Articles by wayoflife

The Black Mountain Wilderness is by far one of our most favorite destinations in the Mojave Desert as it is both beautiful and filled with rich history. During the late 1800’s, travelers would pass through the Black Mountains and make an overnight stop at Black Canyon Well on their way to the Panamint Range carrying needed provisions or back to Los Angeles with cargo of valuable silver ore. One of these travelers left his mark on several of the black volcanic rock faces indicating that he was “J. & A. Tillman” and that he was in this area on “Sep 3, 1874 San Francisco Cal”. Of course, well before the miners, Native Americans spent a vast amount of time in this area and left a stunning array of petroglyphs into the rock faces and some of which depict a herd of big horn sheep.

In addition to the countless boulders, ledges, trees, water crossings, mud, tippy rock faces and tight squeezes that you you have to tackle along the 17 mile length of trail known as the Rubicon, there are still plenty of optional obstacles that you can take on as well and one of the more famous ones is known as the “Soup Bowl”.

Approximately 31 mile in length, the Dusy Ershim is a hell of a trail that cuts through the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and straddles the John Muir and Dinky Lakes Wilderness. More than any rock garden to cross or ledge to climg, its excruciating length and slow going pace is truly what makes this a difficult trail.

The Dusy Ershim is a 31 mile long trail that cuts through the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and straddles the John Muir and Dinky Lakes Wilderness. It is an excruciatingly long trail that isn’t so much as difficult as it is relentless. In fact, in addition to the beauty you will find, one of the things that makes the Dusy so famous is the mile after arduous mile of squeezing your Jeep between closely planted trees. Now, I had always been told that a long wheel base vehicle couldn’t do this trail and from experience, I can tell you that nothing could be further than the truth. While length will make things more challenging, it is the width of your vehicle that’ll make it really tough.

Like many of the trails in Moab, Steel Bender is one that is rated “difficult” and is one that offers a lot of tough ledges to climb. In this Project-JK YouTube Video Highlight, you will see a few short clips that show a series of Jeep JK Wranglers (both 2-Door and 4-Door) climbing up a large optional ledge close to the beginning of the trail. This ledge is not only big but it’s also one that has soft sand at its base and does a fine job of kicking things up a notch. Lockers definitely help here but knowing how to “bump” your way up and maintain good throttle control sure makes a big difference as well.