Easter Jeep Safari 2010 officially kicked off today in Moab, Utah. The annual gathering of Jeepers and off-road enthusiasts are still piling into town, but those here early enough were heading out on trail rides before the sun warmed up the brisk Utah morning.

Off-Road.com was invited to attend an organized ride at the Area BFE trail ride, which was put on by Hanson Offroad, Goodyear Tires, Full Traction Suspension, PureJeep.com and Superior Axle and Gear. Over 40 vehicles showed up for the ride, and after coffee and some ground rules on the ride (“don’t roll”), the group headed out on for a morning of wheelin’.

We took trail "Green Day" on the hosted Area BFE ride on Monday at 2010 Easter Jeep Safari.

For those who have yet to experience Area BFE, which is kind of in “BFE” off an easy-to-miss turnoff on I-70, it is 320 acres of private land purchased by four off-road enthusiasts Olaf Kiltahau, Chris Brunner (our guide for the day), Robert Lucero and Sal Marinello. The land became available for public auction and the group purchased it about six years ago. Since then, the area has been a recreation spot for off-roaders and has hosted a number of rock-crawling events over the years.

The wash section of Green Day presented a challenge for the group.

There are four main trails at Area BFE that include Strike Ravine, Green Day, Minor Threat and Helldorado. Our large caravan took on Green Day, which is described as beginner to expert mainly because there are “easy” routes around most of the major obstacles – it still has some pretty technical sections. The trail itself isn’t super-long, but we made plenty of detours along the way for the more adventurous rigs to tackle some the tougher obstacles – some of which even rock-crawlers weren’t able to complete. We did have one close call with Doug McBurnie’s “Bubba” rig, but some quick thinking and a little bit of luck averted the roll (see the video on this page).

After we finished the ride on Green Day, Goodyear put on a lunch for all the attendees on the ride. It was a great chance to talk about the ride, discuss vehicle modifications (and new repairs), and share war stories about runs at other EJS events. Area BFE is actually putting on four organized rides this week, but we were the lucky first group to tackle it at 2010 EJS. For those in the area, Tuesday, March 30, is a ride sponsored by Crawl Magazine that is open to the public.

My riding partner, Jon Lee of Goodyear, navigates this sandy hill. Dan of Burnsville Off-Road was nice enough to loan us his rig for the ride.

Area BFE stays open through donations and hosted events throughout the year. For more information about the site, check out www.AreaBFE.com.