Bulldog Canyon - FR 3512

The Trail:

Bulldog Canyon requires a free Bulldog Canyon pass (information available here). This trail is very popular and relatively easy to run. It takes about 15 minutes to drive from the FR 3512 gate to Cottonwood Spring. There are a few locations where there are some larger ruts and rocks, but most stock 4x4s should be able to navigate it without any problems. After Cottonwood Spring the trail gets a bit rougher.

Rating:

2.0 - 3.0 depending on how far you travel on the trail

Runs:

Date: 3/1/2009

Suspension: Stock

Photos:

Cottonwood Spring:

Time for some lunch:

Date: 10/25/2009

Suspension: TeraFlex 2.5" Spring Lift, BFG 35x12.50x17

Photos:

Start of the trail:

An interesting rock formation along the way:

More trail:

Moving along:

It gets a little rougher:

Stopped where we ate lunch the last trip:

Heading up the rock and continuing on:

A bit more rocky - doesn't look as bad as it was:

Jane saw thus guy crossing the road, and Joe got a picture of him. He wasn't disturbed by us at all, he just kept walking along:

A little more rocks to navigate:

More rocks to navigate:

A little more rocks:

Some more rocks, man they sure don't look as bad in the pictures as they did when we were driving over them:

Instead of going over a waterfall we took this bypass up a hill:

Some scenery along the way:

A tamer part of the trail and some more rock formations:

A rockier portion:

Here's a good example of how the pictures don't always show how the trail really looks. This picture was taken from the Jeep:

Here's the picture from where Joe was standing - looks a bit worse:

Another view from the Jeep as we get into the rocks more:

Weeeeeee:

This is were we decided to stop and eat lunch - not a good idea to go further without some backup:

Jane found a natural cave near where we parked:

It even had a skylight:

Looking out from the cave:

A view from where we ate lunch. You can't see them in the picture, but we watched one or two dozen quail walking along the hill - looking for food I suspect:

Heading back out toward some rocks:

A rockier section:

We walked up a rock formation that some other vehicles drove up - not us:

We bypassed this waterfall coming in. It looked a lot worse coming in:

Here's another waterfall we bypassed on the way in:

Another waterfall we bypassed on the way in:

Scoping out the larger waterfall we bypassed on the way in. That spot in the foreground appears to be were some vehicle flopped and dumped some oil and glass:

A view from the other side. We have to drive off-camber to the left of the boulder:

Made if past the off-camber/oil spot and at the base of the waterfall:

Heading up the waterfall:

Some more rocks on the way out:

Date: 3/27/2010 - a small group checking out the flowers

Suspension: TeraFlex 2.5" Spring Lift, BFG 35x12.50x17

Photos:

In the wash. There was still some water running from the rain we had earlier in the week:

Still in the wash:

A bit rockier:

Turning out of the wash:

Back in the wash coming down over a small waterfall:

The rocks are getting a bit bigger:

Scenery along the way:

Need to drive up on some rocks:

Another obstacle to navigate:

Some flowers we found down in the wash:

Some more flowers:

More flowers:

We came to this obstacle and stopped. The rains washed away most of the stacked rocks and there was no way we could have made it:

Another view of the obstacle area:

Another view of the area. You can see Jane and Maggie down near a turn in the wash:

Heading back... Which way do we go?:

We stopped before the small waterfall to explore a little and found these interesting green flowers:

Coming back over the waterfall:

We thought Jesse stopped for us to take a picture, but you can see he was just barely high centered on the rear differential:

You can see the driver side rear tire spinning and the passenger side front tire smoking:

We just had to find a thin rock to wedge between the rear drivers tire and the rocky wash so Jesse could back up then move forward, then just a little more rocks on the rear to clear the diff and continued forward. We de-stacked after getting un-stuck: