Red Elephant Hill
The weather report for Denver said it was going to be 102 degrees. This is a day for the mountains, for sure. Bill Moore Lake, here we come! First we have to ascend Red Elephant Hill.
We aired down at our meeting point and headed up the hill. The climb up proved to be interesting. The first obstacle is getting very tippy and dug out quite a bit.
Dave went through first and found a nice rock to pose on. After testing his flex he went on through the tippy section. Jed was up next and saw Dave flexing, and he decided to do the same. After a couple of attempts, he managed to get his tire up.
After Jed negotiated the tippy spot, Mike was up next. He also wanted to flex his Jeep suspension, however he climbed a little higher than Jed and Dave and really showed off. After a quick picture, Mike drove on up through the tippy section.
Daniel was next, but he was stuck a little bit down the trail trying to get over a couple of well-positioned rocks. Jed headed down and spotted him through. Walt waited patiently next in line, and watched as Daniel breezed through the tippy section in his Bronco II.
Walt came up and had to back up a couple of times to get his Blazer up the tippy section. Micheal in his Cherokee drove up as though there was no obstacle there. Ed also breezed through with his 35" tires.
Gary was not quite paying attention and drove a little too close to the edge, and found that the dirt was very soft there. Backing up and driving a little farther from the edge got him through.
Continuing up the steep hill on this hot day proved to be rough on a couple of the older rigs as their engines were running a little on the hot side. In fact, every time we stopped Micheal and Daniel would open their hoods to let the engines cool off some.
The last obstacle on Red Elephant Hill proved to be a little tougher this year as well. Dave led the run on 33" tires and he scraped his belly pan while driving over the rocks. Jed also scraped but had no other trouble with the rocks.
Mike following Jed's line thinking that Jed was still on 31" tires, but he found out the rocks wouldn't let him through. Backing up and finding his own line, Mike drove on through.
Daniel could not find a good line even with Jed spotting. After a few minutes, Gary came up from the tail gunner position and noticed that Daniel had not let any air out of his tires. Airing his tires down to 15psi proved to be the magic needed to get Daniel through.
Micheal on 33" tires tromped right on through. Walt, however, needed a few tries before he bounced his Blazer between the rocks and through.
Ed, still sitting on 35" tires, again wondered where the obstacle was. Gary did have to try a couple of lines before piloting his CJ through.
After a wrong turn we found a good spot in the trees to eat lunch before heading on to Mill Creek and Bill Moore Lake. At least we had escaped the heat for a while.
Reports from Other Days: 7
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Red Elephant Hill. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
