Hot Springs ORV Park

[Ferg]

I took Glad the Impaler and my travel trailer to the HSORVP this weekend. It was spectacularly beautiful up there. The Wx was perfect: no clouds and mid-70s all day Saturday.

The rest of the group I went with was driving Wranglers. I was the only Gladiator. I didn't take the truck on anything too severe -- it's my daily driver and I had to pull my trailer four hours back home -- but I did do a little bit of wheeling.

For those of you who haven't been to HSORVP, I strongly recommend you go. It has a great staff, the trails are amazing, and the area itself is beautiful.

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[Rollcast]

I took Glad the Impaler and my travel trailer to the HSORVP this weekend. It was spectacularly beautiful up there. The Wx was perfect: no clouds and mid-70s all day Saturday.

The rest of the group I went with was driving Wranglers. I was the only Gladiator. I didn't take the truck on anything too severe -- it's my daily driver and I had to pull my trailer four hours back home -- but I did do a little bit of wheeling.

For those of you who haven't been to HSORVP, I strongly recommend you go. It has a great staff, the trails are amazing, and the area itself is beautiful.

Are you dead stock? What trails did you run?

 

[Ferg]

Are you dead stock? What trails did you run?

I'm afraid I am pretty much dead-stock. I didn't do much in the Glad -- just some of the really easy stuff. I spent most of the day riding with the folks in the Wranglers. They did some gnarly trails (e.g., Rubicon Ridge).

 

[Rollcast]

I'm afraid I am pretty much dead-stock. I didn't do much in the Glad -- just some of the really easy stuff. I spent most of the day riding with the folks in the Wranglers. They did some gnarly trails (e.g., Rubicon Ridge).

Bummer. I was kind of hoping you could tell me which trails are "gladiator approved."

 

[Archie Bunker]

How did the Trailer tow? I have a T@B 320S that I pull around.

 

[Ferg]

How did the Trailer tow? I have a T@B 320S that I pull around.

It pulls like a dream. My Retro is <3600# GVWR, so it's easy. I do use an anti-sway bar, but no WD is needed.

 

[Rollcast]

Bumping this thread. I'm going to head down there tomorrow and do a few runs. I'll update with damage reports.

 

[Rollcast]

I went on saturday with the wife, one kid and one dog. I had never been to the park before so I asked the lady at the desk whether it would be possible to do the Badge of Honor runs in a stock JTR. She basically said stick with the trails rated 2 unless you link up with a trail buddy who has some recovery gear. (Trails are rated 1 to 5 with 1 being easy and 5 being extremely difficult. There are 3 BoH runs. One, Snake, is 2-rated and the others are 3-rated.) With that in mind, we set off to do some easy runs and then do Snake.

Brandon's Run is a 2-rated trail, and it was a nice drive through the woods where 4wd was necessary on some of the steeper sections. All aspects were easily manageable, and it was a good, easy run to get a feel for how the truck performs off road. We did a couple of other 2-rated trails and managed them easily.

Snake, the BoH run, was not particularly difficult, but there were several areas that required close attention. It's a relatively tight woods trail for a JT. Not super tight, but tight. There are numerous off-camber switchbacks in tight woods that cranked the roll indicator up to 23-24 degrees. The long wheelbase was great because I really wasn't worried about rolling over even at 24 degrees. The long wheelbase was concerning because I came close to clipping a fender on roots or rocks. I wouldn't want to run this trail in wet conditions.

The office lady warned me about one section in the middle of Snake where the trail split. (She said this section really should be rated a 3 and some JTs had had difficulty due to the long wheelbase.) It was steep uphill with some rocky ledges to the left and relatively smooth trail to the right. However, the trail to the right was difficult to access because of a protruding boulder. I didn't want to make a multi-point turn to get around the boulder for the easy side so I dropped it to 4low and walked up the ledges on the left. Easy peasy. The rest of the trail was pretty uneventful in comparison. There were a couple of places where I banged the frame or rear control arm brackets on rocks, but it was nothing really unexpected.

Overall, Snake is a good, solid run with enough challenges to make it interesting with only a small risk of damage or getting stuck. The park itself has tons of trails and seems to be well kept. I hope to do the other badge trails there someday, but I'm going to wait until I have a winch or some trail buddies with recovery gear.

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