Eastern Washington Expeditions
Juniper Dunes Trip
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road
By Clay & Doc Graham / CegPics.com
The Crew fueled up and headed from Selah towards Juniper Dunes around 2:00 PM of Friday September 11th, 2020. As was got closer to the Tri-Cities, the smoke from the wildfires got thicker. We pulled into Smith Canyon at Juniper Dunes around 4:00 PM. We set up camp and waited for guest to show up. Steve and James H came in their ZJ not long after we got there. Later that night my oldest son with family and other UTV riders showed up to camp with us.
Saturday Morning we had other club members come and some from Overland Bound show up too for the main ORV run. Around 10:15 AM we headed out into the dunes with five Jeeps and a Ram. I rode in Doc’s YJ. It was his first time driving in the sand. Charlie followed in his ZJ and it also was his first time driving in the sand. James lead the way in his YJ taking us on some fun trails.
One ridge we came up to was too steep for a few rigs that tried to climb it. Doc’s 4 cylinder just didn’t have the power. Doc worked his way down the ridge trying climbs until he found one he could top. Charlie was still working on climbing a bigger one. Charlie almost topped it but had to stop because a coolant hose fitting broke. Charlie let the engine cool down and then backed down to a safe stop to make the repair. As we were making the repair, the two rigs from Overland Bound left.
We worked our way around the ridge and met the UTV guys at the Wilderness entrance. We took a short break and then head on north.
We ran all the way to the north fence and headed back down the west side. James found some real challenging trails for us to follow him through. My sons learned a lot from following him.
James got us out to one of the biggest bowls. The boys really liked driving around it after being scared the first time around.
James left us at the bowl since he had to get home. We worked our way to the big sand open area and then ran the southeast fence back toward camp. It was fun running the trails through the tall Sagebrush.
Back at camp the UTV riders were packing up to leave. The boys drove around the hills of Smith Canyon a little until Steve had to leave. The EWE Crew spent the night and head for home around 3:00 PM on Sunday.
This was a very fun trip thanks to all who came.
Here are some photos of EWE Juniper Dunes Trip:
