elbe hills difficulty?
Thread Starter
JK Newbie
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
From: Tacoma, WA
elbe hills difficulty?
New to the washington area. Just came into Ft Lewis and have been doing lots of hiking at Mt. Rainier. have seen many rigs head into the Elbe Hills park and was wondering what the difficulty is like there? I have a stock sahara unlimited, how would i fair?
JK Newbie
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
From: Eatonville, WA
My wife and I was up there today and attempted the Rainier Vista Trail. Got a 100 yards up into it and was not able to make it over some large boulders. need to spend more money and more practice 
. Some of the trails have signs that state 33" - "35" tires recommended. I was running Nitto terra grapplers 285 R65 18 - 3 inch BB - I am sure there are plenty of folks on this forum with better driving skills than mine that might have been able to navigated it, we were by ourselves and did not want to take chances.
Below is a link that describes the difficulty of the various trails, information might be a little dated based on what we seen today.
http://www.pnw4wda.org/trails/washington/elbe_hills.htm
. Some of the trails have signs that state 33" - "35" tires recommended. I was running Nitto terra grapplers 285 R65 18 - 3 inch BB - I am sure there are plenty of folks on this forum with better driving skills than mine that might have been able to navigated it, we were by ourselves and did not want to take chances. Below is a link that describes the difficulty of the various trails, information might be a little dated based on what we seen today.
http://www.pnw4wda.org/trails/washington/elbe_hills.htm
JK Super Freak
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,210
Likes: 0
From: Covington-ish, WA
I'd recommend at least 32" tires and rock rails before I stepped off the FS road at Elbe. It's not a difficult trail system (for the most part) but it does have some large rocks that you have to traverse around or over and you will use your rock rails a lot with a short tire. If you have 32's and rock rails I'd say you could do Sunrise Trail, Mainline and Mainline Extension for sure. The Gotcha trail would be passable but it does have a couple mud holes that if the weathers been wet..... they get ugly. I'd stay off the Busywild, Rainier Vista and Swamp trial. I don't know about the alder loop trail as I've not been on it yet.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 381
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From: Bremerton, WA
I did the mainline, gotcha and sunrise trail with my set-up. I would say a similar set-up would be the minimum for those three.
Bring a friend with some experience to give the few tugs you'll need. Plus an extra set of spotting eyes.
Bring a friend with some experience to give the few tugs you'll need. Plus an extra set of spotting eyes.
Thread Starter
JK Newbie
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
From: Tacoma, WA
thanks guys, i appreciate the responses. i guess ill do a little waiting until i can do a few upgrades. if anyone heres about a 2.5" lift that anyone is looking to get rid of let me know, or at least some tires in the area.
