It was a hot July afternoon as our convoy of four Jeep Rubicons cruised along Cummings Parkway high above Midway in the heart of the Wasatch Back. Like a miniature Easter Jeep Safari, we cut through the dust, gazing across to the hazy silhouette of Mt. Timpanogos and American Fork Canyon. The Sn ake Creek Canyon Jeep ride, following remnants of old State Highway 220, is one of my favorite Wasatch adventures. The scenery is spectacular, and the trail offers just enough challenge to make you feel like you’ve accomplished something. But this day was never really about the road. As we gathered at our Silver Creek barn before leaving, our guests surprised us with bright green Tom’s Tours T-shirts — remnants of shirts from our Yellowstone trip together decades ago. I laughed when I pulled it on. But it made me stop and think. This wasn’t simply another Jeep ride. It was the latest chapter in a story that had been unfolding with dear friends for half a century. Our convoy included three generations of family friends from Wisconsin. Cindy was one of Carole’s young babysitters nearly 50 years ago. She and her husband, Carey, visit Park City almost every summer. Their children grew up exploring Utah’s mountains and red rock canyons. Now they were introducing those same places to their own children. That’s the remarkable thing about mountain adventures. They have a way of becoming family heirlooms. The destination is rarely what people remember most. Years later, they’ll recall laughing over the radio, poring through Wasatch Wildflowers to identify red flowers along the trail, or getting their wife’s reluctant blessing to tackle the hill climb that looked so inviting. The mountains simply provide the stage. The families write the story. Every memorable adventure needs the right ingredients: a little fun, a little uncertainty, something new to discover, a moment that nudges you outside your comfort zone, and just enough surprises that, 20 years later, you’re still telling the stories to another generation. Siblings Ashley and Chris, along with cousin Vanessa, were part of the original adventure trips as kids. We explored the Wasatch, had a cookout at the base of the Grand Teton, Jeeped Hell’s Revenge in Moab, rafted the Snake River, and posed with the antler arch in Afton, Wyoming. It was pushing 95 degrees as we aired down at the Wasatch State Park trailhead before climbing the switchbacks up to the ridgeline. The track up to Big Flat beckoned, so we pulled our four rigs off the road to stage. “This is a trail that requires skillful tire placement,” I called out on the radio, along with a warning about the tempting hill climb track to our right. As we headed up the trail, I suddenly lost sight of my tailgunner. A voice crackled over the radio. “Hey, where do I go now?” Sure enough, Chris had taken the hill climb challenge — giving his kids a real taste of adventure. “It was kind of scary midway up when you lose sight of the trail over the hood of the Jeep,” he admitted later. We rejoined in a mountain meadow, with stands of lupine, scarlet paintbrush and firecracker penstemon forming a tapestry on a summer day. I held out little hope for the Big Flat mudhole I had navigated a few weeks earlier. But alas, there it was! There’s really nothing like a little water to spice up a trail ride. It’s a Jeep thing. One by one, each driver summoned his youth and put their BFG All-Terrains to the test. Splash went the Rubicons, water and mud flying up and over the hood. Wives and children held their breath, then let out whoops of joy. Today’s edition of Sunday Drive isn’t so much about a new destination you can take your family next weekend. It’s more about the experiences you can offer them every day. It’s an encouragement to live a little out of the ordinary. Seek new horizons. Say yes to the unexpected. Instill in your kids a sense of adventure. On a dusty road high up in the mountains, six young kids gained memories that will bring them back with their own families someday. As John Denver so eloquently sang in “Country Roads”, “… all my memories, gather round here. …” A younger Chris summed it up years ago on his first Tom’s Tours expedition years ago: “It’s crazy, but fun!” The post Sunday Drive: A convoy of memories appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less