Bronco Off-Roadeo
When my husband bought his Bronco in 2023, it was not on my radar that I would consider the same vehicle the following year. But lo and behold, I spotted a two-door one day, and it caught my attention. I looked around to see if any dealerships had two-doors available, and the options for what I wanted were minimal. But I found what I was looking for and surprised myself when I loved it after the test drive.
Cue a couple of months later when we realized we could now both attend the off-roadeo and started to talk about if we wanted to try it out. Looking back at the multitude of dealerships that we visited between our two purchases, only one mentioned this experience to us, which is surprising. We looked at our options, and while the Moab location looked gorgeous, Las Vegas made the most sense for travelling from Alberta, Canada. A flight to Vegas is short (and relatively cheap), and the base camp is only a 40-minute drive from the strip, so this location made the most sense.
We were greeted and guided inside the park when we arrived before jumping in a shuttle van to be brought up to base camp. We were checked in, gifted Yeti water bottles with the Bronco logo, and then mingled with the coffee and snacks provided. We started the morning in the beautiful pavilion, where we introduced ourselves and got started. I felt a little out of place in this beginning "classroom" portion, where I was acutely aware of how little I knew about my vehicle and off-roading, but I was prepared to feel like a fish out of water and worked on settling my nerves.
We moved on to the training course to learn some of the basics. My husband lovingly (insert sarcasm here) offered us as the first set of volunteers with me in the driver's seat, perhaps the most nervous I felt all day once all eyes were on me. Luckily, I just had to demonstrate the parking procedure and the technique for tight turns, and I felt good about it! Once we finished up there, we all headed up to pick our rides for the day. I was excited to get a two-door, hoping to mimic my vehicle closely. We split into two groups and went out for an hour of trail driving before lunch.
After lunch, we had another four hours scheduled for trail riding. My guide (Danny Boy) was fantastic! He communicated with the group consistently on our walkie-talkies and was full of fun energy and enthusiasm. As we reached each challenging part of the trail, such as a rock crawl with significant boulders, he was out, guiding each of us through it. Danny was enthusiastic about capturing our experience, so whenever he got us partway through a particularly challenging obstacle, he would grab our phone and capture the moment. I so appreciated this, in part because describing what we did is not well captured in words and because it helped me even better to appreciate what I accomplished once I could see it from the outside.
We wrapped up the day back at the base camp with dinner. Both lunch and dinner were catered and the food was excellent. We also had a chance to visit the gift shop, which had some exclusive items to the Nevada Off Roadeo.
I felt taken care of all day long and the experience was better than I could have imagined. The actual off-roading was a blast but what stood out to me the most was the way in which I was made to feel confident while out on the trails. I've heard that only about 30% of Bronco owners take advantage of this opportunity, which is a real shame! I loved learning more about my vehicle and having what felt like such an exclusive and unique day. If you are able, I highly recommend considering one of the four off-roadeo experiences.