Now, normally my first inclination whenever I get to a new ride spot is to go berzerk for the first hour or two and end up damaging my equipment or myself before I break a sweat. This time I played it a bit smarter and let everyone else get crazy in the begining to see who would break first. To my surprize nobody flipped off a ledge, broke a frame or any major body part the entire time.

Here's Dale trying to bottom out his suspension on one of the many drop offs within the park. This shot was taken at one of the sand pits right next to the entrance of the park. I tried this jump earlier and overshot the landing area, twisting my back in the process. Getting older can really suck sometimes.

Everyone had bets on Dale bending something before we got out of the parking lot but he proved us all wrong and made it to the riding area without even breaking a clutch lever. Good job Dale!

We rode most of the early part of day in the dune areas trying to see what hill we wouldn't be able to climb. Well, this is the area where Dale was King. He would try, and usually make, every hill he tried. As a result we all learned to let Dale try the hill first and if he made it we could give it a shot ourselves depending on the difficulty he had himself.

There was a hill that claimed Dale in one of the sand pits but we kind of knew he wasn't going to make it since his wide a-arms wouldn't fit the groove in the hillside. (see pics)

Well after cleaning himself off Dale decided this time the hill would win this challenge and we decided to ride on and see what other mischief we could get into.

There are so many areas to play on it became hard to keep our group together and there were several times after I had zipped up a hill to find my group of riders were not the ones I rode up with. It's always a good idea to learn your buddies quads from a distance because when you're riding in an off-road park with hundreds of similar looking quads getting separated is almost unavoidable. Having a bright shirt or multiple flags on your quad is a good idea so you can be recognized from a distance by your buddies. Dale had a large number plate on his quad that made him visible from a distance so that is a good idea also.

This is the muddy part of the trip. When we were ripping through the woods we came across a Jeep club playing in the bogs. All I could think about was how much money these guys were going to spend at the car wash cleaning off their Jeeps. You'll find many types of vehicles enjoying the trails and dune areas within the Badlands and everyone seems to have a great time together.

The remaining part of the day we tried to cover all of the main sections of the park so we could get an idea of where the wild hillclimbs and jumps were located. Although we searched most of the Badlands we never did find the pipe to ride through as noted in the magazines featuring the park. I was hoping for Gordan to do a cool Crash & Burn flying over the bars in the creek landing where the pipe ends. (Maybe next time Gordan). ;-)

Overall we had an excellent time riding The Badlands and I would really like to try it in the winter with some snow on the ground to add even more varience in terrain. I would highly recommend buying a sturdy flag with a flexible spring mount before you get there because the ones they sell at the ride area break very easy. Also, it never hurts to bring some good duck tape, wire and zip ties in case you need to make some temporary patch jobs during the day.

If you need more information check out the links below:

Additional Photos

Badlands Off Road Park website