Kelly Flats rock crawling day (video)

It was a beautiful day for a little rock crawling in my Jeep...



Kelly Flats is fairly well known trail in northern Colorado. There's a couple places in the video that cut away from the insta360 video and you can see the Jeep more directly from some phone video clips.

The video also shows how great the conditions are right now even though trails will be closed for the winter soon.

Awesome video. I live in Fort Collins, KF is a favorite trail.

Great video, thanks for sharing!

MarkM said:

Awesome video. I live in Fort Collins, KF is a favorite trail.

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We've got some friends out in Fort Collins that used to live in our neighborhood. If we ever get out to visit them we will definitely need to hit this trail.

dirtwheeler said:

It was a beautiful day for a little rock crawling in my Jeep...



Kelly Flats is fairly well known trail in northern Colorado. There's a couple places in the video that cut away from the insta360 video and you can see the Jeep more directly from some phone video clips.

The video also shows how great the conditions are right now even though trails will be closed for the winter soon.

Click to expand...

Almost went yesterday! Sat at home and watched football instead.

I guess there's always next weekend...

Edit: Your Chutes video had me puckering on your behalf. Can't imagine being in the driver seat!

Blues Fan 30 said:

We've got some friends out in Fort Collins that used to live in our neighborhood. If we ever get out to visit them we will definitely need to hit this trail.

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Agreed!

CO2Wrangler said:

Almost went yesterday! Sat at home and watched football instead.

I guess there's always next weekend...

Edit: Your Chutes video had me puckering on your behalf. Can't imagine being in the driver seat!

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It was probably dumb to take a shiny new 2025 vehicle up the chutes, but I got lucky and just scuffed the plastic fenders a little and scuffed the plastic on one of the tail lights. That's why there's plastic there! I also tapped my front bumper and one of my control arm brackets into a rock. But nothing major and no functional damage -- just using the Jeep for what it was designed to do!

I've missed most of the Broncos games so far this season due to off-roading. It's been hard to not take advantage of this weather before the snow inevitably hits us.

dirtwheeler said:

It was a beautiful day for a little rock crawling in my Jeep...



Kelly Flats is fairly well known trail in northern Colorado. There's a couple places in the video that cut away from the insta360 video and you can see the Jeep more directly from some phone video clips.

The video also shows how great the conditions are right now even though trails will be closed for the winter soon.

Click to expand...

You and I bought the exact same config/color/trim/model year vehicle and did almost identical upgrades to it… do you have a build thread? I wasn’t able to look it up in your profile!

Tr4ckD4ys said:

You and I bought the exact same config/color/trim/model year vehicle and did almost identical upgrades to it… do you have a build thread? I wasn’t able to look it up in your profile!

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I think this is mostly up to date: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/dirtwheeler-25-jlr-build-plan-status.150155/

OP, wish I lived where you do.

Richard_JL said:

OP, wish I lived where you do.

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The grass is always greener on the other side -- when January and February come around I'm envious of that Florida weather! But I'm also looking forward to some Colorado snow-wheeling soon. We do have have incredible trail systems in the mountain here.

dirtwheeler said:

The grass is always greener on the other side -- when January and February come around I'm envious of that Florida weather! But I'm also looking forward to some Colorado snow-wheeling soon. We do have have incredible trail systems in the mountain here.

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On-X offroad confirms. It's like a map of spaghetti.

I guess it's time to take my '22 through the chutes, finally. I've been avoiding it to keep the damage to a minimum but now I guess it's old enough to beat it up. hahah

I took my TJ up yesterday and actually broke the pinion at the rear differential -- it was kind of a bad combination of things that led up to it (including bad driving choices in full disclosure). I thought it was kind of funny since I cruised right on through the chutes with the JL. On the TJ, there was something wrong with the locker controllers (so no locker option), then I took a bad line, then I gave it too much throttle on a soft spot, slid back, regained traction, which caused enough shock to break the pinion. We pulled the driveshaft, used some winching to get through the chutes, and front-wheeled it to the end of the trail, with another TJ helping tow us through some difficult sections. Then one of the guys we ride with trailered it back for us. Different day, different plan, different outcome -- still a great day wheeling. Admittedly, I'm glad the TJ is out of service for a while instead of my JL. Today, we jacked the TJ up, spun its wheels, and pulled the diff cover. We still need to pull it apart to learn more, but we're seeing some good signs (not as much carnage in the diff as I was expecting to see).

I think my TJ was the last bit of carnage for the chutes for 2025. The Kelly Flats gates are now closed -- locked yesterday after our ride. We'll probably get our JL back out on the trails this Friday. It's been a crazy year in northern Colorado for weather. Hardly any snow!

moabman-OG said:

I guess it's time to take my '22 through the chutes, finally. I've been avoiding it to keep the damage to a minimum but now I guess it's old enough to beat it up. hahah

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You're going to have to wait until next year now. Gates were locked yesterday.