Every year, Toyota invites me to what the company calls Camp Toyota, and every year I find a reason to clear my schedule. This time around the lineup grew considerably, adding Lexus off-road hardware into the mix alongside Toyota’s heaviest hitters. The formula stays the same: real trails, real camping, and real dirt on real vehicles. No cones in a parking lot.
The Vehicles
The Toyota side of the garage included the 2025 4Runner Trailhunter, 2025 Land Cruiser, 2025 Tacoma TRD Pro, and the new 2026 Tacoma TRD Off-Road. Lexus brought the 2025 GX 550 Overtrail+ and the 2025 LX 700h Overtrail. We also had a 2026 Sequoia TRD Pro and 2026 Tundra TRD Pro on hand, both in that striking Wave Maker Blue. The Sequoia and Tundra were better appreciated at camp than on the trail. Full-size trucks and SUVs have their limits when rocks get serious, and there was no reason to find out the hard way.
Tuesday
The trip started with a meetup at a warehouse on the outskirts of DC, the kind of place you don’t find unless someone tells you exactly where to go. Parking lot full of Toyota and Lexus machines waiting to be loaded up. I reconnected with some long-time industry friends, including Toyota Jeff, TRD Jon, Hansen from Shifting Lanes, and Jack Gayle of JAX Automotive and Wolfpen Media. After breakfast we loaded up and pointed everything toward the West Virginia mountains.
Two hours later, ten-plus vehicles deep, we pulled into the last gas station before camp. We hit that place so hard we actually knocked the pumps out of service. When you roll in with a convoy that size, you are going to leave a mark.
We landed at Twin Mountain Off-Road, where the campsite sits right next to the trail system. After lunch and a drivers meeting with the crew from Off Road Logistics and Training (OLT4X4), we got to work. Kurt Williams, Jackson Philby, and the rest of the OLT4X4 team have guided me on these trails before, and having people that knowledgeable in your corner makes you confident enough to push the vehicles the way they deserve to be pushed.
I spent the first half of Tuesday in the Lexus camp, running the GX 550 Overtrail+ and LX 700h through the trail obstacles near camp. Both carry a level of refinement you don’t expect to find covered in mud. The second half of the day went to the Land Cruiser, 4Runner Trailhunter, and Tacoma TRD Pro out on the full trail route.
By the time we got back to camp for dinner, the fire was going and nobody was in any hurry to move.
Wednesday
Tuesday gave us sunny skies and 80 degrees. Wednesday gave us rain and 50. That is the West Virginia mountains doing what they do.
We spent the morning collecting content around camp while the weather sorted itself out, then ate lunch and headed back to the trails. I flipped my approach from the day before and spent Wednesday focused on the Toyota side, putting most of my time into the 4Runner and the Tacomas. I capped the day in the GX 550, climbing until the trail opened up and the valley came into view below. Some moments earn their place in the memory bank without you having to do anything. That was one of them.
Thursday
The last day is always about cleaning up what you missed. A little more seat time in anything you didn’t get enough of, breakfast, a group photo, and then the convoy breaks up as everyone heads their separate directions.
My drive home was about three hours northeast of camp, and I made it in the Land Cruiser. After two days of crawling over rocks and roots, covering those three hours from the comfort of a Land Cruiser felt like exactly the right way to close out the trip.
Already looking forward to next year.
