If you've never been to Winter 4x4 Jamboree, we highly recommend putting it on your calendar for 2026! The purpose of this event, is for a cause that is near and dear.

The first one was put on back in 2015, to promote recreation on Sand Mountain in Hurricane Utah. Funds are raised through the event for public land use and protection in Utah and Arizona. The majority of funding goes to UPLA (Utah Public Lands Alliance) and the remaining is distributed to Utah 4WD Association, Washington County Search & Rescue, and the Blue Ribbon Coalition.

Over 35 trails in the Sand Hollow area are featured for the event. Trail guides (many of them local enthusiasts) volunteer to lead and tail gun each group; which is fantastic if you're not familiar with the trails you're going on. Usually we pick trails that we're familiar with... this year however, we picked trails we had never done! The first one? John's Trail!

John's Trail is rated a 7. If you're not familiar with the trail rating system in Sand Hollow, it's worth noting that it's not going to directly correlate with other popular trail systems like Moab. Our trail leader went over a brief description of the trail before we left the staging area.

John's Trail is about 8 miles in length, and it's recommended that you bring a winch, front + rear lockers along with 33" tires at a minimum. This trail is a great blend of amazing views and technical driving opportunities. Just the way we wanted to kick off our time in Sand Hollow!

Vehicles signed up for this run, ranged from short wheelbase 2 door JKs to longer wheelbase Gladiators, and even our friends Joey and Kisha joining us in their Bronco to see what IFS could do on this trail!

For those of you wondering if you should bring your Bronco on this trail, we'll leave that up to you. We definitely found it's limits, but admittedly, this photo above is from an optional line that we chose to play around on during our lunch break. The Bronco successfully did everything required on the trail. It's also worth noting it's nowhere close to factory form between the larger tires, the Rock Krawler Suspension and the 74 Weld Portals giving it all the extra clearance.

For those of you wondering if you should bring your Bronco on this trail, we'll leave that up to you. We definitely found it's limits, but admittedly, this photo above is from an optional line that we chose to play around on during our lunch break. The Bronco successfully did everything required on the trail. It's also worth noting it's nowhere close to factory form between the larger tires, the Rock Krawler Suspension and the 74 Weld Portals giving it all the extra clearance.

For the Jeep's we brought to the run, 35" tires and lockers made most of this a fairly straight forward run. The steep descents towards the beginning of the trail feel a little awkward if you're in a 2 door Wrangler, but as you know, the pictures don't do it justice and you'll have to find out for yourself 😉

Above: The view from John's Trail, as we wheel in the morning shadow of Sand Mountain.

Keep Reading: Day 2 Trail Report from The Ledges!