And that is where the ZR2 comes in.

 

I think when SUVs became more of the vehicle of the "Soccer mom" thats when they started to loose their "off roading" persona. Granted there were a lot of SUVs that were built that were never meant to be taken off road but some still retained their ability like the blazer. Now I will admit I am somewhat questioning the later models though, I'm not sure if they can but thats mostly from all the body styling they have.

The Ford Escapes were based off the old Bronco IIs which I had one years ago and really liked it as well so those don't surprise me as much. As AJBert mentioned the ZR2's have the clearance, my son in law has one and I'll have to compare the clearance of mine with his and see how much difference there is.

LOL Yea, I'll admit I thought I was going to slide down it a couple of times. The incline was pretty steep but I put my off roading skills to work and the Trailblazer did just fine. Of course having new tires helped too! The only thing I wish I had with me was my portable air compressor so I could have lowered the tire pressure some. I really am impressed with this car, I've never really been a Chevy man but this is really changing my outlook on them.

 

Uwharrie is a good place for an ATV or dirtbike, but It's so rocky and steep I doubt a stock blazer could go very far there. I dont know if you've ever been there or not, but its trails have actual human names. The worst one I've seen there is called "Daniel". It was intence, and I was on a Dirtbike.. I live about 20 miles north of Charlotte btw.
There used to be a good spot in Kannapolis to trail ride if you knew the owner of the property. I'd give him a call and tell him I had a few friends I wanted to show the trails to, and all he asked in return is don't make a mess trash wise and trim up any fallen branches I came across. He ended up selling the land and now part of its all built up. Bummer..

 

Nice pics. Bought a 93 blazer 4x4 about a month ago. Spent about 1k getting it to a spot where I dont feel like it's gonna fail on me out on some back road i.e. brakes, shocks, injector spider....and a few other things. Well anyways I finally took it out last night for a quick test run and I was really impressed. Had more than enough torque to pull itself out of a tight spot in 4lo and enough stock clearance to navigate some moderate rocks. All in all i agree with you it was a surprise.