Off-Road Jeeping -Quartzsite Rally Part 2

Tuesday, an off-road ride to Dripping Springs, and on further to some mine was planned. Our jeep (TJ) is a simple stock, two-door, Jeep Wrangler Sport. Regular tires. No lift kit. I went and asked Ted and Daryl if this was a ride we should/could do. They agreed that there would be some challenging rock obstacles, but if we aired down and went slowly we should be OK. SHOULD be OK?!? Then they added that it actually makes it more fun if they have to stack rocks to help someone get up and over. The technical level is probably about a 3. Barry wanted to give it a shot.

The one good thing was that we didn’t have to dress as Precila did to go with Daryl in their razor. We put up our windows, turned the fan option to “inside air only” to have air, but NOT breathe in a lot of kicked up dust throughout the ride.

The narrows:

I was pretty nervous once we got to the rock obstacles. I couldn’t stay in the Jeep. Daryl and Ted were awesome at guiding Barry through and stacking rocks when necessary. Because our sway bar was still connected, our wheels weren’t able to move independently as they did on the other Jeeps. We also did not have an easy disconnect for it as the Rubicons have. Precila kept reminding me to breathe.

Videos:

Then comes more!! Ted and Nancy lead the way!

Then Nancy directs Lenny up and over. Easy peasy.

The mine:

Nearby Cabin:
Precila is readily welcoming visitors and taking fast food orders.

Grave of MOE

Once we reached the mine we headed back the same way we came.
Joy. Joy.

The Jeep WAVE! Go Barry!

I’m thinking that off-road Jeeping isn’t for me. Barry did great, but I think I’d rather let him go on this type of ride with others while I play pickleball –or do something else. 🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thursday’s ride was not going to be as technical and would be a spectacular view, so we decided to do it instead of the e-bike ride. Twice as many vehicles went on this ride. Evidently the dirt “road” was closed for some reason so our destination changed to another mine. We still went on the ride.

The high point of the day was seeing several wild horses. Unfortunately, those at the front of our off-roading caravan group were is such awe when the horses crossed in front of them, that they didn’t think to take pictures. Those of us near the end took pictures, but the horses were definitely in the distance now, resulting in nothing more than proof that there were horses.

The mine

There are all kinds of mines out in the desert, but I don’t feel a need to so to more.