Thousands of jeeps gather in Long Beach<\/p>\n
Published 9:37 pm Saturday, May 16, 2026<\/p>\n
Roxie Fudge was overcome with emotion when speaking about what the jeep community means to her. \u201cThere\u2019s so much hate and discord in this world. All you need is kindness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The first day of this year\u2019s Jeeps Go Topless Days \u2014 a massive affinity group for jeep lovers \u2014 was held May 15 and will continue until May 17 on the beach in Long Beach. Fudge was on the beach representing the PNW Jeep Girl Tribe, an off-road community with members across the Pacific Northwest, providing support to the Long Beach group LBP 4\u00d74, the group behind the event.<\/p>\n
At the steering wheel of the LBP 4\u00d74 community is Katharine Wilhelm \u2014 a one-woman-boots-on-the-ground organizer \u2014 as described by Fudge, with her official title being event coordinator and director. Standing beside Fudge, Wilhelm was quick to diffuse her peer\u2019s compliment. \u201cI have a lot of amazing people to help me,\u201d she said, nodding at Fudge and others standing nearby. <\/p>\n
On Friday, many jeeps started their migration to the coast. Kathy Alden is the administrator and owner of the group Jeep Singles WA \u2013 Washington State jeep owners who identify as single and use the group to organize events and meet new people. Their Facebook page states that they are not a dating site and \u201cembrace all jeep owners from built rock crawlers to bone stock to pavement princes\/ses.\u201d On Friday morning she led a convoy of 60 jeeps from Lynwood to Raymond to Ilwaco. <\/p>\n
On the following morning, the day began with a steady stream of Jeeps slowly rolling onto the Bolstad beach approach amidst an already amassed cluster of hundreds of Jeeps decorated with themes, flags, props and paint. Hours later, when the group is assembled, an aerial count is done. \u201cLast year we had well over 1800 vehicles come out,\u201d Wilhelm said. \u201cIt takes a long time for this many jeeps to assemble.\u201d Once the count is done, the jeeps caravan about 12 miles up the beach toward Ocean Park, looping around in a Jeep parade. Later in the day they join up for a sunset cruise and a bonfire. Surveying the gathering that began six years ago, Wilhelm said, \u201cwith terrible gas prices and a bad weather forecast, the turnout is pretty impressive this year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Couple Dan and Tiffany Slater from Bremerton came out for the weekend. \u201cI\u2019m with her. It\u2019s her jeep, I\u2019m her mechanic,\u201d said Dan, but in a serious tone added \u201cit\u2019s fun seeing all the jeeps and different accessories and the paint jobs. The older jeeps are what gets me. I love seeing vintage jeeps,\u201d he said. Tiffany added \u201cit was a friend who had a jeep and got me into this. She said come down to Long Beach and I did and I\u2019ve been doing it ever since. I love the camaraderie. It\u2019s like a family.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wilhelm describes the gathering as a non-competitive family friendly charity event. \u201cThis is strictly a charitable event to raise money for South Pacific County Humane Society and Peninsula Wild Care,\u201d said Wilhelm. \u201cPeninsula Wild Care is the sole rehabilitator for shore birds, sea mammals and your deer and rabbits and they\u2019ve even transported bald eagles off the beach. All our Jeepers love the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeep lovers affectionately call each other \u201cjeepers,\u201d \u2014 a nickname for those who enthusiastically own and drive a jeep \u2014 and the larger community supports smaller subcultures within the community. Fudge said, \u201cThe PNW Jeep Girl Tribe\u2019s motto is \u2018jeep girl strong,\u2019 and the group is 4200 and growing women from the Pacific Northwest that are being empowered by jeeps. I\u2019m down here supporting Katharine. Our tribe has a charity this year, too. We are giving money to \u201cTread Lightly, which keeps all public lands open,\u201d she said. \u201cWithout them, there would be no tribe.\u201d <\/p>\n
The family theme is a refrain extending to the \u201cjeep wave,\u201d a feature fueled by camaraderie where jeep drivers nod to other jeeps on the road. \u201cI\u2019ve been a jeeper my entire life, it\u2019s a whole community. It\u2019s easy to find each other when you\u2019re out on the road and you see another jeep you wave to each other. No jeeps left behind. It\u2019s just a really good family I guess when it comes down to it,\u201d said Wilhelm. \u201cThis is a perfect example of how groups can collaborate. It\u2019s not about the turf. All three of us have worked tirelessly and if we\u2019re a family let\u2019s be a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roxie Fudge echoed. \u201cWhen you\u2019re out on a trail and you have a big machine under your hands and you\u2019re trending to it and you\u2019re looking for where your wheels are,\u201d she said, \u201cEveryone leaves discussion of the horrors of the world at home and if just for a moment get out in the trees, find your zen and get your balance. For me, that empowerment is what this community is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of jeeps gather in Long Beach Published 9:37 pm Saturday, May 16, 2026 Roxie Fudge was overcome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-319657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}