[Jeffro06]

Today was my first visit to The Cliffs Insane Terrain off road park.



The park is located in Marseilles Illinois. As you drive down Hwy 6, out of Marseilles you had better have your eyes open or you will miss the entrance. It sneaks up on you pretty guick.

Four of us; myself (Jeff), aaronc88 (Aaron), awillard69(Anthony) and GRN_BEAST95, had planned on meeting at the park. Unfortunately we missed GRN_BEAST95...next time.

We did the normal pre-trip stuff, air down, remove disco's, put on flags..pay to get in.


L_R: Aarons, mine & Anthony's.


I washed the jeep the night before...just to get it dirty!

Soon after making our way up the big up hill, into the actuall park area, we came across this whoop section. It's a pretty good test of your articulation.


Aaron gives Anthony some pointers.

Anthony's open diffs limited him in this section, but he moved to the right and made it through.

The park wasn't crowded at all, but there others on the trails. We caught up to a few jeeps, who had in turn caught up with some Land Rovers.


Here we are stopped on the trail...we were out watching an XJ get stuck.

Since the two groups in front of us were momentarily occupied, we opted to take a side trail. I didn't see any trail number, just pink ribbons hanging on the trees.


Anthony gave this obstacle a shot.....


....then moves on to this little down hill.

The trails were pretty cool. Some up hills, down hills, creek crossing and mud holes. Did someone say mud holes?


Aaron found some deep stuff.


Anthony awaits his "turn".

The muck in that hole was tire deep. Aaron backed out and we took the high road. It wasn't long before we found some more mud. Aaron was going through a stretch when we heard something...sounded like a pop of some sort. We thought maybe he popped a bead, but he didn't.


Aaron stops to look for the "pop".

With no damage being found Aaron motored on through. Anthony bypassed this hole, while I went on through.

[Jeffro06]

We found yet another mud hole, which Aaron started to do, but then went around. We got out and checked the depth...seemed ok. I decided to give it a try. Hey why not, Aaron has a winch. I took a few attempts, but I made it. I'll have a video later.


My jeep was a little less clean after that hole.

We eventually got off the green trail and headed down a blue trail...which is, you guessed, a little more difficult. The trail also got much tighter. I'm sure I'll have a few new trail stripes once I was off the mud. We had to remove a down tree to continue on at one point. We ran into a couple of pretty good holes in and amongst the trees. We came to a point where we had a two choices, blaze a new trail through some small trees and brush or drive through a pretty nasty water filled mud hole. The trail wasn't much wider than the jeeps as you approached the hole, and I didn't see how we could turn around, so on we pressed.


Aaron was first.


The water got pretty deep....on the driver side.

Aaron made it through easier than we had actually thought. Anthony was up next. We kind of figured his TJ would get stuck, but with Aaron in front of him we were sure we could get him through.


It looked a bit deeper with the stock TJ.

Anthony didn't make it. It was close, but it required a tow. While getting the snatch 'em strap I heard Anthony say he was getting water inside...not good.


Just before the rescue.

A couple of quick tugs and Aaron had Anthony back on dry ground. Then it was my turn.


I enter the pit....


.....and make my way through.

Being in third in line was an advantage for me, since I had the opportunity to see what worked. I entered the pit with a bit more speed than the other two, and all turned out well.

After clearing this section of the trail we decided to head down to the picnic area for lunch.

Turns out that big hole had caused some damage to Anthony's jeep. The automatic transmission sucked in some water. The TJ wouldn't come out of first gear.

Hind sight is a killer. At the time we decided to go ahead a push on through the hole I never really thought about the auto sucking water. I don't have one, so it didn't set off the warning bell. The sad thing is a club member had the exact same thing happen to him on a club trip to the Badlands. It's one of those moments you wish you could take back.

We decided flushing some of the fluid out of the tranny may improve things. Aaron and Anthony had to make a trip to AutoZone for some ATF+4, while we (me and my son-in-law Josh...should have mentioned hims sooner huh?) stayed with Anthony's jeep.

Once the returned Aaron jumped in, as he always does, and dropped the pan on the tranny. The fluid looked like strawberry milk, not good. Three fresh quarts were added, but it didn't improve anything. Aaron dropped the pan again, added 3 more quarts. Still no improvement.


Anthony, his jeep and Aarons jeep. Pre-repair try.


A final shot of my jeep.


Aaron working on Antony's TJ.

After two attempts with no avail, and the park closing, Aaron and Anthony headed west to a BP gas station, where Anthony was going to arrange for a tow, and possibly a ride from Aaron. Josh and I headed west.

It always sucks to end the day with one of the guys breaking something. At the time you feel like saying, never again, but that feeling eventually goes away.

I do know Anthony got his jeep to a Pepboys and is hoping a flush and fill will bring it back to life....as am I. Good luck man!

Aside from the breakage issue I liked the park. I'll go back. I have heard story after story about how you WILL get body damage at The Cliffs. That just isn't true. You will if you attempt to go on one of the tougher trails in a daily driver I'm sure, but you shouldn't be on those in a DD.

I'll have some videos later. As for now if you want to see all the pictures I took take a look HERE.

Hopefully Aaron and Anthony will have some pics to share as well.

[GRN_BEAST95]

hey i have some pics of me and the guy i was wheelin with. sry if im intruding on your report. i wish we woulda seen u guys sooner. we coulda had 5 jeeps in this convoy. i got stuck like 5 times and george (the guy i was with) pulled me out. He wound up breaking an axel shaft and break line.

we passed these guys on the way in


me getting stuck. i have open diffs too


all my pics ar me stuck pretty much haha heres a few

[teejmcd]

that sucks i didn't make it out but o well. i forgot that i met you at the 4x4 show grn_beast your jeep looks different covered in mud ahahah

[Jeffro06]

Originally Posted by GRN_BEAST95

hey i have some pics of me and the guy i was wheelin with. sry if im intruding on your report.

Glad to see your pics. And it was you I saw, as you guys were heading back out after your lunch.

[GRN_BEAST95]

yea i thought i saw you guys. i shoulda said something. did you guys go back out to the trails after you saw us? cuz we coulda trailed with u guys. oh well next time i guess, right? hey teejmcd, next time you should come too. the more the better.

[awillard69]

Nice report, as usual, Jeff.

[Polecat]

Nice report and pics. Looks like a lot of fun but I'm no fan of mud like that. heh

[Jeffro06]

Here's a vid with clips of some of the best action of the day.

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I'll have more vids, showing all the action, posted soon. I have like 40 minutes worth.

[awillard69]

Sweet video... that mudhole didn't look that bad that I should have gotten water in the trans....

[Jeffro06]

Originally Posted by awillard69

Nice report, as usual, Jeff.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Polecat

Nice report and pics. Looks like a lot of fun but I'm no fan of mud like that. heh

On this day the mud wasn't that bad....you could avoid most of it.

Originally Posted by awillard69

Sweet video... that mudhole didn't look that bad that I should have gotten water in the trans....

I sure didn't expect the outcome we got...

[Jeffro06]

Here are all the videos in their full glory....

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If you watch them all, you'll see the place isn't all mud.

[Polecat]

You can keep your mud. I'll stick to the mountain passes and slickrock when I go wheeling.

[Jeffro06]

Originally Posted by Polecat

You can keep your mud. I'll stick to the mountain passes and slickrock when I go wheeling.

If that were an option for me, I'd probably agree with you. The two hours of cleaning I did this morning wasn't the most fun I've ever had....

[Northsidejeepin]

Thanks for sharing Jeff. Looks like fun, I would be down to go next time for sure. That park seems a little tougher than the badlands, is it?