Project-JK NorCal Niagara Rim OHV Jeep Trail 2008

For our fourth and final Project-JK Norcal 2008 summer run, we decided to head up to the Niagara Rim OHV trail which is located deep in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, east of Modesto and near to the Sonora Pass. Of the 10 Jeep JK Wrangler's we had in our group (three 2-door and seven 4-door), most were slightly to moderately built up and one was bone stock with street tires. Of the drivers we had, most had some wheeling experience but never on the kind of terrain they would be seeing and a couple were in fact total newbies. At just a little over 6 miles in length, Niagara Rim is a relatively short trail that normally would take about 3 hours to complete but soon after we started the trail, it became clear to us that we wouldnt be getting back to camp until the end of the day. Because Niagara Rim is a "difficult" rated trail, we did make it a requirement that everyone had to have front and rear tow hooks and as it would turn out, they were very much needed and more than once. Throughout the day, we made our way up, down and across obstacles such as "No Way Out", "Hard Break Hill", "Sidewall Suicide" and ended our day playing around at the "Lion's Butt" which is about the closest thing to Moab I have seen here in California. The next day, most of our group headed home leaving only 3 Jeeps including ours to run the "Rock Pile" . Essentially the Rock Pile is a huge granite play area with all kinds of crazy route that will test your Jeep and your nerves to the limit and we did just that and had a great time at it too.