Erling: The rental agreement probably has some fine-print warning about taking it on remote roads. Just be careful, and make sure it has a good spare tire on board.
I was driving only about 1/2 mile on the gravel road. The road was too bad for a Dodge Journey in my opinion. Besides, the fine print says I could not drive on gravel roads. The warning about 1000 $ for towing help made the decision to stop quite easy. We did a hike in the bristlecone forest instead; very interesting.
