Maybe you like the idea of Burning Man but you aren’t that much of an ayahuasca tripping hippie. Maybe you enjoy a good race but watching cars go in circles for hours isn’t exciting enough in its own right. If that’s the case, then I have the remedy for you: King of the Hammers.
The race was founded in 2007 and combines flat-out sections on lakebeds with rock crawling on some of the gnarliest terrain you can find. Held in a stretch of the Mojave Desert called Johnson Valley, you’d normally find nothing more than flat terrain, maybe a couple bushes, very few animals, mountains a couple miles away from each other — complete desolation.
Go there anytime during the 17-day affair, however and you’ll find a city that’s never less than 70,000 strong. It’s absolute madness, and I took a few photos to help show you the extent of it:
I was only there for three days and was utterly exhausted by the end of it thanks in no small part to me recovering from food poisoning I got from my birthday trip to Colombia the week before. (More on that in another article coming soon).
The Racing
I won’t lie, it’s pretty hard to follow this race even as media, and we normally have all the info at our fingertips. The event isn’t the most known, so there isn’t wide coverage or explainers online, plus official resources aren’t the most up to date. Most importantly: it’s a massive desert to cover from the single spot that you’re standing; it’s not easy, though it’s that massive desert that makes it all so fun.
We were there during the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge, which is a four lap race wherein each lap takes roughly an hour to complete.
With huge gaps between laps, I’d hop in the side-by-side (UTV) and race the drivers myself to areas where I could get photos of the different classes.
Which speaking of: the Limited class offers a combination of UTVs, production cars, and buggies, while the Unlimited class was overwhelmingly trophy trucks, both spec and custom, and I think one buggy.
The common thread though: they all rippppp.
Whatever annoyance I felt about where to go was excused when the machines rip by at speeds dangerous on normal pavement, never mind sand and rock. Damn if this event ain’t exciting.
Places
Hammertown, USA
Hammertown is the city’s capitol.
It’s where you find both food and vendor booths, such as these guys selling you their newest gravity assisted jerry cans (which honestly looked kinda cool) to Yokohama selling you a set of their baddest off-road tires.
One booth I dug was Ford, purely because they had a section that showed a bunch of their engine’s cutaways.
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They also had a fun display next to a Raptor that had its own ‘Iron Throne’ homage made entirely out of suspension parts.
My pops liked the Can-Am bioth, as I watched him struggle with the urge to buy another (admittedly very nice) UTV.
But my real #1 booth was definitely the Toyota one because just look at this built for SEMA FJ Bruiser of theirs.
 
I mean it’s gorgeous right? RIGHT?! If you disagree you’re wrong and you aren’t allowed to read the rest of this blog.
Lasertown: Home of the Artsy Fartsy
When Dayton and I went to KOH in ’23, we roughed it in a tent outside of Hammertown and hoped that nobody was gonna run us over in the night.
This time around, we had more folk coming plus a loaded toy hauler that pops didn’t want to just leave out and about.
That paved the way to this year’s accommodations: Lasertown.
It’s far from the only private campsite in the area, but Lasertown is definitely where the Burning Man energy is alive and well.
Some of the art felt very fever-dreamy, others were just cool sculptures that were made out of old car parts that someone likely had lying around.
There’s even a cute little swing set area that’s apparently identical to the ones they have at Burning Man (at least according to Dayton, a three year BM vet).
But none of this compares to the next area, the one that changed me, the one where you see the best and worst of this culture all at once.
Its name is Chocolate Thunder.
Chocolate Thunder
I’ve been off-roading since I was 10, and never in those 17 years have I seen such an intense rock crawling trail.
And in 27 years of life period, I’ve rarely found an energy like that at Chocolate Thunder.
It’s music, drinking, fireworks. It’s revving, bashing, crawling, and flipping. And it’s laughing through it all, both spectators and rig owners alike.
The energy on display this time around was so much grander than when I went years ago, which was fun on one hand, but on the flip side, I slowly had a realization about it all:
This is just street takeover culture, albeit on the dirt. And as the night went on, more evidence piled in.
Empty cans would be thrown at rowdy spectators, firework placement would get shoddier from surrounding drunks, resulting in them launching straight into crowds.
I can’t lie, it quickly turned into a pretty stressful affair as the fun was quickly replaced by a passive sense of lingering danger.
After a good three hours there, you realize you’ve seen it all and don’t need to expose yourself to it any further, so we packed up and left.
So What Now, Griffin?
Chaotic or not, King of the Hammers has proven to be one of my favorite events with an incredibly high fun:relaxation ratio. Simply off-roading between activities is guaranteed fun, and every destination has something great to see.
Go to Hammertown? Grab a meal while watching the races and buying a piece of kit you’ve been wanting for your ride. Go to one of the trails? You’ll see a competitor roaring by at speeds that can crest 100mph on straight up dirt.
The private camps? Stages for concerts and Burning Man homages galore. And Chocolate Thunder, where you’ll simultaneously find the best that car culture has to offer, and the dumbest drunks this side of the Mississippi.
But hey, some of those drunks have fun from time to time too.
KOH seems like it would have been a lot cooler in the early years. I lose interest as soon as things like this are taken over by corporate interests.
Great photos!
It’s easy to avoid the dumb night festivities and seeing the racecars parade through Hammertown during tech is a treat. I have as much fun walking the parking lot of Hammertown as anything else.
That said, I’m glad to have been able to watch the racing from home these past two years.
yeah the event is plenty fun even if you avoid Chocolate Thunder and all it’s nonsense! I’d be remiss not to talk about it cuz it is so integral to the soul of KOH but you could just as easily take it or leave it, depending on if you’re into that kinda thing
I miss the backdoor shootout. A bit of the same flavor as Chunder but a little less chaotic since it was an official KoH event.
I love slow, technical rock crawling so that was cool this year but not having the west coast buggies vs the east coast rock bouncers on a king of the hill event is another change I’m a bit disappointed by.
It is depressing to see that KOH has become yet another event that makes auto enthusiasts look like idiots.
i love it there, but it can absolutely leave a sour taste for a lot of people and i understand why
2022 was my only visit to KOH thus far. On my trip it was basically a drunken political rally masquerading as an off-road event. I ended up just hanging out by myself. I see far fewer flags in Griffin’s photos, so that’s nice, at least.
plenty of flags not pictured though!
The flags are a big turn-off for me for a lot of big off-road events. It was wild to see so many flown at a UTV event in Oregon juxtaposed with loud EDM music playing everywhere which I typically associate with different, more colorful flags of the rainbow variety.
But there are reasonable people in the crowd and I’m starting to find my people.
I wish I had seen what your reply to me was down below.
Someone (who had their comment removed by an editor) said that the Gambler 500 is still good, I said this:
The sad thing is that even the Gambler is slowly getting screwed up by people with bad intentions. On one Gambler I participated in a bunch of drunk dudes intentionally set fire to at least 5 cars, including one that was financed. Another dude went drifting around a mud bowl with teenagers in his truck bed. Surprise, the truck rolled and the teens got thrown.
People are forgetting what the darn rally stands for and are just using the Gambler to create trash rather than clean it up. I hear the western and eastern regions of the Gambler 500 are still good, but be careful doing a Midwest rally.
Ugh, that’s disappointing. I loved the Gambler ethos as it was first created. I know they help do clean ups at KOH and that was my comment earlier.
It’s really unfortunate that my hobby has a lot of toxic proud assholes.
Thankfully, the Gambler itself as well as most of the events still have that ethos. One of the coolest days I had in recent memory was hanging out with Tate Morgan during the Detroit auto show.
What’s happening during some of these rallies isn’t the fault of the organizers, but an effect of just how huge Gambler 500 events have gotten all around the country. A lot of folks avoid Detroit’s event for the reasons I stated above.
But if you go to smaller events like Missouri’s or North Carolina’s you’ll get that old-school Gambler 500 experience. Some of us in Illinois and Michigan also do mini events and they go very well. It seems keeping the events small is crucial for keeping jerks out. Weirdly, the Oregon one is also still pretty great despite its massive size. It seems that the Gambler OGs out there don’t put up with bad parties. 🙂
That last Chocolate Thunder fight/fireworks pic is like an accidental renaissance piece. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Well done.
i like to think of myself as a michelangelo or caravaggio with a camera so i’ll take the praise
Stop. Hammertown.
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I followed this event the first few years when I still lived in CA and it seemed like a lot of fun. Then I started seeing the overnight videos at Chocolate Thunder and decided I’m better off never attending. Love off roading but that many drunks that close to trucks doing a technical trail is a recipe for disaster.
I remember the first few years of the King of Hammers and how much fun it was, but then it seems like it has just continued to grow to the point of being unmanageable, which is a shame.
for what it’s worth, i’d say it’s worth going to once. but definitely keep your distance at chocolate thunder if you’re gonna go
Great shots! I gotta say, though, I gave up on Burning Man after they got beyond 30,000 people or so. This seems a bit too big for me, although it looks like a lot of crazy fun.
crazy fun! you just gotta know what you’re getting into before hand because it is definitelyyyyy rowdy
Sounds like some real Mad Max shit.
Mad Max x Burning Man is the quickest way I describe it to all of my friends and they wholeheartedly agree as soon as I show them pics and vids
Nah, that’s Wasteland Weekend.
“After a good three hours there, you realize you’ve seen it all and don’t need to expose yourself to it any further, so we packed up and left.”
Nailed it, right there
It was a fun three hours though!
Too bad my experience there 3 years ago completely soured me on the event and I have no desire to go back. Too many overtly proud assholes out there, sadly.
I’ve definitely got a lung full of dirt and will pounce on any opportunity to drive pop’s side by sides some more, but I don’t blame you at all. It’s incredibly fun, but admittedly just as overwhelming, and it could be a case of ‘the only way to win the game is to not play.’
Awesome coverage of KOH!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the read