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Story by TXJEEPER
Photos by TXJEEPER, Erik Shellenberger, and Jayson Daynek

33rd Annual Moab Easter Jeep Safari
Lower Heldorado

Heldorado. You almost don't even have to say anything more. The name, alone, is enough to conjure up the sights and sounds of scraping, snapping, popping, and banging metal. Heldorado is one of the new, true-hardcore trails in Moab. Blazed by Moab locals in 1998, Heldorado is not yet part of the Red Rockers' agenda for safari. Only those in the know can take you there. It was certainly one of those must-see trails for the rock crowd.

Luckily, we got the invite from Erik Shellenberger, of 4 Wheel of Moab, to come on a video shoot run over Lower Heldorado. Understandably so, we were a little uneasy about taking the Project TJ over this 5-rated trail. We had just fitted our new Rubicon Express suspension and Rusty's steering setup several days before and had no real-life trail testing at all...none. We had no idea how the Mad Cow would behave on the rocks, but decided we just couldn't miss this run.

Erik was conned into leading our group of seven rigs over Lower Heldorado. I was shooting for Rockcrawler, and also on the run were three different videographers, from Mr.Ed's Excellent Adventures, Off-Road Exposure, and BFE. You can be sure there will be videos here in our Rock Shop as soon as they are available.

This is Eric of Off-Road Exposure in his extended TJ.

One of Mr.Ed's buddy's from Phoenix is Dave Hickman in his Black Widow TJ.

Erik from 4 Wheel of Moab led our group.He's one of the original trail-blazers of Heldorado.

Here's the Mad Cow using it's new Rubicon Express suspension to walk over a huge stack of rocks.

Some of you may recognize good ol' Mr.Ed in his CJ-5.

TNKATOY was a great CJ-7 to run with. Beautiful rig.

Erik guided his YJ over the trail effortlessly.

Got a little hung up and decided to see how much our new Boulder Bars could take. They took it all!