Super Celebration (SuperCel) Events, sponsored by Bronco Driver Magazine, are well known among Bronco owners and increasingly well attended multiday affairs in Tennessee (East), Colorado (West), and Wisconsin. In early October, SuperCel was extended to a new destination, Carson City, Nevada, which is a great setting in late fall for both enjoying sunny (but not too hot) weather and taking advantage of challenging and scenic off-roading terrain.
Being a resident of southern California, I was excited to see earlier in 2023 that Bronco Driver had decided to set up an event in Nevada (even though we have some great spots still available in California - just saying Bronco Driver). It was close enough, though, that I added my name to the attendee list the day registration opened in August. Next came the wait, and it seemed to take forever for October to arrive this year. When the week of SuperCel finally approached, my wife made fun of me for having my Bronco packed and ready to go a full week ahead of event. My excuse was that I was taking an extended road trip afterward to Michigan, so was just ensuring I had everything I needed and sufficient time to double, triple, and quadruple check my packing list. Okay, I was anxious to have fun with other Bronco enthusiasts!
I ultimately set out for Carson City on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd, driving up the eastern side of the California Sierra Mountains for most of the trip. Stopped and camped overnight at 8600 ft elevation, just short of the Nevada state line, where I enjoyed a crisp night (26F) and the California fall color change (yes, I know it doesn’t quite compare to fall colors in the mid-west and back east– we just basically get yellow, but we have great sunsets 😊).
The next morning (Oct. 4th) I made the short drive through the last bit of California and into Nevada, arriving at Mills Park in Carson City as SuperCel Nevada was just getting underway. Early attendees started showing up throughout late morning and into the afternoon. However, the only organized event for the first afternoon was a scenic/sightseeing drive to Reno, so I decided to team up with my friend Tony Costa and went out on a trail adventure of our own. We headed out east of Carson City to Eldorado Canyon, an area Tony had been off-roading in the past.
Along the service road out to the trailhead, we came across a family (husband, wife, and three young girls) who had driven their newer model pickup with a loaded trailer up to see the canyon and abandoned mining area. The service road at this point had become strewn regularly with decent sized rocks, so was no place for either his street truck or a non-offroad trailer. Not surprisingly, the trailer frame had broken on the trail and become separated from the truck hitch. They were of course glad to see us show up and we helped them turn the trailer and truck around on the narrow road so that they were pointed back down toward town. Unfortunately, their trailer needed to be welded back together, so we couldn’t do much to help fix it on the trail. As such, we advised them to transfer as much of their gear as they could from the trailer to their truck bed and then head back to town to get appropriate help.
We then headed out again in the other direction towards the canyon. When we arrived at the trailhead, we started off driving through a creek and a short mud bog, which covered the Broncos top and bottom (and inside for Tony, who had put on his Bimini top) in “Zombie” mud - a mix of sand, slime and some other mud-like substance that takes forever to rinse off, I discovered later. We next stopped to check out an abandoned silver mine and take some drone aerials of the area. The trail from this point soon became unpassable due to overgrown brush, so we returned to the powerline service road and kept going east for several miles.
We both went BAJA mode on this section and got the Broncos up to 70 mph for stretches of the trail (I had the misfortune of eating Tony’s dust). The service road eventually passed by a small dry lakebed, which we detoured onto to have an embarrassingly slow drag race. Not too far from the lakebed, we intersected back with the highway about 30 miles east of Carson City. From there we headed back to Mills Park and spent the last bit of the afternoon chatting with some of the sponsors/vendors and newly arrived attendees. To close out the evening, we headed out for dinner in downtown Carson City, which has lots of dining options. For us, an Italian restaurant called Cucino Lupa ended up being an excellent choice.
Day 2 (Thursday) of SuperCel started early and included an agenda full of both scenic and challenging trail drives. Somewhere between 30-40 Broncos (a good mix of 1st gen, full-size, and 6Gens) had arrived by now and split up during the day on the various runs. Tony and I joined a group that was going out to Prison Hill OHV just outside of town for a “moderate” danger level trail run. The trial leader took the group out to the highest hill in the OHV park, which overlooked the nearby prison area as well as Carson City. After the drive back, the group spent time playing around in a small slick rock area near the end of the trail. The trail leader got a bit too ambitious, though, and ended up jamming his 1st Gen Bronco sideways in a crevice, which he had to be winched out by myself and another 6Gen Bronco in order to avoid shearing off the side of his vehicle. Later that evening the local Ford Dealer hosted a social event for SuperCel attendees on their lot and had a BBQ food truck and live music. This same dealer also generously provided an ARB fridge/freezer and two jump start battery packs as drawing prizes for SuperCel attendees.
Day 3 (Friday) of SuperCel had a similar agenda to Thursday with several scenic drives as well as a couple challenging trail runs. Tony and I joined a group in the morning going out to Virginia City, which is a small historic town near Carson City where they recreate old western gun fights and have lots of souvenir shops. Tony had to leave at noon to travel home, so I returned to Carson City and toured the Nevada State Railroad museum – a worthwhile attraction in the area. At the end of the afternoon, I was back at Mills Park for a small Bronco extravaganza (die cast models, RCs, etc.) planned by the SuperCel organizers. I was fortunate to catch the judge’s eye with my look-alike mini-Bronco RC and ended up taking first place in the adult division. Personally, I would have awarded 1st to the guy next to me who had a 1/10 scale matching RC version of his 2nd Gen Bronco….sorry, better luck next time.
Day 4 (Saturday) of SuperCel was Show & Shine day at Mills Park. Around 60+ Broncos were on display during the morning hours including good numbers of both well-preserved and highly-modified 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gens, an abundance of 6Gens, and even a handful of Bronco IIs. As the event area was centrally located in town, a lot of spectactors stopped by to admire the wide range of Bronco offerings. After the Show & Shine, the organizers raffled off a decent assortment of Bronco accessories to attendees. I really liked that they had you put your raffle tickets into boxes assigned to a particular prize for the drawing, as this kept people for winning things that they didn’t need or that wouldn’t fit their model/year. In my opinion, all event raffles should adopt this approach, especially those where Jeepers attend because I definitely have no use for Jeep parts (😉).
Overall, the first Nevada SuperCel was a fun social event and hopefully a good start to years of future editions. Going forward, I would like to see them expand the offerings of off-road/danger drives, as there is plenty of challenging four-wheeling in the area beyond the limited area (Prison Hill OHV) they used this year.