The Chile Challenge is put on by the Las Cruces Four Wheel Drive Club and the Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association every February and is held in the hills just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

This spring we got a chance to run Billings Canyon Jeep Trail. It is located near Grand Junction, Colorado, and has been adopted by the Grand Mesa Jeep Club.

Over the past decade or so we've brought you smatterings of Glamis coverage. But wh at was once a Romanesque bacchanal of topless college chicks and keg stands has given way to something more akin to the roots of the Glamis movement. It seems it's once again a family fun spot. Or at least that's the vibe we got from our latest visit on New Year's Eve 2007.

You don't usually find us hobnobbing it up at any of the fancy automotive-manufacturer shows. As far as we're concerned, a suit and tie are about as useful as teeth on a chicken. But this year we'd been hearing the dreaded words "hybrid" and "fuel economy"

Of All the places you might wish to be in winter, Michigan is not likely to be anywhere near the top of the list. Unless, of course, you're looking for a warm vacation from your home of Antarctica or Pluto.

Every year, it seems like we end up in Big Bear, california, at the same time the inland empire 4 Wheelers (IE4W) are holding their annual Forest Fest. This year was no exception, and we got to wondering just what it is that makes us come back to this run instead of many others year after year.

It started out pretty much like every other half-baked, hair-brained Jp Magazine story idea. Rather than getting already overdue work done, a few of us were bench racin' at the office late one night and got to realizing there were at least seven ex-military rigs owned by magazine staffers-and most of them were Jeeps. So one thing led to another, and we figured out how we could take these barely speed-worthy rigs out on perhaps the most uncomfortable (and slow) road trip ever and get the company to foot the bill. As usual, the lightweights bailed out of the trip early on, leaving only the most masochistic along with a couple friends and readers to make the 500-plus-mile trek on- and off-road.

In case you haven't noticed, over the past few issues we've been making an effort to bring you wheeling from parts of the country other than the West Coast and Southwest. It's not that the Jp staff doesn't want to wheel other parts of the country, it's just that it's pretty hard to leave our comfy little corner of the world where fall, winter, and spring temperatures rarely rise above 75 degrees, dip below 55 degrees, and where it's too dry to breed disease-carrying insects.

We spent July 28-29 traipsing around the Jeep and Truckfest held at the Canfield Fairgrounds in Canfield, Ohio. This was the first time 4-Wheel Parts and 4-Wheel Hardware got together to throw this shindig.

We got word of a free Jeep show back East, and since nothing back East is free, we were skeptical to say the least. After looking into it, we found out that Jeff Daniels Jeep Customizing in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, really was putting on a Jeep show that was not only free to enter, but free for spectators, as well.

Every year, we attend the Easter Jeep Safari, hosted by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers club in Moab, Utah. It's always a blast, but it also means we've got to create a story just a little different than the year before. So for the 41st event, rather than bang away at a keyboard inundating you with yet another description of Potato Salad Hill, we've shot several mini features of cool Jeeps that struck the fancy of the staff members. For more information on next year's event, contact the Red Rock 4-Wheelers at www.rr4w.com.

We recently checked out the first race of the '07 Jeepspeed season in Parker, Arizona; it was also the first race where other Jeep models were allowed to participate. This year, there are three classes: Jeepspeed 1, which includes the stock-ish XJs; Jeepspeed 2, which includes TJ and JK Wranglers, as well as ZJ and WJ Grand Cherokees; and Jeepspeed 3, which allows any model Jeep made from '84-'01 with any Jeep, AMC, Chrysler, Dodge, or Mopar engine (as long as it meets the 116-inch maximum wheelbase requirement).

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas is full of show-offs. Aftermarket companies show off vehicles packed to the gills with the latest doo-dads. OEMs display their newest rigs, and models show off their, um, assets to help sell parts and stay off the brass poles a few blocks away.

If the Jp staff is going to take a vacation, er...work trip to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, then we're going to get in as much wheeling as possible. But what to do and where to go? Cappa did some searching on the Internet and, in addition to naked tattooed chicks, he stumbled across the Oahu Jeepers club, who graciously invited us to tag along with them in our rental Jeep for a day.

Welcome to backyard wheeling. No, we're not saying that everyone in Texas has so much land that they can sport their own off-road park. We're talking about the continuation of Jp's burgeoning trend toward covering the cool wheeling spots near your hometown. We like the fact that we're getting invitations from all over the country to come hang out with fellow wheelers in their backyard playgrounds. It gives us a chance to bring our cameras and show the rest of the world the types of vehicles and terrain that dominate out-of-the-way areas. After all, there are only so many times we can show you Moab's Potato Salad Hill and Truckhaven's silty hill climbs.

While this is only the second year for the Kentucky Mountain Crawler's Southern Shine Crawl, they've got everything lined up for a long, successful run of awesome events.

Every year you see events like Easter Jeep Safari, All-4-Fun, and the Chile Challenge in Jp and other magazines. Ever wonder why? Because they offer the best wheeling you can find, amazing Jeeps, hard trails, and expert coordination. The Las Cruces 4WD Club has been hosting the Chile Challenge in conjunction with the winter quarterly meeting for the Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association for more than 15 years now. More than 400 participants from all over the country came this year to try their luck in the Robledo Mountains OHV trail system. These trails were developed by the Las Cruces 4WD Club and the BLM and feature rock-filled canyons and dry waterfalls to test the mettle of even the most seasoned Jeep owner.

The sun was just coming up as we hit the snow-covered roads, with temperatures barely reaching freezing. The brutal winds didn't give us much hope of finding more than an empty parking lot with a few loyal patrons waiting to hit the trails. We reached the top of the hill heading into Paragon Adventure Park in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, expecting to see nothing. Instead, we found a crowded parking lot and a huge line of people waiting to get inside and sign up for what was feared to be the park's final weekend.

Don't forget to check out Pages 2, 3, & 4 for even more photos!

Take a bunch of vintage rigs over a run like the Sierra Nevada's Rubicon Trail, Moab's Poison Spyder Mesa Trail, or Big Bear's John Bull Trail? You'll be there all day winching and wrenching, right? Nah. You don't need super-mega-secret Low range, monster tires, or 300 hp to tackle tricky trails. All you need is a Jeep and a driver who can keep a level head.

We got an invite from the Vegas Valley 4 Wheelers to attend the 26th annual Hump and Bump Trail Rides near the end of 2006. We figured a day in the dirt was just what we needed after attending the weeklong bling fest that the SEMA show was, so we jumped at the chance.

The date was March 31, 2007. The place: Phoenix, Arizona. The reason we were there: to see the largest collection of Forward Control Jeeps we'd ever be likely to see celebrating the 50th anniversary of the FC's introduction.

To say we were disappointed with the '06 SEMA Show in Las Vegas wouldn't be totally true. We can say this-this year's SEMA was about three things: the new JK Wrangler, spray-in bedliners, and truck tonneau covers. So if you were in the market for one of those things, you were in hog heaven.

In case you haven't noticed, over the past few issues we've been making an effort to bring you wheeling from parts of the country other than the West Coast and Southwest. It's not that the Jp staff doesn't want to wheel other parts of the country, it's just that it's pretty hard to leave our comfy little corner of the world where fall, winter, and spring temperatures rarely rise above 75 degrees, dip below 55 degrees, and where it's too dry to breed disease-carrying insects.

Do you ever pull into a crowded parking lot, trolling for an open spot and dream of it being a parking lot full of dirt, obstacles, and hard-core wheeling right at your fingertips? If you were in York, Pennsylvania, at the York Expo Center this past July 22nd and 23rd, that was no dream-it was the 11th Annual PA All Breeds Jeep Show.