Slant Ranch / Red Rock Canyon

Well this is the second time I am doing this. The first time my email barfed and lost it all.

Friday morning I left for red Rock and Ricardo campground. Arrived around 11 and while setting up camp, met David from Texas who had a Rubi with 32's, 2" lift and ARB's front and rear, plus winch.
He was interested in 4 wheeling in the area. I suggested he go with me later after I did some scouting. Left for SRR around 1 and took the trail to the left. I wanted to see how far you could go past the turnaround point and check the side trails for any fun. Found a new side trail on the right, a short ways up. It had three nice waterfalls. After reaching the top, I hiked up the trail to see how far we could go. About 75 yards up, the trail narrowed with a really good waterfall. Not one a jeep could make, but a buggy could with some body damage. Beyond that it got more interesting.
Heading back down I went up SRR to the last waterfall. The trail had been used little. I also took a few washes out to the right and found you could bypass the last waterfall to get to the top.
After returning to camp I took David up the trail to the left. He had a great time. It took a few rocks and finding out his skidplate and rocker panels work to make it to the top. Just goes to show that you can make the trail with 32's, albeit with a little work.
Saturday morning Nova and I met up with Russ, David, Mike and Chris, Scott and Robb at Jawbone. The weather was a little nippy, but in the canyons it was great.
After airing down we headed up the trail to the left and took the new side trail up a few water falls and back down to the main trail. Everyone made it without any problems.
After arriving at the turnaround, Scott headed up the trail to look at the waterfall. He agreed it was not makeable by a jeep, unless you wanted to destroy the body. Rich, bring your buggy out.
After a short break we headed back down to SRR and headed up. Some had left a few bowling balls laying around and it looked like there was a bowling ball farm at the beginning of the trail.
We all made it up the first waterfalls and the rock on the side of the trail.
Nearing the end I wanted to try an new way up a rock pile and we had an interesting time getting over it. Mike posted a few pics. It was interesting and we all had a great time getting up it. Considering it was 11:30 we stopped for lunch before heading up to the last few waterfalls and the fun one at the end. The weather in the canyon was great - Tshirt weather. We all made it up the last waterfall, albeit there were a few interesting moments.
From there we headed out to the top and Nighmare Gulch Overlook trail. At the top we stopped for pictures. On leaving we had a few problems, including David's engine would not crank. Finding out he had an automatic, I remembered the time a few of us had fun (four plus hours) on Pumpkin Eater getting a jeep out with a broken neutral switch. I crawled under David's jeep and there it was hanging from the wiring. After plugging it back in we were on our way. The switch is very close to the front drive shaft and unless you tiestrap the wires away they will eventually get caught on the shaft and come unplugged or destroy the switch. For you auto guys I think it is a good idea to carry a spare.
After leaving the area we headed north along Last Chance rim looking for mines. We manged to find a few interesting ones, but not the one Mike knew was out there. We ended up not having enough time to continue looking and headed back to the 14 around 4.
I would like to plan another trip out there just looking for the mines. That would be a great trip in the Spring along with the other ones we want to do.
We arrived at the 14 around 4:30. They headed to Primo's for dinner and I headed back to camp for Margarita's and watching the playoffs.
The trip was a lot of fun with a good mixture of different trails.
Looking forward to going out there again.
If I missed anything, chime in.
Thanks for a great trip.

Comments from drivers.

I feel that this run is a run that everyone should do. I certainly always enjoy it. I would like to thank John for being an experience trail boss and prerunning several trails before we got there on Saturday. Maybe we can run this trail again soon so, other members can experience this wonderful run.

Mahalo, Russ

Thanks for a great run yesterday John!
Scott, Dave, Rob and Russ...thanks to you guys too; Chris and I had a great time.
To all who missed it... it was a bit windy and chilly when we were out in the open but that didn't happen very often. Here are a few photos from Slant Ranch.
Mike