Wyoming Road Trip Part Four - Off-Road Attempt to Avoid Traffic - 2015 Chevrolet Colorado Long-Term

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Wyoming Road Trip Part Four - Off-Road Attempt to Avoid Traffic - 2015 Chevrolet Colorado Long-Term Road Test

We decide to parallel the clogged interstate via a sandy trail in the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado, but it doesn't go quite as planned.

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quadricycle

Traffic stinks, but you made the right call. No recovery equipment, tires that aren't the most aggressive or aired down, those temperatures, and a young one can conspire to make a bad situation even worse. You didn't mention if you had plenty of water, but that's important too.

Honestly, it doesn't look like anything that I wouldn't do in, say, a Subaru Outback. Though only if I had some basic self-recovery tools and plenty of water with me.

darthbimmer

Agree with @quadricycle on this one. As an experienced offroader, part of me scoffs that you wimped out and turned back from a trail that I'd have few worries about crossing in my 4x4, but part of me knows you made the wise choice given your street-biased rig, lack of emergency tools/supplies, and unprepared passengers.

stever

I tried a shortcut to San Felipe in Baja one year and missed the turn-off to the dry lake bed. Wound up having to drive a quarter mile in reverse to get back to some hardpack. My neck was stiff for a week from looking over my shoulder.

Being in a rental Neon didn't help any.

I learned from my CJ-5 I got new in '74 that all 4WD does is get you stuck further from the asphalt.

@quadricycle, I tried a short section of the Medano Pass Road in Great Sand Dunes in my '97 Outback one year but chickened out before the first picnic area. The ranger didn't really discourage me, but did mention the $400 towing fee, lol.

The guys who crawl around Moab in their Crown Vics are a hoot.

ahightower

I bet, alone, you would have aired down and gone for it. Good call avoiding the this story for the rest of your life from the Mrs. though...

kirkhilles1

Agreed. This isn't some $5k dedicated off road vehicle that you use to go "mudding" with some friends and support nearby. This is a $35k vehicle designed to haul couches and dirt and other stuff, but remain on the road. This wasn't the time, nor the place nor the vehicle to do that. Correct call.

csubowtie

I bet the Colorado would have made it just fine. In todays society we often forget just how capable our vehicles are. Look at India or the Middle East for example. We worry about putting a couple pieces of furniture into a truck. They load the thing to the point it's 12 ft tall and twice as wide, then put six people on top as passengers, and drive on roads that would make that trail look like the autobahn. Probably the right call with the wife and 4 year old aboard. BUT I challenge you guys to go back there, maybe take the Ram, F-150, and Jeep with you.

quadricycle

stever said:

@quadricycle, I tried a short section of the Medano Pass Road in Great Sand Dunes in my '97 Outback one year but chickened out before the first picnic area. The ranger didn't really discourage me, but did mention the $400 towing fee, lol.

The guys who crawl around Moab in their Crown Vics are a hoot.

Have you seen Expedition Portal's experiment with a used, somewhat modified '03 Forester? It is neat to see how far a little ground clearance and AWD gets you. An Outback would be better than a Tacoma for me 95% of the time, but sometimes a little "just in case" capability is nice. Quite the conundrum.

And I've seen those guys in Moab! Obviously there will be limitations, but good on them for making people realize that a lifted F-250/RR/LC/JK etc is often overkill.

stever

Heh, we did quite a few marginal forest service roads and scenic byways in the old minivan and had the oil pan scars to show for it.

And it was always entertaining to pop up a "road" in Idaho around the Magruder Corridor area and see the big rigs as we crept up the "4WD Only" signs in our Outback.

My sister is running an '05 Forester into the ground. Maybe I should call dibs on it for desert duty out here.

And it was hard to beat my old SuperBeetle in Anchorage for going just about anywhere, especially up glaciated driveways in the winter.

socal_eric

Depending if you're headed back towards the coast/LA or south towards SD this might be a few more miles (about the same for SD and ~50 miles longer to LA/OC), but just after the state line turn and head south through Cima and Kelso in the Mojave National Preserve, then south past the I-40 into Amboy, then cut down to I-10 via SR-62.

If you're returning on a Sunday or the last day of a long weekend you'll bypass the entire I-15 into the IE. Bonus, even though the two-lane roads can be rough in spots the alternate route is a fun drive, nice scenery, the Kelso Depot makes a nice stop if it's open and there aren't too many park rangers.