As with several of the greatest off-road events, the Jeep Jamboree began as just a couple of enthusiasts stumbling upon a quite view. In this case, far more than 70 years ago, Mark Smith was seeking for a spot to fish, when he located the Rubicon Trail.

According to a new video from Jeep celebrating the legendary off-road mecca, which has turn out to be synonymous with its autos, soon after his fishing trip, Smith got property to his wife and stated he’d located the most gorgeous spot on earth. In 1953, he decided to get a couple of his pals at the Rotary Club to join him for a drive on the trail, which is close to Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

“When Mark Smith organized the first Jeep Jamboree with 55 Willys and voyaged across the Sierra Nevada Mountains by way of the Rubicon Trail, off-road recreation was born,” stated Pearse Umlauf, president and CEO of Jeep Jamboree. “The following year, Willys Motors — then manufacturer of Jeep vehicles — became involved with the adventure, and Jeep Jamborees have been an off-road tradition ever since and continue to grow.”

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The trail is regarded as by several to be 1 of the hardest on the planet, and requires drivers about 22 miles (35 km) by means of off-the-grid terrain that rises from five,400 feet to far more than 7,000 feet in elevation (1,646-two,133 meters).

This summer season, far more than 450 Jeep enthusiast flocked to the trail to partake in the Jeep Jamboree. They drove far more than 125 Wranglers and Gladiators along 17.five miles (28 km) of the toughest components of the Rubicon Trail for an off-road adventure like no other (except the 69 that came just before it).

“For more than 80 years, the Jeep brand community has defined the Jeep brand and, for 70 of those years, the Rubicon Trail has been heralded by the community as one of the toughest off-road trails in the world,” stated Jim Morrison, head of the Jeep brand in North America. “Its beauty has put the Rubicon Trail on every Jeep 4×4 customer’s bucket list.”

The namesake of each Rubicon branded Jeep Wrangler considering that 2002, the trail is exactly where Jeep tests the off-road autos to this day to make sure they’re effectively and genuinely as capable as the name suggests.