We have now been here two weeks and in that time period, only 4 days were below 90 degrees. The majority was 93 and higher. The 4 days below were 88 and 89. Very warm, but the evenings do cool off (some with a breeze) so we have been very comfortable.
We have taken the Jeep Wrangler out a few times, and it has performed fantastically. One drive we took was over Montana Mountain, which is listed as a moderate to very rough 4 wheel vehicle drive. The drive itself is a loop just over 30 miles long, but it takes 4 hours to complete. The first part was easy enough for a two wheel drive vehicle to make, but once we got to "Side Road 650" which veers off, up and over the mountain, then routes back down to the highway, that road became narrow, steep (with many switchbacks), and extremely rutted. We climbed to over 5,000 feet and had panoramic views of the desert and mountains.
It isn’t advisable to travel on those roads alone, so we were with four other people who were in a ’99 Grand Cherokee that is lifted 2 1/2 inchs and has 32” tires and is definitely not stock (our Wrangler IS stock). There wasn’t anything on the drive that caused any of us any problems, so once we were down and just about back to the main highway, we decided to take off on another side road and go after a geocache. The geocache we were after was ONLY a couple miles up that side road, but that side road (#2359) was more of an ATV path than a real road. It honestly is one of the roughest roads I have ever been on!! We traveled back up to another mountain ridge (about a mile) then followed that narrow ridge for another mile to the cache. Most of that drive was narrow with sharp turns and very loose rock, plus many steep climbs and descents. In some areas the driver of the Grand Cherokee had to do some very keen maneuvering but he managed it with just some minor pin striping (scratches from brush). As I said earlier, we are in a stock Jeep Wrangler, but it does have skid plates and 30 inch tires, so we had no problems other than bouncing up the rocks instead of "crawling" over them (grin). Most of the drive Ken had the Jeep in 4wheel low range, and kept the gears mostly in second and third….BUT, during the very steep climbs and descents, we were in first gear just for the sheer power needed to get up and over. Boy, were we ever impressed on how that Jeep performed!!
These are just a few pictures to let you see exactily what we encountered. The first shot is some of what we were climbing. The second shows some of the steepness.
This next shot is what we came up!
This is the ridgeline. Very narrow and rough..... What a ride!!
After we got to the cache, we still had about 3 ½ miles to get back down and out to the main road. This side trip was also a loop drive, so we didn’t have to backtrack (which is always good). Again, the getting down was just as rough as what we traversed on the way up. We still had many ups and downs before we made it to the highway. All in all, that 4 hour drive turned into a 7 hour drive. Our treat after the drive was ice cream at Dairy Queen in the small town of Superior just to celebrate the trip and our surviving all in one piece (grin).
That adventure was a lot of fun, but the next time we go out, we won’t be stock!! Since the Wrangler is a 1993 and in its original condition (including original tires) Ken decided to order new tires (32” instead of the original 30”) and add a 3 1/2 inch lift kit. Along with the lift comes many changes which are too numerous to list here, but it is going to be fully loaded with what is needed on those "really ROUGH" trips. Once the tires and lift kit are installed, we will be able to go into some canyons where we have been wanting to go, but wouldn't because we didn't want to take our Grand Cherokee and get it all messed up. Basically, the Grand Cherokee is too long and too wide for many places we want to take the Wrangler.
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