gasiorv
I'm a new world samurai, and a redneck nonetheless
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
I got into wheeling after Golden Mtn closed down back in 2017 or 2018, but everyone always talked about what a great park it was. Well after several different owners and the install of a Dirt Track the Off-Road is again open on select weekends and I just made the trip over to check it out.
First - This place must have been really nice back in the day, there is the remnants of bumper boat pond, go-kart track, huge pavilions, boardwalks to overlooks, what appears to be a nice alter and sitting area for a wedding, etc... it is all ran down now and not operational, not sure if the new owners are going to try and bring it back or not.
Second - Plenty of nice areas for camping, up top on the hill is the official campground which is very nice, we parked at the bottom of the hill in a great level spot, there is huge field for camping and you can also camp in the oval track pit area.
Third-There has been a big investment in the oval dirt track and grandstands and if you are into dirt track racing you may want to look them up and see what their schedule is.
Finally - I am so happy that they opened the off-road trails back up because they are better than expected! The place was packed on Saturday, a huge group of Classic Broncos had a meeting there, there was buggies galore, a bunch of jeeps from mild to wild, few full sized rigs, and I saw a few SxS (but not many).
Look them up on Facebook to see there schedule for when the off-road park is open.
Trip report:
Well I was a little worried about what the trail conditions would be like because it rained all week in Memphis (Sparta is 4 hours East of Memphis) but when I arrived at 2pm on Friday I found the place to be dry, even dusty. I was very pleasantly surprised!! Of my group I was the first to arrive and went out for a solo ride just to get the lay of the land. While I was out cruising around my jeep quit and I smelled fuel very strongly, I looked underneath and fuel was coming from the top of the tank. After I cycled the fuel pump a few times, it amazingly started back up and I got it back to my trailer. I dropped the tank and found that there was a crack in the pressure regulator on top of the fuel pump. I think I had a big hit on the tank last week at hawk pride and the pressure regulator got pushed into the body.
I had some JB weld with me and I also had some Black RTV, I think either one would have worked but I opted to call around to see if anywhere local had a fuel pump. No one local had one but my buddy coming from Huntsville found one at his local O'Reily's and picked it up on his way. So I sat around the fire and drank a few cold ones until they arrived.
I can care less about football, or most sports in general, but my wife is from East TN and her and her family are big Vols fans so I grabbed a sixer and showed my support, it is the least I can do.
Rest of the crew showed up around 8pm and we quickly installed the fuel pump and went out to hit trails. We hooked up with two buggies who knew the place and we went out to the Jungle Wall. You can look up videos on youtube, but videos don't do justice to how steep it is. After a few hit the wall, we went through the Jungle and it was very tight, and very twisty, it was my kind of trail! We then went and watched some buggies try to climb a rock ledge and then headed back to camp. Sat morning we headed out and hit just about every red trail on the map, the trails were dry, there was traction, and we all had a blast!! We wheeled from about 10am to 1am, stopping once to help a guy in a built YJ who was broke on the trail (he needed a fuel pump, so we removed his pump and I ran him back to his truck so he could run into town and grab a new one), and once to eat dinner. Sunday morning we got up and hit the trails around 9am and wheeled to noon and then packed up and headed home. It was a great weekend.
Here is a video of some of the trails:
First - This place must have been really nice back in the day, there is the remnants of bumper boat pond, go-kart track, huge pavilions, boardwalks to overlooks, what appears to be a nice alter and sitting area for a wedding, etc... it is all ran down now and not operational, not sure if the new owners are going to try and bring it back or not.
Second - Plenty of nice areas for camping, up top on the hill is the official campground which is very nice, we parked at the bottom of the hill in a great level spot, there is huge field for camping and you can also camp in the oval track pit area.
Third-There has been a big investment in the oval dirt track and grandstands and if you are into dirt track racing you may want to look them up and see what their schedule is.
Finally - I am so happy that they opened the off-road trails back up because they are better than expected! The place was packed on Saturday, a huge group of Classic Broncos had a meeting there, there was buggies galore, a bunch of jeeps from mild to wild, few full sized rigs, and I saw a few SxS (but not many).
Look them up on Facebook to see there schedule for when the off-road park is open.
Trip report:
Well I was a little worried about what the trail conditions would be like because it rained all week in Memphis (Sparta is 4 hours East of Memphis) but when I arrived at 2pm on Friday I found the place to be dry, even dusty. I was very pleasantly surprised!! Of my group I was the first to arrive and went out for a solo ride just to get the lay of the land. While I was out cruising around my jeep quit and I smelled fuel very strongly, I looked underneath and fuel was coming from the top of the tank. After I cycled the fuel pump a few times, it amazingly started back up and I got it back to my trailer. I dropped the tank and found that there was a crack in the pressure regulator on top of the fuel pump. I think I had a big hit on the tank last week at hawk pride and the pressure regulator got pushed into the body.
I had some JB weld with me and I also had some Black RTV, I think either one would have worked but I opted to call around to see if anywhere local had a fuel pump. No one local had one but my buddy coming from Huntsville found one at his local O'Reily's and picked it up on his way. So I sat around the fire and drank a few cold ones until they arrived.
I can care less about football, or most sports in general, but my wife is from East TN and her and her family are big Vols fans so I grabbed a sixer and showed my support, it is the least I can do.
Rest of the crew showed up around 8pm and we quickly installed the fuel pump and went out to hit trails. We hooked up with two buggies who knew the place and we went out to the Jungle Wall. You can look up videos on youtube, but videos don't do justice to how steep it is. After a few hit the wall, we went through the Jungle and it was very tight, and very twisty, it was my kind of trail! We then went and watched some buggies try to climb a rock ledge and then headed back to camp. Sat morning we headed out and hit just about every red trail on the map, the trails were dry, there was traction, and we all had a blast!! We wheeled from about 10am to 1am, stopping once to help a guy in a built YJ who was broke on the trail (he needed a fuel pump, so we removed his pump and I ran him back to his truck so he could run into town and grab a new one), and once to eat dinner. Sunday morning we got up and hit the trails around 9am and wheeled to noon and then packed up and headed home. It was a great weekend.
Here is a video of some of the trails:
sounds intense but awesome.
