“Badges! We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”
That line, or something similar, has been used in movies from the 1948 classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, to Blazing Saddles (1974), Troop Beverly Hills (1989), and even “Weird Al” Yankovich’s UHF (1989), in which badges became badgers.
But it appears that if you drive a Jeep Wrangler, you do, indeed, need badges, and the more the merrier.
Since 2013, Jeep has offered its Badge of Honor program to owners of its off-road vehicles who have actually driven specific off-pavement routes. Recently, Jeep announced the expansion of the program to include 56 trails.
Among the 7 newly added to the list are the Northwest OHV Park trail in Texas, the Tread Lightly! Four Wheel Drive Way in Florida, and Bearwallow in West Virginia. They join such famous challenges as the Rubicon Trail in California, Hell’s Revenge in Moab, Utah, and Imogene Pass in Colorado.
“We created the Badge of Honor program as a fun way to interact with our loyal off-road Jeep enthusiasts, allowing them to do what they love most and earn unique trail badges for their vehicles,” Jim Morrison, head of the Jeep brand, is quoted in the announcement.
“The program has really taken off and we often see Jeep vehicles with many different badges that represent conquered trails around the country. With continued program interest, we’ve expanded the Badge of Honor mobile app with many new features our customers will enjoy.”
Speaking of that app, it’s how you participate. You can check-in when you drive a trail, request the badge to mount on your vehicle when you complete the trail, you even can suggest new trails that should be included in the program.
The app includes an Off-Roading 101 to help introduce newcomers to driving off-pavement.
For more information, you can visit the Jeep Badge of Honor website, which has links to both the Apple and Google Play versions of the app.
