The 3rd Annual Arizona Land Rover Rally was a great success. Seventy vehicles met in Tucson, Arizona March 6th and 7th at the Hilton Tucson East for two days of trail driving. Land Rovers came from as far away as British Columbia, Canada to enjoy the sunny skies and warm February weather in southern Arizona. We brought along our 8 year old niece to ride in the Dormobile.
Tucson has a mountain ranges in each of the four cardinal directions, and there were trails to run in three of them. To the north, one of the most famous difficult trails in the western USA is Charouleau Gap, which attracts hardcore four wheelers from all over the continent. To the east, trails like Chivo Falls and Chimney Rock are more on the moderate side. To the south, the trails are a little easier.
Temporal Gulch is one of the trails to the south, in the Santa Rita Mountains. This
trail was led on Saturday by Chuck Powell. Since Chuck has two young girls of his own and does family friendly trails, we chose to go with him. We ended up having nine kids under the age of ten and six dogs. Seven of the children were girls, so we dubbed them “The Rover Divas”, and are working on a
T-shirt for the girls. The trail was easy, but had more than 20 water crossings. Water crossing are rare and well appreciated in southern Arizona.
We were joined on the trail by four Discovery's, a Freelander, an LR3, an LR2 and Chevy Blazer masquerading as a Range Rover. The owner of the Blazer had posted a picture of his Range Rover on the back window with the note, “In the Shop.” We were glad to have him on our trail. He reminded all of us we do have the Best 4X4XFar.
Lunch was served after one of the longer crossings, next to a beautiful slot side canyon. The kids all disappeared up the canyon, and we had to climb it to go find them. Our niece fell in th
e water and got soaked, but the Arizona sun soon dried her out.
After a lot of Rover talk, we hit the trail and headed farther up the canyon. We stopped at an old copper mine. The mine tunnel went back about 200 feet, but we only went back about 30 feet before turning around. It was a little creepy and old mines can be very dangerous. None of the kids went all the way back, but a few adults made it to the back and said you could see a seam of copper in the ceiling.
After the mine we hit the trail again. Up near the top, we encountered two real cowboys on horseback. They had just herded 350 head of cattle from upper to lower pasture, which we were driving through. They told us someone had not been able to open the gate, so they just cut it. It is a shame people are not respectful of the cattle rights on Forest Service Land. They asked us to please make sure we closed the gate when we went through. Of cours
e, we did.
At the top of the gulch, we stopped to overlook the canyon. What a view, complete with a waterfall. At this stop one of the dogs, aptly named Rascal, decided to get under our Dormobile. Much to his owner's chagrin, he got gear oil on his white hair.
Overall it was the best random group of people we had ever been on a trial with and made for a great day. After the trail we headed back to the hotel. On our way back we had to go through a Border Patrol checkpoint. Usually, you are greeted with stern and suspicious looks from the agents. This time they were excited to see Kelly in what would normally be the driver's seat. They kept saying, “This is my favorite one of them all.” Evidently, we were not the first group of Rovers to go through the checkpoint.
That night at the hotel we met up with all the other Rover owners for the rally dinner an
d raffle. Our group from the trail sat at adjoining tables, and we were by far the rowdiest during the raffle. Lots of tickets were purchased, because the top prizes were four different winches, Powertanks, and tons of gift certificates for various rover suppliers.
The next morning, we lined up first in line for the trail led by Bill Burke up to Gunsight Pass. Bill was in the 1991 Camel Trophy to Tanzania and Burundi. I am very uncomfortable with driving the Dormobile. I have never driven a standard transmission as a daily driver, so the idea of double clutching is very intimidating. With our Range Rover I always drove. After a conversation with Bill the night before, I decided the best way to get comfortable driving the Dormobile off-road was to have Bill Burke spotting me, so I drove. Bill was awesome, he helped me feel totally comfortable and soon had me doing things James would have been afraid to do in the Dormobile. It was also so impressive to see how he handled the
over-testosteroned members of the group. I think we learned as much about trail leadership as we did about driving.
The trail is in an area that will probably be closed in the next few years. A local mining company is trying to open a new mining operation in this area. They own many of the roads we drove on, and those roads are littered with interesting minerals. James said at one point, while I was driving up one particularly steep section, fighting for control, I had the wherewithal to say, “Hey, look! The rocks in the road are copper ore!” I am a total rockhound. It was difficult for me to concentrate on the driving in such a rich ore area.
On the trail with us was Bill in his D90, four Discovery's, a Range Rover Classic, an LR3, and a Defender 110. As we headed up the trail, our first obstacle was a huge mud puddle, immediately followed by a large hill climb. I climbed it pretty easily with the Dormobile. The interesting thing we noticed after the hill climb, was our Dormobile was least muddy of all the vehicles after the mud puddle. Bill proceeded to tell everyone how that was a good thing, since there could have been a large rock hidden by the water, so you should go through at a slow speed.
Next we headed up Lopez Pass and took a break to enjoy the view. Then over to Gunsight Pass where we were going to have lunch, but it was very windy. So, we headed down into a gully at the base of mine tailings. On the way, the LR3 busted a tire. Those stock tires are no match for the Arizona rocks.
After lunch we headed down the mountain where we encountered a pretty rough obstacle. It was so interesting to watch our vehicle bounce all over the place and lumber through. Then to watch the Discovery's lose a little traction and come through, then the LR3, no problem at all. It was a clear illustration of how far Land Rover has come, and these are amazing vehicles.
After this we visited an old ghost town, Helvetia, which was not much more than some old adobe ruins. Then we all headed toward home.
The rally was a fun time. It was able to accommodate every Rover owner's needs, from the hard-core off-roader to our family-friendly experience. A great time was had by all.
I certainly had fun!
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