Truck or Treat and 16 Road to 21 Road

By Jerry Smith

October 26, 2013

No, you read it right.  “Truck or Treat” is an annual event put on in Fruita, CO where trucks, cranes, emergency vehicles, and tractors are the featured items that families (primarily the kids) come to see and “experience”.

No fun could be found in "Driving a Jeep"

What kid wouldn’t want to climb into the driver seat and pull the cord on an air horn in a class 8 truck? 

"Tooting" an air horn

Or they can go into the back of an ambulance, sit in the backseat of a police car, play in a cattle hauler trailer -- (no Bull Shtuff) or see one of the airport fire trucks up close.

Two "Desperadoes" 

Truck cranes with their booms up, a Grand Valley Power “bucket truck” showing the heights they may go to, and City of Fruita trucks were all on display.  Even school busses could be gone through.

"Little Farmers" 

Add some Halloween candy and how can you go wrong if you are young?

Well, this year the Grand Mesa Jeep Club, Colorado’s 2013 “Jeep Club of the Year”, took over nearly one city block displaying Jeeps and buggies and offering the kids candy as well.  It was an awesome sight.

The Grand Mesa Jeep Club at "Truck or Treat"

Kids, candy, and 4-wheelers 

16 Road to Upper 21 Road

With all the excitement of the Truck or Treat, one would think that would conclude the Saturday festivities… but that would be wrong. The 2013 Colorado “Club of the Year” hates to waste a good opportunity to go into the great American BackCountry.

A short trip into the Bookcliffs north of Grand Junction had been planned.

The Bookcliffs are a land of strange looking desert mountains topped with cliffs that resemble a shelf of books from a distance.  Nearly 200-miles long, the Bookcliffs begin in the northern De Beque Canyon and run through the Grand Valley following the I-70 corridor west to Green River, Utah where they turn north to Price, Utah.

Several dark canyons cut through the face of the Bookcliffs, some with large “bowl” watersheds hidden from view.  These “bowls” are homes to several species of wildlife including; mountain lions, bears, bobcats, coyotes, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, wild horses, bighorn sheep, and bison.

Three of "Red Jeeps" in Coal Gulch

Mainly due to the existence of great quantities of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, many roads enter into these canyons and up on the ridges providing great exploration of the area in a Jeep or other 4x4.

Taking 16 Road north will eventually bring you into the Big Salt Wash as it exits the BookCliffs.  Further up the wash the road forks, and as you who are familiar with this writers’ practices, “when you come to a fork in the road, Take It!

“Right turn Clyde.”  

Soon we were skirting the end of the ridge that is the front of the BookCliffs and entered Coal Gulch that is directly behind this ridge. 

About halfway along the canyon road, Aaron’s YJ developed fuel delivery problems.  As tail gunner, I stopped to see if there was anything we could do to get them up and running. 

After a bit, he got it to run just well enough to turn around and head for town.  We would later hear that they were still running, though weakly, as Zane and Dale passed them on their way to catch-up to the group.

The road winds along the bottom of the gulch for miles before offering another fork in the road.

Technically, this fork is the beginning of a loop that starts and ends here, but we took the steeper road up onto Ross Ridge.  Several gas wells and their facilities dot the area with pads and short spur roads to each of them.

Sometimes we shift into "2-foot drive"

Following one such road, we came near the southern end of Ross Ridge overlooking Hunter Canyon… better known as 21 Road to our group.

21 Road is a nationally known “extreme trail” that draws people from all over the country to Grand Junction to try their buggies and driving skills. 

21 Road has a reputation for having flash floods that literally alter the trail from time to time.  This potentially makes it an unknown and different challenge every time you run it.  Nearly from the mouth of Hunter Canyon you are presented with one obstacle after another that will challenge you and your rig.

21 Road is known for many “rescue runs” to either bring needed parts to do trail repairs or for bringing a broken rig out by strap(s). 

People try to do this trail in stock or near stock Jeep Rubicons.  Many make the trip in and back out with big smiles and great pride… until they find bent axles, twisted frames, and “rock rash” were the ultimate outcomes.  Sometimes, the “automatic reject feature” of a trail is slow to materialize.

Three of these Rubicons that we know of were replaced not long after their experience on 21 Road.  The cost of repairing them was much too high to justify.

Most of our group hiked up to the overlook on the point of Ross Ridge where you look out over the Grand Valley.  Unfortunately, the air quality was rather poor spoiling the view.

Returning from a hike on Ross Ridge 

After turning around 14-rigs, we followed the road that drops you down into the upper end of Hunter Canyon up stream of the most challenging extreme obstacles. 

The steep road presents very sharp hairpin turns that were fairly challenging and fun.  Two of the hairpins were tight enough that even CJ7s had to back-up for a second attempt to make the turn.  Many fear turns like these while others approach them as just another “bump in the road”.

Sharp "Hair-pin" turns have you meeting those ahead of you. 

Not far from reaching the canyon bottom we found a long, wide, and flat spot that made for a good “Kodak Moment”.  Even with an extreme wide-angle lens, we had too many rigs parked side-by-side to get all in the one shot and not run the far end into oblivion. 

The Grand Mesa Jeep Club in Hunter Canyon (21 Road) 

From this parking area, most of the group walked to the overlook of the extreme obstacles down stream.  This view is quite awesome with no buggies in sight.  With one or more buggies in these boulders, it is hard to understand how they do what they do.

GMJC members looking at the upper extreme obstacles of 21 Road

Along the way back to the parking area, some were walking up the wash bottom when we encountered lion tracks.  These appeared to be from a medium size cat and became the discussion point for a while.

Sighting bear tracks in this canyon is fairly common.  Most of the Hunter Canyon area is quite steep and animals will use the road in the bottom as they move through.

Exiting the backcountry, it was decided that many of us would meet at “Munchies” in Fruita for dinner. 

Picturesque and steep canyon walls of Hunter Canyon

Not long thereafter, several of us were enjoying some good food and even better camaraderie.  It’s no wonder that the Grand Mesa Jeep Club is also the Colorado 2013 “Club of the Year”.

This turned into a really good day of Jeeping and showing community support.

And of course one last thought to ponder;  “When you come to a fork in the road… Take it!!

Happy Trails.

Copyright Happy Trails 2013.  All rights reserved.