This year’s Easter Jeep Safari marked the 50th running of the gathering of all things Jeep in the southeastern corner of Utah. Coincidentally, this year also marked the 75th anniversary for the Jeep brand. To celebrate the occasion, we spent the day with Jeep in 2016 75th anniversary models exploring some of the beautiful trails that Moab has to offer.

Moab was once most known for its uranium mining, but now the small city serves as a meeting place for all types of outdoor activity such as off-roading, mountain biking, hiking, camping, rock climbing and more. The old mining roads have been repurposed as some of the most epic off-road terrain in all of North America, with the red-rock scenery of Moab providing a stunning backdrop for basically any outdoor activity.

At the ripe age of 50, the Easter Jeep Safari event continues to grow, as does Jeep’s presence at the event, whether it be in the form of its concept vehicles, its giant product display in town, or its mid-week new product unveiling that coincides with the New York Auto Show (which this year was a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk). Behind the scenes, though, EJS also provides a unique opportunity for Jeep engineers, product planners and other company insiders to experience the event and get a first-hand look at how enthusiasts use the product. That’s essentially how our mid-week trail ride came together with Jeep and Mopar, with us journalists getting behind the wheel of new Jeeps while sharing seats with FCA and Jeep employees.

With its humble beginnings back in 1941, Jeep wanted to commemorate its 75th anniversary by creating a special edition model of every vehicle in its lineup. Each vehicle is available in unique, custom colors (Sarge Green, Recon Green or Jungle Green), is equipped with special upgrades, and touts special edition logos and badges and unique bronze accent paint. For our ride we’d be driving the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 75th Anniversary models, as these offer the most ground clearance in stock form. Along for the ride in our vehicle was our buddy Zach Berning from Overland Gourmet and Motusworld.com as well as Hadeer Konja, a director with Jeep engineering.

We began the morning heading north out of town and jumping on the dirt off Highway 191. We ventured past Castle Rock and out onto a portion of the Monitor and Merrimac trail, which actually has split sections for four-wheeled off-roading and a separate mountain bike trail. We then connected with 7-Mile Rim, a scenic trail that offers a few small challenges and far tougher ones if you so choose. After our lunch break, we snuck past a few large organized trail runs, some of which were parked near Wipeout Hill but none of which tackled the landmark obstacle while we were there.

Our 75th Anniversary Jeep Wrangler Unlimited may have not be fitted with the upgraded Rubicon suspension package, but it still proved why the Wrangler is one of the best out-of-the-box off-road vehicles available. Crawling in 4-Low during the trickier sections, we confidentially tackled the rocky hills, off-camber ledges and other obstacles we encountered on 7-Mile Rim.

Our 75th Anniversary model sported unique 17-inch wheels, a power dome hood with functional air vents, front and rear Rubicon 10th Anniversary bumpers, and off-road rock rails for siderail protection over the rock ledges we climbed and descended. Although we didn’t spend much seat time in the Grand Cherokee (available in both Laredo and Limited trims), with its air suspension engaged the 75th Anniversary Edition Grands on the trail run cleared the same obstacles the Wranglers did without any headaches.

After tackling a few tricky downhill sections, we ventured through Tusher Wash and up through 3D toward Tusher Tunnel, a hollowed-out passage of slick rock you can actually walk through for a few hundred feet (of course, you’ll have to get out of your rig to experience this one on foot). It was the perfect resting place for a water break. In spite of its remote location, it also happened to be the perfect place for Jeep employees and journalists to check and respond to their email. Hey, at least we shut down the phones for most of the day.

We then took one final detour for the day, as our guide Kevin Hawkins of Red Rock 4-Wheelers had one more spot to check out before we finished up. As we ventured down into this final canyon we came to a boulder that had fallen on the trail. As Hawkins explained it, more often than not they will simply clear the boulder from the path. This time, however, they simply carved out a hole in the rock for vehicles to pass through, and that’s exactly what we did as we made our way down the valley and back into town.

After a long day in the trail, we sadly had to return our decked-out 75th Anniversary Jeeps, but as always, it was another great day out on the trail with old friends and new. If you missed the Easter Jeep Safari 50th anniversary, check out our coverage here. For more information on the 75th Anniversary Jeep models, check out our news story on the models.

MORE 206 EASTER JEEP SAFARI
Shortcut Concept Jeep Wrangler Pays Homage to Classic CJ-5

Jeep Unleashes it 2016 Easter Jeep Safari Concept Vehicles