We were considering going to the badlands to ride for one day (its 3+ hours to get there...so we would leave like 5... and ride till about 5pm....

just wondering if the badlands is fun in the winter? i saw pics of a bunch of snowmoblies on the walls but dont know about riding quads there.... (i doubt we could do most of the rutted up stuff just due to traction.... but we could still do most of the park..)

is it worth it?

just wanting to know if we should take the drive, or if we should just hit up one of the local spots

 

I went to the Badlands on new years day and was kinda disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I still had a good time, but it is not what it used to be. The whole place is whooped out, the MX track is now a swamp, and the hills are smaller from erosion.
If you haven't been before then try it out. If your like me it's more of a once a year thing due to the long drive. JMO
PS Watch out for the rocks hidden under the sand, they are very hard on the tires.

 

I was there about a week and a half ago, had a blast, ground was partly covered with snow, was able to cover the whole park, last year, some of it was under water, or extremly muddy, now it is frozen, so you can go every where. It is 2.5 hrs for me, I would go again during the winter, probably will.

 

alright, good to hear... (i think we leave tomorrow at 5 am!)

ya we have been there two times before this last summer...had an absolute BLAST....

the first time was DEFINATELY more fun...i think thats because i was on a beartracker (yamaha utility 250 2wd) and EVERYTHING there was challenging.... but now that i have the ds there are only a few runs in the whole place that actually create a challenge for me....

where was the "mx" track at originally? for the two times we've been there we havnt noticed anything that would even resemble one.... lol

(might have been there a few years ago?) but ya, overall the place is really rough on a sport... (or any quad for that matter...) i nailed a few rocks and had a hard time on some of the railroad tracks still sticking up....

but hopefully it will be worth the drive!

ill have to take some pics/vids while we are there

 

Dam I wish ida seen this post sooner, too late now - you're there riding! Hope you had fun.
i love the Badlands and ride there a dozen times year, along with Waynester. Winter is a blast, because all the mud is frozen so you can cover so much more than you do in the summer. Wish I was there with you guys, there is so much more there than the two sand bowls everybody gripes about, lots of trails way back in the back that are well worth a 3 hour drive. Hope you guys find them all!!

 

Hightower/BigWaynester,

Next time I make the trip up there I will see if you guys are going to be there. Sounds like you guys are more familiar with the place than me.

 

Hightower and Raptoid lead awesome rides around that place.. IF you think it is not chalanging go with these guys sometime. These guys don't just go up and down the hills, they go across the hills sideways[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img], and make their own lines up the hills. There are some pics of the last trip on another site. There is so much more area to cover when it is frozen.

 

i was going to post pics from today (actually had a pretty good time)

but dont see anywhere i can post them...

o well.... car domain isnt accepting my pics anyway right now... (just show up as red X's on the site.... but my others still show)
all jpg too

anyways... ya we dont really consider anything in the park to be challenging....
and it was cool today with everything be SEMI Frozen.... especially the east side in the woods where its usually SOLID mud, also on the orange trail... i can usually magage a path through there, but i always come out with 4 layers of mud...

hopefully my group can meet up with some people at either silver lake or the badlands sometime....

o one more thing... we were going up the longest run across from the lower parking lot to the east side of it, and then this kid on an ANCIENT polaris started to go up with not all that much speed.... got half way up...and STUCK. so hes just kinda sitting there, so my friend and i ran up there (it was funny cuz the guy he was riding with just sat and watched us help HIS buddy) and he obviously had NO idea what he was doing, because his plan was to TURN IT AROUND on a path that is probably a foot wider than the quad is. well we hold his front rack and have him slowly coast back down, and tell him not to try it again because its just too long of a run and his RPMs were dropping off too fast. so we head back to the parking lot to relax for a bit, only to see this blue speck of a quad get half way up the hill.... we we kinda chuckled... but then we saw that same blue speck rolling sideways down the hill... we rush back over there to find the kid and his quad (rolled 3 times sideways) just kinda not moving much... with the SAME BUDDY and now 3 other people just WATCHING.... so we ran up to him to thankfully find out he was ok.... i asked him how he got sideways....... he said he TRIED TO TURN AROUND! lol....

my parents and friends always give me crap about atv's being so severly dangerous (which of course they CAN be given the right situation with the wrong rider... as seen today)

im just glad the kid was ok.... (he looked about 14-15) im still a little bit cautious of hills i might have to stop on...as last time i had to ROLL back down a hill, it flipped on me and broke my nose bone into 3 pieces.... and u can still see the "free nose job" i got... hehe

ok enough babbling, and more working on how to get pics on the site.... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Glad you had a good time, was there many people there? So the Ice was not frozen ?

I think it a natural responce for an ATV rider to help fellow ATVer's out.

 

well ice was still mostly frozen but you could see where people have broken through... (i tried to go up the river a bit but some of the ice cracked fell in)

id say there was maybe.... 70 ppl there?