We Visit the 2018 Tierra Del Sol Annual Safari! Or, the Experienced Idiot’s Guide on How to go Off-Roading

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Off-road hoonery shares one thing with racing hoonery: the NIMBY people hate it. Like a track event, any off-road trip is precluded by a long drive to and through the middle of nowhere.
 

The desert has its own rugged beauty. This is one of the many spectacular views on the trip out to the Ocotillo Wells SVRA.
 

Jeff brought Project 4-Runner along for the ride. This was an excellent chance for him to find out the nearly stock vehicle’s shortcomings and work to improve them.
 

My, er, chariot is a little rougher around the edges. Bought for $600 from some stoner in Carlsbad (it had a smashed front right header panel and a lot of AA pamphlets in it), my Jeep Cherokee (AKA “XJ”) is the S13 of the off-roading world: cheap fun with enough aftermarket support to build to any level you want. Like the S13, some yahoo wrote an article about how cheap and capable they were, and finding one for a song isn’t possible anymore. Total budget for this rusty eyesore?  $3200. 
 

Our campsite for the weekend was a friend’s spacious 80 acre lot in Borrego Springs, CA. 
 

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