Homeland Security: Buzzed by eagles and hornets, we tramp California's Salt Trail in America's most up-armored off-roaders.
APRIL 2008 BY AARON ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORGAN SEGAL
Glaciers that were ducking and running from Southern California about two million years ago left behind a deep thumbprint in the jagged desert backcountry 200 miles straight north of Los Angeles. The Saline Valley was so named by 19th-century prospectors who stumbled upon the exceptionally pure salt playa left at the valley???s low point, like a bathtub stain.
You don???t need a Hummer or a Jeep, but everybody needs salt, about one-quarter teaspoon daily, the federal government reckons. And back in 1911, when salt harvesting in the Saline Valley achieved industrial scale, salt was the primary food preservative. However, mules couldn???t get the twinkling cake back to civilization profitably. So from 1911 to 1914, with typical how-the-West-was-won gusto, the Saline Valley Salt Company tackled the problem by constructing a 14-mile aerial tramway, then the longest and highest in the world, to chairlift salt out of the valley.
Pinched between 10,975-foot Mount Inyo to the west and 5678-foot Ubehebe Peak in Death Valley National Park to the east, the Saline Valley is today much as it was then, accessed by just a few rough-hewn trails tracing those left behind by the Panamint Indians. Passage through the Inyo Mountains is by pedigreed off-roader only???unless you???re at the pointy end of an Air Force F-15 Eagle or Marine F/A-18 Hornet. The Saline Valley lies at the north end of the military???s R-2508 Special Use Airspace Complex, a vast air-power playground spanning much of the upper Mojave Desert and reaching from the edge of space to 200 feet above dirt.
To enjoy the Arsenal of Democracy???s best free, all-day air show, plus examine the tramway towers that are on the National Register of Historic Places after 90 years of defying the torrid desert weather, we saddled up America???s two toughest four-door rawhides.
The Hummer H3 Alpha and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon have the military as their design muse and are outliers in a sport-utility market gone limp-wristed with crossovers. But from there the similarities thin out. Hummer???s newest model, the ???08 Alpha, is leather lined, electronics stuffed, and fitted with a 5.3-liter V-8 inplace of the just-enough base five-cylinder. The sticker starts $9710 higher than the Jeep???s, and with a $1720 navigation system plus an $850 camera for backing up and a $390 trailer hitch, reaches a mighty $42,865, minus the inevitable discounting (at press time, rebates on regular-grade ???07 H3s were $5500).
A four-door Wrangler was added to the lineup for the 2007 model year to ovations from Jeep fans. Starting at $30,195, Unlimited Rubicons get front and rear lockable differentials, crawl gearing, a switch to disconnect the front anti-roll bar for more axle swing, and 32-inch BFGoodrich rock eaters. Except for the $1275 nav and multimedia system, our options were three figures or less: $825 for the automatic trans, $695 for the Freedom Top removable three-piece hard roof, $225 for pearl-coat paint, and $50 for floor mats. Total: $33,265.
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2008 Hummer H3 Alpha vs. 2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
Homeland Security: Buzzed by eagles and hornets, we tramp California's Salt Trail in America's most up-armored off-roaders.
APRIL 2008 BY AARON ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORGAN SEGAL
Glaciers that were ducking and running from Southern California about two million years ago left behind a deep thumbprint in the jagged desert backcountry 200 miles straight north of Los Angeles. The Saline Valley was so named by 19th-century prospectors who stumbled upon the exceptionally pure salt playa left at the valley???s low point, like a bathtub stain.
You don???t need a Hummer or a Jeep, but everybody needs salt, about one-quarter teaspoon daily, the federal government reckons. And back in 1911, when salt harvesting in the Saline Valley achieved industrial scale, salt was the primary food preservative. However, mules couldn???t get the twinkling cake back to civilization profitably. So from 1911 to 1914, with typical how-the-West-was-won gusto, the Saline Valley Salt Company tackled the problem by constructing a 14-mile aerial tramway, then the longest and highest in the world, to chairlift salt out of the valley.
Pinched between 10,975-foot Mount Inyo to the west and 5678-foot Ubehebe Peak in Death Valley National Park to the east, the Saline Valley is today much as it was then, accessed by just a few rough-hewn trails tracing those left behind by the Panamint Indians. Passage through the Inyo Mountains is by pedigreed off-roader only???unless you???re at the pointy end of an Air Force F-15 Eagle or Marine F/A-18 Hornet. The Saline Valley lies at the north end of the military???s R-2508 Special Use Airspace Complex, a vast air-power playground spanning much of the upper Mojave Desert and reaching from the edge of space to 200 feet above dirt.
To enjoy the Arsenal of Democracy???s best free, all-day air show, plus examine the tramway towers that are on the National Register of Historic Places after 90 years of defying the torrid desert weather, we saddled up America???s two toughest four-door rawhides.
The Hummer H3 Alpha and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon have the military as their design muse and are outliers in a sport-utility market gone limp-wristed with crossovers. But from there the similarities thin out. Hummer???s newest model, the ???08 Alpha, is leather lined, electronics stuffed, and fitted with a 5.3-liter V-8 inplace of the just-enough base five-cylinder. The sticker starts $9710 higher than the Jeep???s, and with a $1720 navigation system plus an $850 camera for backing up and a $390 trailer hitch, reaches a mighty $42,865, minus the inevitable discounting (at press time, rebates on regular-grade ???07 H3s were $5500).
A four-door Wrangler was added to the lineup for the 2007 model year to ovations from Jeep fans. Starting at $30,195, Unlimited Rubicons get front and rear lockable differentials, crawl gearing, a switch to disconnect the front anti-roll bar for more axle swing, and 32-inch BFGoodrich rock eaters. Except for the $1275 nav and multimedia system, our options were three figures or less: $825 for the automatic trans, $695 for the Freedom Top removable three-piece hard roof, $225 for pearl-coat paint, and $50 for floor mats. Total: $33,265.
"Jeep out, Grand Cherokee / Hit the highway and you stare at me"
In case you missed it.
This was an attempt to drive over the fence on the US Mexico border.
"Show me a 14ft fence and I will show you a 15ft ladder"