Minnesota To Colorado

[Gio]

We took a family summer trip to CO. A few days before we left and at 8100 miles, the 2.0T gave me a scare. Initially I assumed we were not going to have the warranty repairs done prior to the trip and figured we would be using my wife's vehicle.
Luckily, we had the water pump replaced at a good dealership and the trip in the Willys was back on.

After we loaded up 4 adults and luggage we headed for Lincoln, NE.

We had previously run this trip in our 2021, 3.6 and had no issues. This time I was a little nervous because of the water pump failure in the 2.0 at such an early stage. The good news is, at no point did we have any further trouble with the rig. The 2.0 was fantastic in the higher elevations. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the 4.56 gearing and 35's did at 75-80 MPH.

Morning number one in Edwards, CO. (just a click west of Vail) was perfect. I got up early and poured a cup of coffee with a splash of Baileys.

I was hoping for some semi challenging off road adventures but we ended up doing scenery drives instead. We were still able to hit some rocks and ruts, but nothing that would impress anybody here. Even still, the views were beautiful and the family was happy.

We have family and friends in the area and that limited our "off roading" to a few days.
We made a few climbs and as usual, the scenery was incredible.

Enjoying a good lunch in Minturn after coming back down.

The next day we took a long and beautiful scenic drive from Eagle to Basalt.
My folks (in their 80's and still doing it all) have a new Defender and we followed them. Unfortunately the dust was terrible and we dropped back a lot but benefitted from clearer views.

Closer to Basalt we got back onto the pavement for a bit and then walked to a great trout spot.

We grabbed some lunch at the Tipsy Trout and headed back to Edwards.

Another easy yet scenic drive. Piney Lake. There actually is a lake, I just didn't get it in this particular picture.

The last two days we hung out closer to home base. Breakfast at Route 6 was good.

Bloody's before breakfast.

We got in some hiking as well.

After the hike we stopped at the brewery.

We spotted a scavenger that was pretty bold. This critter had no problems going underneath occupied tables and grabbing the scraps.

We made the trek back home and stopped in Lincoln for a night.

Mountain views gave way to views like this.

The good news is we are headed back to the Black Hills in 4 weeks.

I was very happy with the driving characteristics of the Wrangler. The ride was very comfortable with the Bilstein shocks that came with the lift. The motor did a great job at higher speeds and did very well at elevation.

Unless we run into reliability issues frequently, we may hold onto this rig.

Cleaned up and back home.

Thanks for looking!

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[JLJoy]

Looks like a great trip, nice write up and pics.

 

[svtrit]

Nice trip! We did a trip from IA to CO last summer. However, we had to take the minivan, as the JLU is too tight for 5 people, even when the kids are littles.

The most off-roading I did was the road to our VRBO cabin outside of Glenwood Springs. According to the lease it required a high clearance vehicle, but, when you know how to drive, you can take a minivan anywhere.....and the road wasn't any worse than a class B Iowa road.

 

[bugeye1959]

Great trip, I am sorry you had to start out some were in Mn. lived there for 36 years and won't step foot back there for my 50th high school class reunion coming up or my college reunion from the U of M for my doctorate degree. The wife and I use to go down to the warehouse district in the 80's for great entertainment. If you live in Minneapolis, I am sorry to hear about your new future mayor. Mn is not the state that I grew up in. Chastise me away.

 

[Gio]

Great trip, I am sorry you had to start out some were in Mn. lived there for 36 years and won't step foot back there for my 50th high school class reunion coming up or my college reunion from the U of M for my doctorate degree. The wife and I use to go down to the warehouse district in the 80's for great entertainment. If you live in Minneapolis, I am sorry to hear about your new future mayor. Mn is not the state that I grew up in. Chastise me away.

Luckily,
We are west of the cities but still technically in the metro area. The good news is we are not in Hennepin County. I have a few no fly zones here. Minneapolis, ST. Paul and Brooklyn Center I avoid completely. We've talked about moving but we have so many great relatives, friends and connections here it is hard to call it quits. We'll see how far the Detroit style decline comes west and decide if we want to start over. Spearfish, SD is a beautiful place and a lot closer to Jeep type activities.
Being retired helps a great deal. I won't get into that but if you knew the half of it LOL!

I will say the drive out of here is fantastic. Going west from where we live is nice and easy. We take a route that adds roughly 15 minutes but it avoids a lot of the heavy traffic. No slam to Nebraska, but that part of the drive seems the longest. Not terribly congested though.

I could use a little more CO. time for sure.

 

[bugeye1959]

Looks like where I live, other than we have a few more trees. Good luck, I to have relatives and really good freinds that spend the Summer up there.

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