The 7th Annual Trail Hero is a weeklong event with five days of guided trails, a golf tourney, parties, and music concerts. In the midst of that, Baja Designs were able to run trails every day, hang out with incredible people as well as explore some of the most beautiful landscapes Utah has to offer. Trail Hero brought all the action and more, from Jeeps to rock crawlers and UTVs we had an incredible week in Sand Hollow.
Sand Hollow State Park is located in Southwest Utah, just 15 miles from St. George; it is home to 20,000 acres of OHV-accessible trails full of insane rock crawling, amazing views, and epic sand dunes. This year marked the 7th annual event for Trail Hero, and we were invited out as a premier sponsor along with our parent company Bestop.
Of course, Baja Designs wasn’t going to go out to Trail Hero and not go hit the trails with all our new Jeep friends. Thanks to our friends at Mickey Thompson, they lent us a Jeep Gladiator built by Rockstar Garage. This Jeep was equipped with 40″ Mickey Thompson Baja Legend MTZ tires and a full Baja Designs lighting package. Two Baja Designs LP6 in the Bumper, 40″ S8 mounted on the hood, squadrons mounted on the pillar, and a pair of S2 mounted in the bumper as chase lights. Controlling all of it was a sPOD BantamX Touch.
After a few days of wheeling with our Bestop family and getting to know the trails ripping in the sand dunes with some friends from Master Fabrication, it was time for our Baja Designs official night run up Milts Mile. A little history about the trail as it was one of the first developed in the Sand Hollow area of Sand Mountain. It was developed by Milt Thompson, a local 4×4 shop owner that first ran it in his Jeep Willys years ago. Ever since, it has evolved into one of the most iconic trails in San Hollow that has an established trail rating of 7 with many challenging obstacles and plenty of bypasses around it. When you add the element of running the trail in the darkness, you lose the breathtaking views but gain a new challenge.
Over 60 different vehicles joined us on our official Baja Designs night run at Trail Hero, consisting of Jeeps, Toyotas , and even a few UTVs. As the sun set over the Sand Hollow Reservoir, we took to the trail night fell fast, and the lights came on. What an incredible sight to see, meeting new people on the trail, helping spot, and even witnessing a few trail breaks; though it was all good fun, we laughed and made great memories. Even though Milts Mile is 2.6 miles long, it took us almost four hours to complete. Even though we could have hiked it faster than we drove, we don’t regret one single minute of it as it was a joy lighting the way for our night run.
Trail hero is an event for enthusiasts; whether you are a first-timer with a new Jeep JL or you are an experienced rock crawler with a moon buggy, Trail Hero offers a wide range of trails to experience and enjoy. And at the end of the day, we want to get out on the trail, meet new people and enjoy the off-road experience. This event was one for the books, and we can’t wait till next year. Some might say we have a newfound appreciation for Jeeps.
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