On Saturday I went out with a bunch of guys from JK-Forum on a memorial day run of Slick Rock trail. This was in my JK, not the J10. Typically people think of Memorial day as being warm and sunny. That was not the case for us! We ended up battling a snow storm all day
Over all, it was fun. My wife got a bit scared in a few places. The trail is 3.5 miles long (Took us nearly 3.5 hours to get through it), and starts at around 7400ft and drops down to 6700ft elevation traversing large rock formations. The trail is typically not overly difficult, but being wet and snowy certainly added to that some. And per usual, I was the least modified one there. Basically just a budget boost and stock (32") size tires. Everybody else had 35's and 37's. But I managed to keep up just fine, except for one spot. There was a mud hole that had been dug down by somebody with pretty large tires. Even the guys with 35's barely made it. I got instantly high centered. So had to get pulled out of that.
The last obstacle is called the ladder. And is a rocky climb that was quite slick with the rain. I waited until last so that I could watch the lines other people were taking. The 4dr JK's certainly had a harder time. Their 116" wheelbase was not a help on this climb. And even the guys with 37's had to lock up their axles to make it. There was three other 2dr's there. Two TJ's and another JK. One TJ was in another group. It had 35's, F/R lockers, etc. But the driver was not very good. He barely made it. Took quite a while to finally get up it. The TJ in our group was a Rubicon with 35's. He had a bit of trouble but still made it ok. He did take out a valve stem part way up so had to climb to the top with a quickly deflating tire. The 2dr JK went just ahead of me. He had 35's and a detroit in back. He walked right up, no problem at all. So now it was my turn. I climbed up the lower section fine, which included two rocks that were about 3ft tall. Glad I have rock rails Then I got up to the steep part, which also turns. Got my front tires over a set of rocks, but this resulted in me almost lifting the front tire, and I do not have lockers. This is where I really have to hand it to the chrysler engineers. The JK's have what is called Brake Lock Differentials. This is basically where the computer detects a tire is spinning, and applies the brakes to that tire. This transfers the power to the other side. Thanks to this feature, I was able to climb up the rest of the way without having real lockers.
A lot of people bag on JK's, or newer Jeeps in general. But every time I go out, this Jeep does nothing but impress me in its ability to take on trails in nearly stock form.
Anyway, here are a few photos of the conditions. I did not get any of the actual trail however.
Here are a few of the last obstacle. The Black and Blue 4dr's are on 37's. None of me going up sadly