AWD Vehicles Will Be Cited on 4WD Only NP Roads

[Wandering Sagebrush]

The National Park Service will cite AWD Vehicles traveling on roads that are designated only for 4WD vehicles.

 

[AWG_Pics]

I am all for keeping crossovers off of 4WD roads. We had to maneuver around an abandoned crossover and small trailer blocking most of the road while coming out of Grand Gulch Collins Spring trailhead last year. There was just enough room to by pass. Causes widening of roads and may not even be possible in some instances. We reported it to to uniformed volunteer (?) at Kane Gulch ranger station and just got a blank stare.

 

[craig333]

Interesting.

 

[Taku]

Interesting. have been on several roads in parks that are called 4WD but really never needed. Will be interesting to see how many new signs will go up in the parks to try and explain this one.

 

[JWL]

That will be interesting to see how the post it. And yes I too have been on many 4WD roads that weren’t needed and then on roads that were supposedly not that were worse than any. In Big Bend NP I had a “car” pull into my backcountry site. I walked out to see what he was doing and a very Asian man asked me “this way out?” After a long conversation on how to get back to the main road he just said “this hard!” and drove off. Before that we watched what looked like a Suburban being towed out.

 

[craig333]

Probably not a bad idea. I've run into more than a few vehicles that made it in but couldn't make it out and were abandoned.

 

[Foy]

I suspect there is a substantial portion of NP visitors who don't know the difference between 4WD and AWD, don't know which they have or rented, and, more importantly, don't care about the difference.
That said, we traversed the Castle Mountains from Lennep to Checkerboard, MT in a rental Subie last September and she handled it very well when carefully piloted. May she rest in peace.

Foy

 

[teledork]

I stopped driving to Leavitt Lake after a couple of rain on snow event winters destroyed the road (until about 2011 you didn't need 4WD or even a great deal of clearance) and there was an astronomical increase in use by people who don't seem to have the sense, the tools or the ethics that should be a part of off-road driving. I've talked a couple of drivers into leaving an inadequate vehicle at the pavement ( a Prius? are you kidding me?) but I will never know what the dude in the BMW SUV ended up doing. He kept insisting that he "had to!" drive to the trailhead at the lake and the guidebook said........ When we tired of having this idiot yell at us my companion finally told him, You're gonna need a new car - now or later" and we left him to his outrage and his bizarre sense of entitlement.

If the consequences were their's alone I say let 'em at it but as AWG pointed out they can block a road when they wreck. I've been one of a dozen or more following a tow truck that had to drop and winch through a couple of spots on a busy Sunday afternoon. Now I walk to Leavitt Lake and watch Matt's Off Road Recovery for entertainment.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

. Now I walk to Leavitt Lake and watch Matt's Off Road Recovery for entertainment.

I like that .
It reminds me of the time we were sitting having breakfast at the restaurant at
Lake Alpine and this 52' truck/trailer came driving by up to Ebbetts Pass.
A while later a tow truck pulled in and stopped for a coffee.We overheard him say
he was headed up the hill to get a big rig out of a jam.In my snarkyness I looked at his rig
and gave him the Jaws phrase "your gona need a bigger boat".He just laughed and drove off.
A while later we drove up the hill and there at Stanislaus Meadow trailhead parking lot
was the truck jackknifed blocking most of hwy 4.
CHP wrote the driver a huge ticket and we just had a little snicker at it all.
I later asked the driver didn't he see the many singes of warning about the road ahead
and no vehicles over 35' allowed? He was out of state and probably driving without a log book
so he wanted to take a short cut.
It was fun for us.Not so much for him though.
Frank

 

[teledork]

I later asked the driver didn't he see the many singes of warning about the road ahead
and no vehicles over 35' allowed?

Sonora Pass has a marked turnaround between Hwy 395 and the Marine base. Last Oct there was a truck stuck on one of the curves well above there. I asked the Caltrans guy, "don't you have to be able to read to get a drivers license?" He told me the only word the driver seemed to know was "GPS".

 

[billharr]

I have faith that the NPS will start marking more roads 4WD only. Anything to lower the amount of people in the parks.

 

[Dirt Rider]

Probably tired of having to rescue city slickers

 

[Sagebrush Reconnoiterer]

I'm beyond words at the increase in outright stupidity and arrogance in the backcountry that I've seen in the past decade. I blame it on moral decay and manufactures driving sales of substandard vehicles in remote settings or with outlandish antics in their marketing. And, have you noticed that plebian AWD vehicles are being found in the back country where they don't belong while modified 4x4 trucks and Jeeps seldom if ever leave the pavement?

 

[mopwater]

I was stubborn enough to put an ATC on a Jeep for a reason.

Winched a dude out in the Bighorns over the summer myself.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Sadly to say it's al about marketing.
Frank

 

[dennis 221]

T.V. adds. They go anywhere right...lol

 

[ski3pin]

Back in the winter mountain SAR days, when making comment (kindly, always) about the probable mindset of the "subjects" of the incident/mission we were responding to, often was heard, "Image is everything."

 

[goinoregon]

i was down at the mouth of the columbia river a couple years ago and u can drive on the beach. came upon a fellow in a prius (or similar), stuck in the sand, and he exclaimed that it was all wheel drive. i drove on, and on the way back, i drove around. didnt figure helping would be any help.... plus he was within cell phone range of astoria - so he was benefiting a local tow company.

 

[craig333]

Cars scare me. Usually no good spots to hook a strap to and I certainly don't want to get sued for damaging a vehicle. As long as they're in no danger better off letting a tow truck handle it. A lot depends on the idiocy level too. If you drove into a meadow and got stuck I'll be happy to take a pic of your license plate and forward it to the proper authorities.

 

[teledork]

i was down at the mouth of the columbia river a couple years ago and u can drive on the beach. came upon a fellow in a prius (or similar), stuck in the sand, and he exclaimed that it was all wheel drive. i drove on, and on the way back, i drove around. didnt figure helping would be any help.... plus he was within cell phone range of astoria - so he was benefiting a local tow company.

I had a Prius, 1st generation All wheel drive? Haha. Clearance measured in inches, squirrely in the snow (and chains were nearly impossible to install) oddly terrifying in the wind and struggled to get to my house without spinning the wheels and spewing chunks of my driveway. I don't know how the newer models behave off road but my sister did not keep hers for very long. Her house is more than a mile from the pavement.