Real Rock Crawlers.

Forward.

For the last few years I have wanted to go to Congress, AZ. to watch the rock crawler competition they have there.
It happens on the first weekend in March.
Patti and I usually head for Coolidge before then so we have always missed it. This year we decided not to go to Coolidge. So I had a chance to go to Congress.
My friend Bob is down here visiting  so I asked if he would like to come.
Patti didn’t want to go and had some things to get ready for the Laughlin trip on Sunday.
So Bob and will go check it out

On Our Way.

Bob and I got on the road around 9:00.
We headed east on I-10 and took the highway 60 exit. We followed 60 N/E toward the town of Aquila where we were to get on highway 71 which goes east to Congress.
We were about 2 miles west of Aquila when my phone rang.
It was Patti saying that, Dennis M called and said that he, Dennis K, Carl and Bill were at the sight for the rock crawl and there was no one there. He thought that maybe we had the wrong dates.

When we heard that news, we decided to turn around and head back to Q.
After about a mile I noticed a track going south with a range gate. I turned the jeep around and when I got to the trail I turned on to it.
Bob opened the gate and off we went.

The trail took us to an old dry pond (tank). It probably had water in it during the monsoon but now the bottom was dry.

We drove around the area a little  and found a power line road so we followed that around a rocky hill.

When we were on the east side of the hill, my phone rang again.
It was Patti. She told me that Dennis M called again and said that the rock crawl was still on but it had been moved to Bagdad.
That’s Bagdad, Arizona not the one in the middle east.
I headed the jeep back to the highway and we continued the drive east. Bagdad turns out  to be about 45 minutes to an hour north of Congress.

Off to Bagdad.

After topping off the tank and getting directions from a lady in the store in Congress, we were on our way.

When we got to Bagdad we asked a young man at a filling station, where the rock crawl was. And he told us to go back the way we came and take the first street to the left. Follow that road, past the trailer park and there should be signs.

We followed his directions and by the time we got to the trailer park we could see these buggy’s crawling up a huge rock.
We turned into the first road we saw that had signs on it and stopped at a kiosk. The young lady there, told us that the visitors parking was at the end of the street and they would bus us up the hill to where the action was..

We found the parking lot and got a good parking spot.
We didn’t wait for the bus but decided to take the trail up the hill instead.

Eventually we came to where they take your money. We paid the $15.00’s entry fee and got a ride in a side by side to the top of the hill.

The Venue.

This is our first view of the area.

At the far end you see a tall cliff with massive boulders lying around. This is the arena where the fun takes place.
If you look a little closer you will see what almost look like a big bug crawling over the rocky surface.

If you look even closer, you will see that they are actually “cars”. Well sort of.

They are purpose built Rock Crawling Machines.

I have been Jeeping for a long time but have never witnessed such an exhibition.
These drivers,  girl drivers included, have much bigger cajones than I will ever have. They do incredible things with these machines..

Blue Jeep.

I was watching this blue jeep climbing the rock in front of me.

Here he is going up the side of the cliff.

He has a little difficulty getting over the top but makes it.

You think the drivers are ballsy.
What about the spotters?
You have to have nerves of steel to stand below a three thousand pound vehicle that could go out of control at any moment and you are standing on a rock with about a fifteen foot fall behind you.

Well he made it down the hill without flipping or running over his spotter.

Back Down.

Now this guy had a different approach to getting down a steep cliff.

When I first noticed this one all I could see was tires and axel.

Then a little more of the machine emerged.

Then I realized this dude was backing down the rock. Notice the right front wheel in the air.

He also made it without crashing.

Oops!

This driver wasn’t so lucky.

He did okay climbing up to the rocks but ran into a little problem trying to negotiate the boulders on top.

They brought an other jeep to the bottom of the hill and hooked a winch to the roll-over.

After about a half hour of rigging and winching they managed to get the buggy back on its wheels, more or less.

In another fifteen minutes he was driving down from the rocks.

Unfortunately for the driver: since his machine was incapacitated for more than 10 minutes his run was disqualified. 

Lots to See.

There was something going on all over the rocks. It kind of reminded me of a three ring circus.

Let’s go Home.

Around 2:30 the competition was winding down so we decided it was time to go home.
We took a little different route going home. Along a dirt road we passed this rock that someone had painted to look like a skull.

We got back to Q around 6:00.

It was a good trip and very interesting to see what those drivers could do with their machines.