A buddy of mine and I finally found some "us" time to get out to the Rio Puerco and do some serious wheeling. For those of you unfamiliar with the Rio Puerco, it's a large expanse West of Albuquerque, NM with oddly diverse terrain. There's a bit of something for everyone's rig whether it be rock crawling, duning in Sahara like sands, steep ascents and descents, wildly off-camber crawls etc. In a lot of ways it's very similar to Moab, but just on a smaller scale. There's slickrock, Potato Salad Hill type stuff (Moon Rocks), ledge climbs, and after a good rain, some serious mudding.

One thing about wheeling totally stock full-size trucks is the typically poor approach / departure and breakover angles. Especially if you don't have rock rails. Wheelbase is debatable because sometimes you need a short wheelbase and other times you need a long one. On this trip, if we could clear the bumpers and had the breakover angle, we tackled the obstacle.

Neither of us had an air compressor with us (I know, I know, bad wheelers), so we ran street pressure the entire trip (45 front, 50 rear). For the most part this didn't really factor in except on the ledge climb where it would have been easier airing down. Then again, I took the wrong line after Glenn took the right one and cake walked right up it.

Overall, the trip was an astounding success with minimal carnage to Glenn's '06. The worst carnage was on my side when I forgot I left my Garmin GPSMap 60csx on the hood during a stop at Moon Rocks. She took two tires to the back and was a total loss.

In addition to the pics we took, we also got a lot of awesome video footage. As usual, video and pics just really don't capture the sphincter clenching reality of most obstacles. Dragons Back was steep, slick, and not a lot of margin for error in a full-sized truck with an enormous dropoff on the right.

Leif going up to Dragons Back
Leif on Dragons Back
Leif on a ledge climb
Glenn going up to Dragons Back
Glenn on Dragons Back
Glenn in the Narrows

Click on a picture for a larger, higher resolution view.




Coming up to Moon Rocks

Bumper didn't clear on ledge climb


Another angle

She was face down when she got run over


Just posing, didn't have the breakover angle for this one

Glenn getting into position


Bent tow hook from Dragons Back

One side


Even damaged the batteries

Just posing


Glenn checking something

Popped the cherry losing the plate bracket on Dragons Back


Yes, it really is a long way down on the right

The money shot


This took some serious spotting

After coming through the narrows


Just posing

The start of the fun stuff


Discussing the money shot

Glenn coming up to Dragons Back


Glenn scouting out Dragons Back

Poor baby


Misjudged departure angle coming off a ledge

Slick, steep, irregular


We dug that out later

Glenn pretty much in position


Just posing

Look close, bent pins on the MicroSD card slot


Nice off-camber turn on slickrock

Got comments or suggestions?