With the fall season approaching I wanted to hit the 10,000 ft passes before snowfall blanketed the Sierras. A friend is making the transition from his Jeep CJ7 to 4Runners, having recently picked up a 105,000 mile 3rd gen. He put 19 miles on the odometer before pulling it into the garage and starting the mods. He did all the tune-up items and changed all of the fluids, installed a transmission cooler, the Tundra/OME lift and built some rock sliders and skid plates. This would be the maiden voyage so we stuck with the easier trails.
Here is the group, a 2000 4Runner, 1997 4Runner and a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.
Our area of interest was Sonora Pass on Highway 108. We started on the Niagara Rim trail but got 1,000 ft into it and were stopped by a line of Jeeps being winched over a rock and another Jeep broken shortly beyond that. We turned around and drove out before we got boxed-in by other vehicles. I found another trail on the GPS that met up with Niagara Rim, so opted to bypass the mess and meet up with the trail further up the mountain. I found the views to my liking.
After Niagara Rim we took a trail to a remote Sierra reservoir.
View from the cab: