The new off-road course at Azusa Canyon is open tomorrow, July 14, 2012.
There’s nothing quite as fun as wheeling close to home, partially because in the event of a breakage, you can usually find a way of limping your truck home but mostly because it’s way cheaper to wheel close to home than it is to drive hundreds of miles before even hitting the dirt. For many Southern California off-road enthusiasts, the San Gabriel Canyon OHV Area, known by many as simply “Azusa”, is located north-east of Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest and is one of the greatest destinations for a weekend of great wheeling action.
Though it’s mostly known for it’s gooey mud pits, Azusa Canyon now has a man made obstacle course thanks to the tremendous efforts of Mike Bishop of the Azusa Canyon Off Road Association (A.C.O.R.A.). Mike has been working on this project for almost twelve years now and over the last year and a half it’s snowballed into one of the coolest obstacle courses in southern California. With the help in funding Mike received from the USDA Forest Service and the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation office, as well as Yamaha and Falken Tire, the new obstacle course is set to open it’s doors July 14, 2012.
Paul Dickerson of Fountain Valley Tire Pros invited us along to catch a first-hand glimpse of the obstacle course at a pre-opening party. We didn’t have to think twice about it – a day of fun in the mountains is always a welcome experience in our book. It sure didn’t hurt that we had been hearing rumors about this obstacle course for quite some time. The obstacle course has everything from easy rock sections for mostly stock trucks all the way up to seriously challenging sections that require lots of articulation, stout axles and big power to get you through the course. By the time you read this the Obstacle Course at the San Gabriel Canyon OHV Area will be open for wheeling.. bring on the rock rash!