Where was your Willys today?

Those are some goat trails! I’m glad I live in relatively flat land.
How many miles would you say you traveled in that time?
 
If there was an annual award for best day trip, one tailor made for the Willys wagon that just might require the always carried survival gear, I would submit this one. I like this better than Moab as you are actually going somewhere and not so much rock crawling. Yours is probably my favorite wagon with just the right amount of age showing and correct kit. Beautiful pictures. Thanks for taking us along.
 
If there was an annual award for best day trip, one tailor made for the Willys wagon that just might require the always carried survival gear, I would submit this one. I like this better than Moab as you are actually going somewhere and not so much rock crawling. Yours is probably my favorite wagon with just the right amount of age showing and correct kit. Beautiful pictures. Thanks for taking us along.
This was probably a lot like some of the high pass routes in Colorado. There routes like this in the ranges of Nevada as well.

To be honest, when we set out yesterday I wasn’t sure the route went all the way over, at least not so far as it being passable for a Jeep like mine. When we started down the other side, we had only met three oncoming vehicles that had come up that way, and they were all quads. When I asked them if we could make it, they thought we probably could but cautioned about tight switchbacks. So we started down with some trepidation and walked the route ahead in several places, just in case.

If this route gets more popular, it will probably need to be made 1-way. There are many long stretches where, if vehicles met, it would require a long, unpleasant back-up for someone. As I was planning for the trip back down the way we came, I was making mental notes of places to have my son walk ahead to hold traffic while I came down. (Not that there was any, but just in case.

I would say this route is close to the comfortable limit for a stock wagon and may be right at the advisable limit for a pickup due to the switchbacks. I worry constantly about breaking an axle when climbing on roads like this with baseball and bowling ball sized “rollers.” I take it very easy, don’t let wheels spin, and stop to roll larger rocks out of the way.

Finally, I envision a day in the not too distant future when this route won’t be passable under normal circumstances to old stock jeeps. There are places where it is starting to erode into a bed of boulders, and it will likely end up a route for quads and rock rollers.
 
My DD Tacoma has some recall work going on and they couldn't initially get me a replacement that would carry the MTB's....so my wife and I used the Willys as the bikes just squeezed in the back and headed out to Hidden Mesa near Castle Rock, CO for some MTBing...I think I might still have some rain gutter roof rack tower mounts - but don't think they are tall enough to provide enough cross-bar clearance above the domed roof...

OK James. Looks good! Those are the exact aluminum wheels I got for my Jeep truck after I first got it painted. After about ten years I took them off and put on the steel white spoke rims because on the aluminum the base plate was nearly half an inch thick and the steel was only a quarter inch thick, so I had a much deeper bite on my lug nuts. So check that out before you go out any heavy-duty 4-wheeling.
 
i like your driver's door lock hasp on your pickup. I painted a Honda S-90 the same color candy-apple lime green in 1970.

Thanks Greaser, when I drove it to work (mostly on snow or ice days) they started calling Jeep 'Kermit The Frog'
The driver door lock works but the key got so old and worn down I got tired of fiddling with it and put on the hasp.
 
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