Land Rover Expedition America presses on through the Rocky Mountains

Land Rover Expedition America is more than halfway across the country, three weeks after having departed Asheville, N.C., on their 5,000-mile route through 10 states.

The team is traveling all the way across the country in three Land Rover LR4s -- from sea to shining sea if you will -- almost entirely off-road. The Oregon coast is their destination, and the team is following a route based on an off-road motorcycle trailed created by Sam Corero, a famous off-road motorcyclist who charted this trail back in the 1990s.

Last week the expedition reached its midpoint near Colorado Springs, Colo. Just to get to that point the team has had to put up with near constant 100-degree heat since passing through Mississippi. The Land Rover LR4s crossed the Santa Fe Trail, traveling into Colorado and reaching the Rocky Mountains. The convoy of trucks then spent four days climbing the mountain passes in the Rockies, and there's a good reason why this expedition is taking place during this time of year -- these mountain passes are covered with snow 11 months out of the year.

Land Rover
An LR4 being used the way it was meant to be used.

This week the LR4s are continuing on their trek through Colorado and Utah after successfully crossing the Rockies. The Colorado part of the trip dipped into the town of Trinidad, right on the New Mexico border, and continued northwest through Lake City and Telluride. This route was used by pioneer and stagecoach traffic as the West was being settled.

In Utah now, the expedition has been running off-road parallel to some sections of Interstate 70. But that's the easy part of crossing Utah, as the team has had to navigate razor-sharp rocks in Black Dragon Canyon -- and those are just a few of the dangers that the expedition has to contend with.

Next up is the Nevada Desert, where the heat will test the crews and the vehicles alike. We can't help but think that if the expedition had been timed a little differently, the three LR4s could stop by Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance taking place this week to offer some contrast as well as some demo climbs through the deepest bunkers on the golf course, but the landscape repair bills would likely be high.

By Jay Ramey