[Mr Castulucci]

Hey Guys,

I hit up the Badlands Offroad Park in Attica, IN on Saturday with my buddy's Cherokee. Both of us were pretty much stock vehicles, so we teamed up for the day.


Just a pic of my 4Runner and the Cherokee before we headed out

Badlands ORP has three primary trails: green, orange, and pink. Ironically, pink is the most difficult, and definitely not for stock vehicles. From what I saw, the entrance to it involved driving (literally) down a river! We would have hit up orange trail, but we ended up not really having enough time at the end of the day. We decided to start our day off by hitting up green trail. Since we were noobs, and since the trails aren't precisely marked everywhere, we ended up driving down a part that wasn't precisely part of the trail. It was an extremely-steep sand drop off. Since it was the first extreme thing we did at the park, I was a bit nervous.




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[Mr Castulucci]

After that, the trail became really narrow. My buddy was leading in his Cherokee, and we went through some mud/sand/rock sections together. However, we came to a point at which I decided I didn't want to go any further. Basically, there was a rock on the left and a rock on the right, and no matter which angle I took the trail at, I would have dropped down onto one of my running boards. Yikes. So, I reversed,a nd turned around. My buddy continued on in the Cherokee. Believe it or not, I went back up the way I came. It took like five tries, and I was about ready to give up before I did the last try. I said &*%$ it, and backed up as far as I could, switched into 4-low, and really slammed on the skinny pedal. It was a lot of bouncing around and jostling, but I just BARELY made it! What a rush!

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[Mr Castulucci]

Next, we headed over to an area known as "The Bowl". Basically, it's a HUGE sand valley with very steep sides. It was a ton of fun for us stockers, that's for sure.

Pics:







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[Mr Castulucci]

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[Mr Castulucci]

But, I'll admit, I did get beached at one point! In one particular spot, the ground was extra loose, and I didn't realize it! Whoops



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[Mr Castulucci]

After that, I decided it was time to clean off:



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[Mr Castulucci]

Whoops, one more pic of us in the bowl:


After that, we headed to an area known as the sand dunes. It offered a tremendous view of the park. You can think of the sand dunes as basically HUGE sand hills.



We did a bit more trailin', but my buddy's check engine light came on, so we pretty much decided to call it a day.


(We think that the check engine light was due to something getting wet in the engine compartment. I don't have pics, but we did drive through some water that was almost 2 feet deep at one point!)

Overall it was a great trip, and it was interesting to see the differences in capability between our vehicles. The 4Runner was hands-down a better climbing vehicle. The traction control, center diff lock, and downhill action contol helped quite a bit. Had I not had running boards, I might have been a bit better on the trails. As it stood, the Cherokee was a better performer on the trails. It is narrower, and my buddy's manual transmission helped him out a bit.

I think everyone was honestly shocked by the performance of my 4Runner. No one expected it to be able to handle much, but this trip seems to have earned my baby its much-needed respect amongst my friends, haha I came out with only a few surface scratches, which I'm pretty sure will be able to be hand-buffed out with some wax.

[bulldog-yota]

Cool pics!!! Good to see other RUnners out there.

DId you air down before hitting the sand?

[sharp4runr]

Awesome pics bro! Looks like you had a fun time out there. I myself ditched the running boards as they seemed to get in the way a lot.

[GatorGreg]

Great pics - looks like a fun place.

[Mr Castulucci]

Originally posted by bulldog-yota
DId you air down before hitting the sand?

Most definitely! I aired down to 20 psi in the rears, and 25 in the front. I would have went down to 20, but it was too friggin cold :bonk:

[lexusnut]

I wonder if there are any OFF road tracks near Milwaukee or Chicago

[Mr Castulucci]

Originally posted by lexusnut
I wonder if there are any OFF road tracks near Milwaukee or Chicago

Hmm...not too sure about that! Do a search and let us know what you find

[tominabox1]

Hate to resurrect a long since dead thread but has anybody been to Badlands with a 4Runner and taken pictures since? I'm headed there this weekend and I'd love to know what they have out there now that'd be good for stock 4th gen...

Thanks

[createbmx]

I've read that 2 PSI will be prefect for the conditions you were in. I'd suggest having a compressor on board just in case.

There will be some trial and error.