Officially, it’s a sand trap.
For unsuspecting off-roaders, sand can be a deceptive and cruel foe. It appears flat and smooth, but if you tread in a soft spot it can swallow vehicles within seconds. This video is from Matt’s Off-Road Recovery. It shows seven vehicles being pulled from the soft sand at Sand Hollow Lake, Utah.
These aren’t shopping-mall cruisers that you’d find on the road. Some of them aren’t, anyway – the first rescue involves a current-generation Subaru WRX. This means a low ride height and low profile tires that are designed to bite pavement, not sand. The Subie is to be commended for almost making it back to terra firme on its own, so the actual extraction took longer than hooking up the towrope.
You can see other machines in need of help if you look at the background before and after the WRX rescue. A Chevrolet Avalanche, a large and powerful vehicle, was hopelessly buried. We can only see the rear wheels turning during rescue. Although it took several tugs to free the truck, you can see the third recovery, a lifted Toyota Tacoma, which was buried to the frame. You can see that the fourth recovery, a stock Jeep Grand Cherokee, is right next to Taco.
After a brief break, the recovery team returned to the same spot for rescue number five. Although the Toyota Tundra with low-profile tires was not ideal for sandy terrain, it was able to be pulled backwards onto more stable ground. As rescue number six, another Jeep was released. A new Chevrolet Silverado was able to tow a personal watercraft and was the last recovery of the day.
An older Jeep Cherokee that’s clearly not stock is the vehicle responsible for all the savings. The vehicle is also quite loud. However, the video explains that it’s not stock. Matt’s Off Road Recovery crew has been very busy. They also have multiple vehicles, including a custom Corvair offroad wagon that’s just insanely cool.
Although we don’t know whether all the rescues were free, we do know that the last Silverado was paid for his efforts and we have an inexhaustible respect for him. We hope they received a tip, as fuel, time and expertise in the sand can be valuable commodities.