As an off-road enthusiast, I’m tickled by the current trend of automakers producing rugged or adventure-focused SUVs. Yes, some of them are in name only, offering owners style rather than substance. And that’s great, if that’s what you need. Personally, I like heading out not simply to an adventure, but I also want getting there to be one, too. Subaru’s Outback Wilderness does both as well as can be done by an SUV without 4×4 capability.
Not far from the Los Angeles basin, give-or-take 65 miles from the guts of the city, sits Hungry Valley State Vehicle Recreation Area (SVRA). This off-road playground offers drivers of all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, or even dune buggies over 130 miles of trails on 19,000 acres. There are beginner to advanced trails that test your off-road driving chops.
I took the Subaru Outback Wilderness out, not to test the vehicle as much as myself. I drive in off-road rally raid competitions and like to stay sharp. Yes, I love driving lifted 4x4s with 35-inch tires and locking differentials, but those can be so overly capable that things feel easy. I find true tests come with an all-wheel drive (AWD) SUV. The Outback Wilderness fits the brief perfectly. It gets some extra ground clearance at 9.5 inches. It gets additional underbody protection just in case I miscalculate and scrape the car’s belly. Plus, it gets X-Mode, a terrain management system that adjusts functions like transmission shifts and engine output depending on the conditions under the all-terrain tires.
I exited Interstate 5 North on Smokey Bear Road. It’s the closest off-ramp to Los Angeles and there’s a ranger station there to pay fees. When I arrived, I was met with a price increase. A day pass now costs $10 instead of $5. I forked it over gladly — I’d pay twice as much to help keep places such as this open.
Hungry Valley Road turns to dirt quickly as I enter the park. For your 10 bucks, you also get a trail map. Trails are well marked, but the map helps plan your route. Pipeline Road serves as the main thoroughfare down the guts of the park. That also means it’s the most drivable. I started there, some of the road becoming washboarded and slightly whooped out by motorcycles.
The Outback Wilderness, because it’s built on a car chassis, stays as comfortable and relaxed as I’m meant to while driving. If I’d had a right seat passenger, they’d be able to keep coffee in a mug, I try to be that smooth. An instructor once told me the keys to off-roading are eye placement, line choice, and staying relaxed. Sage words. I’d add going slow. As with any kind of driving slow is usually fast because it keeps you out of trouble.
Before moving on, I spent a little time at the 4×4 practice area. It’s a spot you can test tire articulation and engaging your off-road goodies like locking differentials or disconnecting sway bars on man-made features. I messed around a bit but left the extreme stuff to the major players.
I decided to crank things up a notch and dip into Mean Black Jeep’s Dry Riverbed. It’s a blue diamond trail that’s in exactly the terrain it describes. Dry riverbeds can offer up myriad challenges. First, there can be no true defined trail. I always opt for the easiest line because I never want to destroy a vehicle. Why make it tougher than it already is? Secondly, the texture of the ground can often be silty and dusty. It’s easy to get bogged down. I throw X-Mode into Deep Snow/Mud mode. This changes the throttle response to allow for more wheel spin. When driving in terrain like sand, snow, or mud, losing momentum can quickly put an end to your fun. More throttle keeps the vehicle above it — this is where eye placement becomes critical. Quickly scanning where I wanted to go kept me moving and unstuck. There was also a great deal of brush in this wash and since this wasn’t my car, I didn’t want to scrape up the paint. My time in Mean Black’s didn’t last long.
Before it got too hot — the temperatures on this Southern California day reached triple digits — I wanted to try Pronghorn Trail. It’s got some steeper inclines and some more challenging obstacles. My friend did it in her off-road Mazda Miata, so it’s nothing the Outback Wilderness couldn’t tackle.
Pronghorn cuts a long semicircle around Hungry Valley and travels somewhat parallel to Pipeline. It’s just up the almost 6,000 feet in elevation you can hit at the SVRA’s peak. The Outback Wilderness gets plenty of power to get up some of the steeper hills and, while I don’t often use the mode, Hill Decent Control, does let you relinquish brake pedal duties to the car. My one gripe is that X-Mode and Hill Decent Control are connected. The latter cannot be disconnected from the former. As a more professional off-roader, I’d prefer it to be an option. But it does a great job reading the slip under your tires quickly and applying grip where you need it most. It’s a confident system that can allow you to focus on where you’re heading instead of what your feet are doing.
As I headed north, there was one trick section. A bit of the trail had been washed out and someone placed rocks to shore up the missing road. This is where tire placement really counts. Nine-and-a-half inches of ground clearance isn’t chintzy; the base model Toyota Tacoma gets 9.4 inches. However, I still needed to place the meat of my driver-side front tire squarely on a rock to make sure I cleared some others. Mission successful.
However, I’d forgotten about a steep rock wall climb just at Waypoint Two, which I wasn’t up for. If I’d had someone else there to help me spot, I might have attempted it, but I didn’t. Safety first, I always say. Instead, I turned back around and headed south and home. The sun was getting high anyway, and while the Outback Wilderness wouldn’t have overheated, I didn’t want to overchallenge my own tolerance.
The name sport utility vehicle gets batted about liberally these days. Now it serves to encompass more than half of the passenger cars sold today — so long as they have a liftgate and elevated ride height. Their utility resides in cargo capacity and moderately improved visibility. Subaru’s Outback Wilderness does more than simply look rugged. It allows you to make driving the adventure not simply the conveyance to get you to it.
