It’s the often-copied, never-duplicated extreme off-roading adventure trip that started it all. Take a big group of extreme off-road rigs, a gang of crazy sleep-deprived dirt junkies, and a week-long diet of hardcore trails, brutal road days, and no trailers allowed and you’ve got Petersen’s 4 Wheel & Off-Road’s Ultimate Adventure. For this, the 17th Ultimate Adventure, we gathered our usual cast of characters, including some lucky invited 4-Wheel & Off-Road readers, aftermarket advertisers who sponsor the Ultimate Adventure, our support crew of cronies, and the magazine staff and headed to the high desert of California to begin what would be one of the most epically scenic and technically challenging UAs to date. As usual, UA2016 ticked all the boxes like long-distance road driving, hardcore wheeling, camping, exploring, comradery, vehicular failure and trailside repair, and just plain seeking adventure for which the UA has become well known. This year we’re skipping video of the boring tech inspection and check-in process so we can dive right into our first trail day of hardcore rockcrawling in 120-degree desert heat. We gathered in our hotel parking lot in Ridgecrest, California, before caravanning northeast to the Isham Canyon Trail. For more action, videos, pictures check out www.4wor-ua.com.