On this episode of On the Trail, Driving Line takes you down the tricky trails of Odessa Canyon and Doran Canyon just outside of Barstow, California. With one of their Jeep Wranglers missing lockers, will they be able to make it up the obstacles without winching? Their sticky Nitto tires will certainly help, but making it through narrow canyons in a wide, built Jeep is always a challenge on this trail off road between LA and Vegas.
Host Austin Stobaugh of Carbon Off-Road is joined by Courtney Schipper and Jeremy Ricks for the journey, and all of them brought heavily-modified Jeep Wranglers. Austin came with his fully-built, and wide, Jeep JKU on 40-inch Nitto Trail Grapplers, Courtney brought her 2002 Jeep TJ off-road build on 37-inch Trail Grapplers and Jeremy took out his 2014 Jeep JK 4-door build with an EVO bolt-on coilover kit and 37-inch Trail Grapplers. With Jeeps this well built, getting over obstacles shouldn’t be too hard, but navigating the narrow canyons could become a challenge.
One more obstacle to overcome is that Jeremy’s lockers broke right before this trail ride, so he’ll have to traverse the canyons without them. The rocks and ledges are difficult even with lockers, so winching may come into play.
While these two canyons can be traversed in either direction, the group decided to go north on the Odessa canyon trail and south on the Doran canyon trail. If you ever drive these Odessa and Doran canyons yourself, make sure to watch out for oncoming traffic. If you can get past the gatekeepers on either trail, there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Taking on this canyon trail off-road right outside the Calico ghost town and Calico, California is always a good time. Come along to see how you can do it, too!
