I did something stupid today...
Last August my wife and I visited Arches National Park and I was tempted to try the trail to Tower Arch - a "moderate" trail in the Funtreks books. But with no experience and stock wheels/tires I chose not to. Wise choice.
Today I was back and couldn't resist going for it this tie. That was stupid because I didn't know the trail, I was alone and it was already 1PM when I started (sunset at 5:30).
Far more rock obstacles than I ever imagined. No spotter. Stupid. It took me 2 hours to go three miles.
And my first significant damage on my LR4. Pic on the damage to follow but its not a huge deal. Just caught the right, rear bumper climbing up one obstacle in it pulled the right end of the bumper loose from the fender and the body. Darn. But it will heal with a money and/or elbow grease.
The fun part of the drive was about 10 miles of mostly sandy and sometimes a bit muddy trail with less challenging rock obstacles. Wow did this truck handle well! Much of the trail was through deepish gullies with one rut or the other much lower thus making the truck lean like a sailboat. Except for one very intimidating section where the left hand rut was so deep the tracks ran along the right side of the gully. But that side was only wide enough for the LR and about 2' to spare and it was leaning at about 30 degrees and it was a bit slick and muddy. So not only was I leaning crazily to the left, I could feel the truck beginning to lose its track and slip to the left would would have spelled disaster. But the truck held its line and we got through.
I finished about 30 minutes after sunset.
Anyway, here are a couple pics going over a couple of the rock obstacles. I have some GoPro vids as well but you can't always see from the videos how challenging the obstacles appeared to me. And I'll post a pic of the "damage" tomorrow.
BTW, if you have a spotter and your "lifted a couple inches and have good tires (my tires were fine but I could have used 2 more inches) it would be a great trail. Well, except for that one gully!