2018 Wrap Up - Part 1 - Winter 4x4 Jamboree and GolDome

[boyfester]

Wow, it's been since mid 2017 since I've posted a Trip Report. Seeing as it is already 2019, I thought I'd post up my amazing adventures that I was allowed to take back in 2018.

I attended the 4x4 Winter Jamboree in Sand Hollow OHV Park outside of Hurricane (pronounced 'Hurricun' to the locals), Utah last January 2018. On the drive out from Orange County, CA I decided to visit the old GolDome mill site (in the Mojave Desert) that had recently been desecrated by the Indecline group on Instagram. After some hours on Google Earth and clues left behind on their page, it wasn't too difficult to find. The artwork was really cool, but it was a shame to see what this rogue group did with a bunch of plasma cutters within the Mojave National Preserve.













I came here about five years ago and it was a really cool, old mill to visit. It really is a shame to see it vandalized so much.





I arrived in Hurricane a little early, so I decided to take a quick trip over to Toquerville Falls which is outside of town. The road was a little rough, but nothing really worth airing down for. Once I reached the falls, it was a sight to behold.



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[boyfester]

The first day of the Jamboree started with an amazing sunrise and tons of off-roaders. Rigs from stock to heavily modified showed up. And, of course, with the hundreds of Jeeps came the Jeep guys saying that the few Toyotas and Nissans that showed up would have problems at this Jamboree. It was really fun showing all of them what the 5th Gen was able to do. I can't tell you how many times I heard "I can't believe where that Toyota went today."



I signed up for the Bzzackwards Trail with a rating of "4" and it was great, except for the waiting. And there was a LOT of waiting. IMO they allowed too many rigs on this leg, but as I found out, this is kind of the norm with Jamborees. We stopped a ton for each and every obstacle. At one point, we stopped for 2 hours to let another group go by in the opposite direction. Many of us were frustrated.



This was only half of our group. We had about 22 rigs in our group and so did the other group that we met going the opposite direction a few hours later.

























Instead of complaining to the Trail Leader, which would amount to nothing, I met another guy in a Lexus who was unhappy too. That night we met a local guy at a pizza place and he gave us a bunch of gpx routes of the area. It was then that we opted to bail out of the Jamboree. We had already paid our dues and the fees were going to a good cause of keeping the trails open, so we more than happy to leave and free up some space on the trails for the other attendees. With the help of the local gent, we ended up creating our own routes for the next two days throughout southwestern Utah.

 

[boyfester]

Friday's adventure started at 8am as we headed to the Barracks Trail. The Barracks is open year round and throws a little bit of everything at you: water crossings, sand, steep hill climbs/descents, private ranches, pin-striping, and, best of all, kick ass views of Utah's red walled mountains. I highly recommend dropping the membership fee at Trails Offroad to get the gpx tracks and all of the campsites. It's worth it! Anyway, we took pavement about 30 mins east to Hildale, UT and fueled up. Hildale is the home of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints where plural marriage is still practiced. Hats and shirts were on sale at the local gas station.





The scenery is amazing as soon as you hit dirt. All of the photos below are from the Barracks Trail throughout the day.



















With the two of us, we covered over 100 miles in the same amount of time that it took us to do 7 miles the previous day. We had a great time and were ready for the next day covering many of the same miles that 4XOverland did in the Aug/Sept 2017 issue of 4WD Toyota Owners Magazine. I had replied to the author of the story and he shared all of his gpx tracks with me via gaiagps.com.

 

[boyfester]

Saturday was a long day and so we started early. We were going to go from Hurricane to Grafton, then to Smithsonian Butte, before heading south to Hurricane Cliffs, and back up to Hurricane. The morning also started pouring rain and I was a newbie when it came to driving in Utah clay in the rain. It was scarier than driving on black ice at night. A couple of times I almost wiped out when driving through some deep ruts.

The morning started at the Grafton cemetery where we aired down and took some photos in the pouring rain.











Some stacked chair art in Grafton. Weird.



We left and began to ascend the mountain of Smithsonian Butte when the temperature dropped below freezing and it began to snow. It was really nice as it provided some traction instead of sliding all over the place with the wet clay. It was really cool seeing the red tire tracks in the white snow.







Up next was the drive south towards the Hurricane Cliffs. This was the same route the 4XOverland Toyota guys drove. The trail was full of yellow flowers and lava rocks. Very cool to see!







Next up was the descent down the Hurricane Cliffs. This was sketchy as it was wet and slippery and only a couple of pathways to go. We ended up spotting each other through this section instead of getting any photos.

The drive from the cliffs back to Hurricane was really nice and muddy.







The trail ended at the trailhead to the Sunshine Trail.





At the end of the day, we again covered almost 100 miles in about 7 hours. It was a killer day made better by making new friends and enjoying some tasty bbq at the end.