Salida, Colorado

Imagine 350 different Jeeps and all the associated motor homes, campers and tents all in one big country field with a giant red & white “big top” tent at the center and you’ll be picturing what it looks like at the All 4 Fun 4x4 event in Salida. The event started Saturday with people from all around the US. We met great people from Tennessee, Minnesota, Florida, New Mexico, California and many other areas. It’s an eclectic mix of extremes between true rednecks and company executives – many here with their families to enjoy the sport of four wheeling in the mountains.

Each day during the event, the drivers sign up for one of 20 different trails with about 20 Jeeps per run. Each trail is rated – green (easy), blue (medium), black (hard) and double black (extreme – you’ll have body damage to your rig).

The first day we chose a blue (medium) trail taking us through St. Elmo & across Tincup Pass to the small remote town of Tincup. The trail itself was rather easy, but the scenery was beautiful and it was a good “warm up” for me since I haven’t done much four wheeling with Philip before.

We decided on a more challenging run for day two and went with a black (hard) level run called the Chinaman Loop. What a kick! We were in major rock crawling most of the day – in some cases climbing through sections with boulders bigger than the Jeep – better known as “obstacles”. I was amazed at the areas we made it through and loved the landscape and taking pictures of the mountain flowers along the way.

Tuesday we went with another black level run up to Grizzly Lake. This time there was one major obstacle at the beginning of the trail that took two hours to get 11 Jeeps up & over -- after that it was a rocky, but scenic tour up to the lake where we enjoyed lunch. Again, we met some great people on all three trails and truly enjoyed the beauty of the Colorado mountains. And it wasn’t half bad having some time just with Philip either!