we just need to convince them that there is a need for more challenging 4x4 trails here in Western Colorado!

The first half of Billings isn't to terribly challenging and if you think this is all it offers you, you will be very surprised and caught off guard once you get to the real difficult sections that lie ahead! I love the signage on Billings, it spells out the needed equipment, warns you where the trail boundaries are and they also recommend not to stack rocks in order to maintain a challenging route.

From this point on, the trail gets much harder. I've made the line on the far right (looking downhill) and suggested Carl give it a try... it was just too much for a TJ on 35's to bite off. Carl then attempted the far left and scooted right up, even though it looked less possible. A careful turn around the massive hole and he went up! The other guys followed this line, since it worked so well. It was fun to see how the different rigs went up the same line.

I dig this shot... shows you how difficult the trail is, rock after rock while climbing up the wash.






















it was awesome to watch! My pics don't do this ledge justice, you can't see how big it really is!

We made it to the biggest ledge, to see Jeff Bates and the massive crowd of COHVCO folks watching Jeff climb the ledge in his Willys Buggy on 42's. They all applauded as Jeff bounced up the huge, undercut rock ledge! Our group was making fast work of the trail and Carl was first in our group, continuing to move towards the big ledge. Carl asked for a spot over a massive, off-camber hole so I focused on that and not taking photos... we got over the hole, then lined up on the big ledge and Carl crawled right up in his TJ on 35's, resulting in another round of applause from the huge group of spectators! One by one, the first 3 rigs on 35's climbed right up the ledge with me spotting, each one earning a well-deserved round of applause... it was quite the sight!


















From this point there were some small challenges, then back to the dirt road and the trailers!
















We were back to the parking lot around 11 AM, not bad at all for how challenging Billings is! We had a great group, capable rigs and experienced drivers which made all the difference!



If you're interested in running these trails and many more around Western Colorado, you should check out the Rock Junction Event coming up soon, May 30th thru June 2nd, 2017. - https://www.gmjc.org/rock-junction

Event Registration - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grand-mesa-jeep-clubs-rock-junction-2017-registration-32984802432

The Grand Mesa Jeep Club, based out of Grand Junction, Colorado, is located in a very unique setting for 4-wheel drive adventure loving enthusiasts. Within an hour and a half are some of the most spectacular scenic trails and some of the most extreme rock crawling trails in the United States of America. With that in mind, the club created Rock Junction -- a trail-riding event highlighting our area.

For this event, expect to find yourself not necessarily trail riding in Grand Junction every day. Explore places like Unaweep Canyon, Gateway, Bangs Canyon, Montrose, the Book Cliffs, Rangely, Moab, and the various trails around the Grand Valley. Each night there is a post-trail event to eat and tell tall tales of the days adventures. Wake up the next morning and you're off to a new location for a fantastic day of wheeling!

Rock Junction is a 3 day event. Participants drive their own 4WD vehicle on family-friendly group trail rides. Trail rides range from mild and scenic to extreme rock crawling. Each evening features a BBQ hosted by the Grand Mesa Jeep Club.



This event is permitted by the BLM and the USFS.

Rock Junction is also the home of the Rocky Mountain Offroad Expo (RMORE). The Expo gives you a chance to explore the product offerings from top name off road vendors, show off your own 4WD, and browse the swap meet to buy used parts or sell off all those parts collecting dust in your garage! See our RMORE EXPO page for more info.

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Nicely done trip report.

Here's the last time I was there. It's been a while.

https://www.rme4x4.com/showthread.php?44284-Memorial-Weekend-21-Road-amp-Billings-Canyon

It was an awesome trip. Thanks to Greg for being the Cruise Director.

drstrange said:

It was an awesome trip. Thanks to Greg for being the Cruise Director.

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Mike, it was great to meet you! Glad to do it, loved watching your TJ's suspension work on all the different obstacles.

Excellent. Really need to get out there.

RockChucker said:

Excellent. Really need to get out there.

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Get your crew together for a trip this Fall, I'll lead in exchange for a seat in your TJ! :greg:

What a great group! What a great trip! What great trails! Thanks, Greg, for taking the time to show us the way, running the entire time taking pictures and posting the report! Looking forward to checking out more trails in the area. Rock Junction is definitely in my sights.

I have video of Glen on the big ledge in Billings. Let me see if I can get it posted.

Greg

It was good to meet you. Thanks for being our guide and for all of the great photos. Seeing the photos may be just enough to get some more of our Moab friend interested in running these trails.

Glen

Man I should have been on this trip!!!

Moab was a blast but crowded.