Pennsylvania Gulch

Trail Run on July 3, 2017
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader

Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Gray 2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

We rarely do the same trail more than once per season, but sometimes it just makes sense. We wanted to do Pennsylvania Gulch once, but you have to do half of Switzerland Trail to do it. We could either do only half of Switzerland Trail and only do Pennsylvania Gulch once, but we decided to do it twice so we could see all of Switzerland Trail. We did Pennsylvania Gulch first on July 2nd, and then again on the 3rd. Luckily, it's a fun trail.

We went through the town of Sunset and saw a UTV coming toward Pennsylvania Gulch, but when we got there they went by us and into Sunset. We started up Pennsylvania Gulch on our own. It was sunny, with better weather than the trip up the hill the day before. Monica's first-timer passenger, Amanda though it was pretty nuts but fun.

Holly had the chance to try it once without lockers the day before, and then tried it with lockers the second day. She had a much easier time and didn't slide around at all the second day, though she made it up just fine the first day, too. It was a good and informational experiment.

We had a blast up the hill, and then stopped for a break in the clearing. Just then, a stock Jeep went by us to go down the hill. Luckily, we stopped him before he went down it in the wrong direction. We didn't know how he'd back up the obstacles if he ran into someone else coming up, so it was lucky we were there (and lucky we didn't run into him on the way up).

It was a good day, and we had an early dinner on the patio at the Stage Stop in Rollinsville (always a favorite). We were back at the Kelly Dahl Campground in the early evening, and we didn't stay up too late. We all headed home in the morning. It was a great long weekend of wheeling and hanging out in the woods.

Reports from Other Days: 3

Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Pennsylvania Gulch. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.

July 2, 2017

Led by Monica I.

Even though this is a one-way trail, we still get nervous about oncoming traffic because it’s not physically marked at the top. We got lucky and had the trail to ourselves, though. We did the southern half of Switzerland Trail to get to the Pennsylvania Gulch trailhead and headed uphill….