What it takes to navigate 10 miles offroad where no roads go
This week I made my second trip this month to the El Morro area of Cibola County, New Mexico on a rural land real estate shoot for Hemingway Land. Regular followers of Jason Collin Photography will note that rural land photography is a frequent, and large part of my business. However, I never really detail all that it involves logistically, and then physically, to do a shoot like this that takes me 10+ miles down poorly maintained dirt roads in my Jeep Renegade Trailhawk.
On a recent rural land real estate photo trip to Las Cruces I returned to an area I was in just six weeks earlier. Reaching that rural land property was some of the hardest offroad driving I have had to do in New Mexico. Checking the maps I knew the recent property would require the exact same troublesome washed out, dirt road. However, the desert is an ever changing landscape and this time the road was totally different. Gone were the washed out foot wide gaps, filled in by a chalky sand. This became its own hazard as the chalky sand was inches deep and I had to switch to “sand” traction mode to get through the deeper sections!
Those that know me, know that I love cars, well, special cars. Not all have to be as special as my beloved Aston Martin Vanquish (some day!), but even just the ability to go anywhere, do anything is enough. Getting serious speed in a car is not that affordable, especially for newer models. However, getting serious offroad ability is. When I traded in my faithful and much loved Mazda3 sedan in March for the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk you see here, I was giving up great, affordable on road driving dynamics for the ability to drive offroad anywhere a stock vehicle could.
