White Pockets Road in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument - Is it doable in a 2023 Forester Wilderness?

evanpeters14

New Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2024
Messages
4
Location
Phoenix
Car Year
2023
Car Model
Forester Wilderness
Transmission
CVT
Hello all,

I'm planning to head to Vermillion Cliffs in April and go to White Pockets. In reading reviews on Alltrails, I've seen that most people have done it in a Jeep or truck. I saw one person that did it in a Forester, but said she barely got through. Any tips for driving in sand with a Forester? Been told I should turn off traction control but I'm not sure how to do that on the 2023 Wilderness other than the Deep Snow/Mud setting on X-mode? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advance!
 
First thing to do is remove the plastic underbody engine shield and replace it with a proper sump guard (oil pan protector, in US English).

Driving in soft sand will automatically remove this anyway, i.e. rip it off ...
Secondly, a proper sump guard is mandatory for any kind of off road driving, other than a relatively smooth dirt tracks.

I have a substantial ding in my 2006 Forester sump, which fortunately doesn't hit any internal parts, from before I fitted a sump guard.

An :welcome: to this friendly forum.
 
Thanks for the welcome! Would doing something like that affect my manufacturer's warranty though? Was curious about how adding parts for offroading would affect that. I appreciate the help/advice!
 
G'day & Welcome over here too ;) @evanpeters14 Adding a sump guard will not affect warranty.

Obviously I do not know the area but one site I looked at said (Oct 2021):
" First, you ABSOLUTELY need a 4WD (read: NOT AWD) vehicle with decent clearance to get to White Pocket. A Subaru won’t cut it. You’ll be driving for over an hour on deep, rutted sand. Getting stuck is a real possibility."

Another site says "The roads that access White Pocket Trailhead consist of deep sand and patches of sharp rock. Four-wheel-drive high-clearance vehicles are required. Every year, many groups get stuck and stranded on the way to this trailhead as a result of attempting the drive without enough experience or in inappropriate vehicles."

But I do know that Subies love sand! Are you traveling with other vehicle/s?

These may prove interesting:
Stock Foz do this kind of sand? | https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/stock-foz-do-this-kind-of-sand.188977/
 
G'day & Welcome over here too ;) @evanpeters14 Adding a sump guard will not affect warranty.

Obviously I do not know the area but one site I looked at said (Oct 2021):
" First, you ABSOLUTELY need a 4WD (read: NOT AWD) vehicle with decent clearance to get to White Pocket. A Subaru won’t cut it. You’ll be driving for over an hour on deep, rutted sand. Getting stuck is a real possibility."

Another site says "The roads that access White Pocket Trailhead consist of deep sand and patches of sharp rock. Four-wheel-drive high-clearance vehicles are required. Every year, many groups get stuck and stranded on the way to this trailhead as a result of attempting the drive without enough experience or in inappropriate vehicles."

But I do know that Subies love sand! Are you traveling with other vehicle/s?

These may prove interesting:
Stock Foz do this kind of sand? | https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/stock-foz-do-this-kind-of-sand.188977/
Thank you Kevin! We may be pushing White Pocket off for a future date, seems like it may be worthwhile to rent a true high clearance vehicle with 4x4 and I do not own much offroad recovery gear right now. Appreciate the help! That thread was helpful to read through, thanks!
 
What should be added here is that EXPERIENCE is a big factor in all aspects of driving, and specially in any sort of off road driving.

That said, I have driven my unmodified 1993 Impreza places that I would not have driven my 1968 Landcruiser. Easily ...

Our current Foresters are enormously more capable than my 1993 Impreza.

However, I'm a pretty experienced driver off road, having learned to drive in exactly these conditions in both a WWII Jeep and a variety of tractors in my teenage years.

Caution is your friend and ally, always.
 
Thank you Kevin! We may be pushing White Pocket off for a future date, seems like it may be worthwhile to rent a true high clearance vehicle with 4x4 and I do not own much offroad recovery gear right now. Appreciate the help! That thread was helpful to read through, thanks!
I had a look at Google Images of Vermillion Cliffs & White Pocket, I can truly see why you want to go there, it looks magnificent. 👍
 
What should be added here is that EXPERIENCE is a big factor in all aspects of driving, and specially in any sort of off road driving.

That said, I have driven my unmodified 1993 Impreza places that I would not have driven my 1968 Landcruiser. Easily ...

Our current Foresters are enormously more capable than my 1993 Impreza.

However, I'm a pretty experienced driver off road, having learned to drive in exactly these conditions in both a WWII Jeep and a variety of tractors in my teenage years.

Caution is your friend and ally, always.
I do not have much experience offroading, which is part of the reason I think we're going to push White Pockets and likely take a tour when we go. I'll leave the drive to someone else (for now) until I get some more offroad experience!
 
I do not have much experience offroading, which is part of the reason I think we're going to push White Pockets and likely take a tour when we go. I'll leave the drive to someone else (for now) until I get some more offroad experience!
I think that is a very sensible decision, Evan.

Even with a lifetime of experience under my belt, I managed to give myself a sub-dural haematoma during our latest 7,000 km road trip!

The neurosurgeon agrees that some 600 kms of badly corrugated roads almost certainly caused this (I'm nearly 77 y.o.).

I intend to write this up fully once I have progressed further with my recovery.

Our 2006 Forester handled it all superbly, my aging brain, not so well ...

I had a serious headache for 31 days after the offending road (track), and collapsed at home on the 15th of January this year.

Two operations to date, one for the initial sub-dural haematoma followed by the second for an ensuing stroke plus further sub-dural haematomas a week or two later ... I've spent most of the last 3 months in hospital.

It's been a very edifying experience, and I'm more than just lucky to be alive, with apparently no significant long term deficits.

The mortality rate for a first sub-dural haematoma is between 50 and 90 percent ...
 
@Ratbag
I had no idea what a sub-dural haematoma was, I knew what a haematoma was, sub-dural I had to Google.
You are so, so lucky to have survived those sub-dural haematoma's.
I'm a couple of years behind you, but my lower back around the L5 area is my weakest link at the moment.
 
Yeah, Peter - life is what happens while we are planning other things!

My entire lumbar spine is knackered, including the five discs and ten facet joints, so you have my sincere sympathy.
 
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