Minivans make great adventure rigs.
The point makes itself. What good is capability and reliability if you can’t bring the gear and people you need to have fun? What use is capability and space if you have to stay within range of a tow truck at all times? Lacking off-road capability limits you, but lacking confidence in your ride’s reliability stops the adventure before it starts.
The degree to which capability matters is also highly overblown. Adventures are about discovery and pushing your own limits, and over dozens of trips a less-capable car has never inhibited either goal. A less capable rig enhances an adventure. Let’s start where I started, in the off-site parking of Seattle-Tacoma International airport, alongside my buddy Mark. Our plans were haphazard, sorted via text from my home in California and his in Boston. We had eight days of camping ahead of us, we didn’t have sites booked for four of those, we didn’t know whether we had two more people coming, and we had only what gear of mine could fit in a checked bag.
The Sienna excelled. After we both got too tired to drive, we folded the third row, slid the second row forward, and stuffed our bags in the front. On a viciously empty section of the Idaho backwoods, where abandoned houses led right up to the national forest, we slept two people in reasonable comfort. Had it been cold, we could have idled the fuel-sipping Sienna all night, the engine kicking on and off when we needed extra heat.When we finally made Montana, we didn’t take it easy on the Sienna.
Over a thousand or so miles, it returned over 30 mpg, did everything we needed, and delighted off the road. With more time and planning, we could push it further down the rutted backwoods routes we found, but being out on the dirt in Montana is a good reminder: If you can drive down an unmaintained dirt road, you can reach more amazing places than you will ever have time to visit in a lifetime.
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