Black Gap "Road"
Well last Monday Oct. 15 my family took to the back country, Big Bend National Park.
We had my 2005 LJ and my sons bone stock 2018 JK.
Temperature was in the lhigh 40's with wind chill in the 30's With a stiff cutting wind..
We ran North to South which is the down hill run.
The elevation change was +300 ft to -600ft at about 9 miles.
Now don't let the term "road" mislead you. Some places there is just an old jeep trail and some places the road has washed away completely. This road is not maintained at all any longer. This woud be about my 10th trip in 40+ years and evey year it gets worse.
We left Glenn Springs on a sharp down slope with a hard left turn into about 200 ft of muddy road as the spring runs all year. This section is overgrown with Tamarisk so you get the free pinstripe Badge.
The first 1/2 of the road has cliffs on the left and tons of washouts. We had to put our right hand tires on the up slope so the left hand tires were on and away from the road edge.
Once we cleared the down hill section we started crossing the dry ceekbeds. We saw no trire tracks on the road in front of us.
The road starts several up hill sections with the washouts being constant.
Not only was it an adventure but the views were unbeliveable.
Finally we reached the "Gap" itself. The Gap is extremely unimpressive. There is a sheer climb up of sbout 3 ft. and is no more the 15 ft long. The climbup is ramped by large stones put in places by other offroaders. At the top of the ramp the Park Service paved the actual gap with concrete years ago. The cut in the rock is about 300 ft long and uphill. At the end of the gap you are on the top of gravel flat plains wich is typical of the park.
Neither Jeep had any problems. My Daughter, Daughter in Law and wife started with ooh's and awes the came the screaming and cussing me. They could not understand why I took this road. My wife told them on the radio that I had always have been crazy and they should have known that and they were welcome to get out and walk the scary parts.
it was a really difficult but not a hard drive to make.
I would reecomend driving this "Jeep Trail" by all that can get to the park.
The Black Gap road is on the Jeep Badge of Honor site of which there are only 40 roads listed.
It is a real offroad drive and as bad as I have diven,
Well last Monday Oct. 15 my family took to the back country, Big Bend National Park.
We had my 2005 LJ and my sons bone stock 2018 JK.
Temperature was in the lhigh 40's with wind chill in the 30's With a stiff cutting wind..
We ran North to South which is the down hill run.
The elevation change was +300 ft to -600ft at about 9 miles.
Now don't let the term "road" mislead you. Some places there is just an old jeep trail and some places the road has washed away completely. This road is not maintained at all any longer. This woud be about my 10th trip in 40+ years and evey year it gets worse.
We left Glenn Springs on a sharp down slope with a hard left turn into about 200 ft of muddy road as the spring runs all year. This section is overgrown with Tamarisk so you get the free pinstripe Badge.
The first 1/2 of the road has cliffs on the left and tons of washouts. We had to put our right hand tires on the up slope so the left hand tires were on and away from the road edge.
Once we cleared the down hill section we started crossing the dry ceekbeds. We saw no trire tracks on the road in front of us.
The road starts several up hill sections with the washouts being constant.
Not only was it an adventure but the views were unbeliveable.
Finally we reached the "Gap" itself. The Gap is extremely unimpressive. There is a sheer climb up of sbout 3 ft. and is no more the 15 ft long. The climbup is ramped by large stones put in places by other offroaders. At the top of the ramp the Park Service paved the actual gap with concrete years ago. The cut in the rock is about 300 ft long and uphill. At the end of the gap you are on the top of gravel flat plains wich is typical of the park.
Neither Jeep had any problems. My Daughter, Daughter in Law and wife started with ooh's and awes the came the screaming and cussing me. They could not understand why I took this road. My wife told them on the radio that I had always have been crazy and they should have known that and they were welcome to get out and walk the scary parts.
it was a really difficult but not a hard drive to make.
I would reecomend driving this "Jeep Trail" by all that can get to the park.
The Black Gap road is on the Jeep Badge of Honor site of which there are only 40 roads listed.
It is a real offroad drive and as bad as I have diven,
