Keep it Tight: JK-Experience Colorado

For one week during the month of September, 22 Jeep JK Wranglers from around the country and from as far as Canada, gathered in the state of Colorado to traverse almost 1,000 miles though the breathtaking Rocky's, explore famous historic mining towns and, take on some of the most challenging off-road trails that can be found anywhere. This is the Off Road Evolution JK Experience Rocky Mountain Run, presented by Falken Tire, and this is the story of the Jeepers who came looking for an adventure and found what it means to "KEEP IT TIGHT".


Episode 1 of this 4 part series highlights our gathering in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the starting point of our JK-Experience, and then heads high up into the White River National Forest where we got to run one the most famous and hardcore trails in the state, Holy Cross! Surrounded by Wilderness, Holy Cross is a gorgeous Jeep trail that takes you out to the old ghost town that gives this trail its name and features challenging obstacles such as French Creek. After a fun day of rock crawling over wet boulders, breaking out the winch a few times and seeing some amazing sites, we headed down to the historic town of Leadville which served as our home for the night.


Day 2 of the JK-Experience Rocky Mountain Run would take us south toward the town of Buena Vista, Colorado, and to the trail that a majority in our group would run for the day, Chinaman Gulch. At the trailhead, the option of running the infamous Carnage Canyon BV trail was also given to those willing to risk substantial damage to their rigs and, of the 22 JK's we had, 4 would choose to join EVO 1 in taking on the carnage including, Project-JK's, Moby Dick! Episode 2 highlights our run up this short, "nasty ass" trail as Mel liked to call it, and then follows us as we made a mad dash east with the hopes of being able to climb to the top of Pikes Peak before they closed.


Episode 3 of KEEP IT TIGHT highlights our 3rd and 4th day of The JK Experience Rocky Mountain Run. In it, you'll get to follow us on our long road day back west and see the fun detours that we made to places such as, the world famous Royal Gorge Bridge. After a long night spent working on Jeeps in the town of Montrose, we headed south to the San Juan Mountains and did a scenic run up the gorgeous Alpine Loop. Along the way, we covered trails such as Mineral Creek, Poughkeepsie Gulch, California Gulch and visited historic mining sites and ghost towns such as Animas Forks before ending our day in Silverton, Colorado.

Day 5 of the JK-Experience Rocky Mountain Run took us up and over the most famous and terrifying trails in the state of Colorado, Black Bear Pass. After having some fun on what are certainly some of the most hair raising, narrow switchback roads you can find anywhere, we made our way west to our final destination of the week, Grand Junction. To end our trip with a bang, our 6th and final day would be spent on a short but technically challenging trail called, Billings Canyon. Rated a 9 out of a 10, this trail would put everyone and their rigs to the test and, as you can imagine, had a hell of a great time!