Challenging Chile Trails

Rockcrawling With A Spicy Kick

- Brian Sumner

THE ANNUAL CHILE CHALLENGE put on by the Las Cruces 4-Wheel Drive Club (LC4WDC) never fails to disappoint, and this year the trails were spicier than ever. Starting in Caballo, New Mexico, where the event has been based for three years now, we tagged along on some trails we had never seen before and quickly found out just how challenging these trails can be. Big canyons combined with big rocks provided plenty of kick to keep things interesting.

CRYSTAL CANYON

First up was Crystal Canyon, one of the closer trails to the host campground. Crystal is hard right from the start, with large boulders in the deep canyon leading up to a waterfall climb. It didn’t take long before the first carnage struck, and it would not be the last. A JK front axle shaft didn’t want anything to do with Crystal Canyon, so it was pulled and the Jeep driven back to camp. Before the group could get moving again, a drive shaft failed after it landed on a large rock at the base of the climb. Rather than retreat, the drive line was repaired and the group continued up the canyon.