hey guys, i'm plainning a trip to canyonlands national park in the spring (i know it's a long way off). my friends and i want to bike and drive do the white rim road. according to all the maps and stuff it says that you need a high clearance 4wd. if anybody here has done the road could you let me know if my stock '89 4runner (with 31's) can do it? or am i going to need to get some more travel out of the suspension?

thanks!
mike

 

A Camry could do it--seriously. It is definitely a low clearance, 2WD road.

Do a search for White Rim on here. You'll get to see some pictures.

 

I assume they do some grading occasionally on parts of it, so conditions probably differ, but I don't know about a Camry when I was through there at the end of October! They had had some rain recently so there were a couple of muddy spots (and some pretty deep dried ruts in places) and a few small cuts from the water to go through, one of which was enough that my stock height 3rd gen 4Runner scraped a bit up front somewhere because I wasn't being careful. There were some entrances and exits from washes on the Mineral Road end that were fairly rough and sandy.

Having said all that though, your stock 4R will do fine. I don't have a suspension lift, have basically the same size tires, and was carrying a lot of camping and other gear. I didn't see any hard-core vehicles out there. Most everything looked pretty much stock and I think there was even one Subaru wagon too.

It should be a great bicycle trip. I saw several groups of people on bicycles. I'd like to drive it again myself.