Hosted by Eastern Washington Expeditions
Juniper Dunes Base Camp 4×4 Trip
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road
By Clay & Odo Graham / CegPics.com
The EWE Crew fueled up and headed from Selah towards Juniper Dunes around 6:00 PM of Thursday April 8th, 2021. We pulled into Smith Canyon at Juniper Dunes around 8:00 PM as it was getting dark. We set up camp and Odo made dinner in the camper.
Friday morning we found the driver side rear tire was flat. We aired it up and found the steel rim was cracked. Then the wind started blowing. Kevin (AKA TJ40) showed up around noon to camp with us. He and Charlie worked on adding the inverter to our camper. That evening we gave Doc is Birthday present two days early so he could use it on the 4×4 trip in the dunes. It is a GoPro.
Saturday Morning the wind was still blowing. We had other Eastern Washington Expeditions and Liberty State Overland Club members come and some from Overland Bound show up too for the main ORV run. Around 9:15 AM we headed over to sign in with the Midnite Mudders for their Juniper Dunes Clean Up.
Next we headed out into the dunes with nine Jeeps and a Nissan. We worked our way down the pipeline and then took the Wilderness Road to the Wilderness entrance. Once there we lined up for a group photo.
Next we ran all the way to the north fence and headed back down the west side looking for an easy trail to the big dunes. We ended up back on the est fence line before finding a some what easy way up on the dunes. Once at the dunes I tried a few times to climb up but kept running out of power. I had Doc pull me up with his YJ so he would get some experience in recovery. Doug Conner took the rest of the group up an easier way.
It was fun up on the dunes. Charlie popped a bead on the rear driver side tire. The group helped him reseat the tire bead. Then they noticed the front tire was leaking too. They aired it up and we moved on. Before heading back, we had to hit the big bowl a few times.
We worked our way back towards camp. Two rigs had to play ring around the Juniper Tree a few times. We made it back to the open dunes and that is where some had to go home. We worked our way back to camp to fix Charlie’s leaky front tire.
After Charlie fixed his tire leak, we headed back out to play on the trails with our family’s three Jeeps. We found a lot of challenging hill climbs. I stuck my YJ twice on razorbacks. Odo was able to jump on the bumper to get me moving again. We got back to camp around 6 PM and made dinner.
Sunday morning was nice. The wind stopped blowing and it was warm out. After breakfast the boys hit some trails around camp for awhile and then we packed up for home.
Heading home was not fun. We aired up the leaking truck tire at camp and drove to Kahlotus Korners to fuel up the two Jeeps that were being driven back home. After they fueled up, we aired up the truck tire again and hit the highway. We stopped in Prosser at the Rest Area and topped the tire off again. We stopped again to do the same in Granger Buena, and Parker. Not fun watching a tire for over 100 miles.
This was a very fun trip thanks to all who came.
Here are some photos of EWE Juniper Dunes Trip:
YJ Team Work – 4/10/2021
