Gunny's Adventures and Reviews on dunes, ATV parks, and favorite riding spots

[Gunz]

Syracuse Sand Dunes

This last weekend I went to Syracuse Sand Dunes in Syracuse Kansas. I met up with Colorado700r, lady4fiddy, Scooters700, and few others in his crew like Jason, Bo, and Darren. Good group of riders. Temperatures were around 50 and conditions were wet. Distance from my house 365 miles. Size of dunes, depends on who you talk to. The guy at the liquor store in town said 140 acres. The guy at the gate said "alot". Colorado700r, Lady4fiddy and I rode the perimeter of the dunes. From my best estimates, I'm going to say 500 acres, maybe 600 acres tops. This is only my guestimate though and I'm using my judgement from Little Sahara, Okla (1300acres) and Silver Lake, Mich (450acres). As far as size it doesn't even come close to half the size of Little Sahara, Okla., but it is slightly bigger then Silver Lake, Mich. These dunes are full of sage brush and does not have to many cleared dunes, but it does have a good trail system in place 90% of which is sand, the remainder 10% is dirt. The tallest dune was around 20 feet. The sand had the exact same consistency of Little Sahara, Okla. First impressions, this blows. However the longer I was out there the more I got to like it. It wasn't your typical dunes, 90% of it was covered with sage brush. I would recommend running a dirt tire or a molded paddle. Maybe in 20 years the sage will be knocked out, but for now you're stuck with it. The trails were a blast, you could literally find yourself hauling ass for half an hour and not wanting to stop. They had adequate camp grounds and parking. They had water and electric hookups for RV's, $15/night. They also had on site restrooms with showers. It was $5/day per rider and I believe $5 per night to camp. Campgrounds and parking area were clean and groomed. The locals seemed kind of mixed on having tourist in town and at times we felt unwelcomed. A part of the crew stayed the night there at the dunes and was vandalized by some of the locals during the night. They had their coolers stolen. I had heard rumors of this before hand and kinda shrugged it off. I was highly disappointed to witness this happening.

Overall I give Syracuse Sand Dunes 4 outta 10 stars.
Pros: Hardly any traffic, as a matter of fact I didn't see anybody else except the people in our crew at the dunes.
      Super cheap cost wise, the cheapest dunes I've ever been to. $5 who doesn't have that?
      Great trail system.
      1 mile outside of town.
      Clean campgrounds.
      Restroom/showers.
      Lots of potential.

Cons: Vandalism.
       Sage brush has taken over the dunes.
       Locals were 50/50 on us being there.
       
I will most likely go again if invited. However I wouldn't recommend traveling more then 8 hours to ride there, in other words if you can't make it in less then 8 hours then go somewhere else, not worth a 9 hour drive.. capish??


http://www.syracusesanddunes.com/

http://www.syracusesanddunes.com/forums/phpBB3/index.php


I'll get a few videos up soon.




Notice all the sage brush in the back ground.

[Gunz]

Coming soon... Kermit Texas.

[Gunz]

Kermit Sandhills

Last weekend JSTEV, 1qwkgoat, 1qwkgoatsgurl, and I drove 502 miles from OKC to Kermit, TX. The point was to ride the Kermit Sandhills, which we heard about from a few and knew very little about. When we got to town we checked in at the Kermit Inn, a little hole in the wall that was worth at least half the $70/nite price tag. Once we checked in, we ditched half our crap and hauled ass 7 miles out of town to the first sign we saw (below) and made a hard left. The first thing we noticed was all the damn trash. It was really disturbing to see that much trash there. 2 problems with that, 1 no trash cans around and 2. for some reason people just don't feel like it's their responsibility to pack out their trash in which they packed in. Once we made it past the trashy entrance, all you could see was beautiful white powder every where. It was truely awesome. We parked and unloaded the bikes in about 5 minutes and rolled on. One half of these dunes are tight, full of switchbacks and 10-30 foot rollers. The other half is 10-30 foot rollers with Sage brush and Mesquite trees, with somewhat cut trails. The entire riding area was wonderful. We rode Friday evening for about 3 hours till dusk. Saturday we rode from 8am till 9pm, and even though we were tired, none of us wanted to leave, buuuuuut somebody on a 660 forgot his headlights, so as a group acting as a whole, we went back to the motel for an early nite, me in tears... We had made up our mind Saturday night, that instead of getting up early and driving 500 miles back, that it would probably be better if we asked the motel staff if we could check out an hour late (noon) so that we could go ride the dunes for another 3 hours Sunday morning and come back to take showers. Sunday morning we spent nearly 3 hours jumping every single dune we could find.... which was alot. You could literally set a straight line and ride it for about an hour and hit a nice jump every other minute. These dunes are not tall at all....more like 30-35 feet at the tallest, but the fun level is through the roof. I would seriously recommend somebody organize a raptor rally here. They did have power and water hook up, the price was $5/night. To ride it was $7/rider/day and all fee's were run by the honor system. No Showers, No Restrooms, No shade,

Driving suggestions. If I lived in California, Arizona, or somewhere close to any of the western dunes I probably would not bothe Kermit unless you're like me and plan on hitting every dune in USA. Now on the other hand, If I lived in Maine or Florida, nothing would stop me from coming to Kermit Sandhills. I would so pass Little Sahara without even flinching.

I want to say that these dunes are twice the size of Little Sahara Okla. Little Sahara Okla is about 1300 acres, so I would easily say Kermit is around 2500-3000 acres. I'm not 100% positive on this, but I can make it from the NW corner of LS to the south gate in about 10-15 minutes. At Kermit I don't think we ever rode the whole thing and at times it took over an hour to get back to camp and that was more or less in a straight line.

Overall I give Kermit Sandhills 8 out of 10 stars.
 Pros: Pure powder, lots of twist and turns, enough jumps to satisfy the thirstiest of jumpers.
         Enough fun to spend 4-5 days there without getting bored.
         Town is 7ish miles away.
         hardly a crowd at all/ no traffic
         Locals were happy to see you.
         Grocery store was located in town.

 Cons: Lots of trash around the entrance and out in the dunes.
         No restrooms.
         No showers.
         No shade.
         Closes bike shops are in Odessa 50 miles away and they didn't seem to be very helpful.

I plan on going again later this year. I also hope to go at least once every year here after, maybe twice. I so can't wait to go again. If you live on the east coast it'll be well worth the drive. If you live on the west coast maybe not so much worth the drive.








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq_CRhh2aTE

http://www.kermitsandinc.com/

http://www.duneguide.com/sand_dune_guide_kermit.htm

[Gunz]

Little Sahara State Park Sand Dunes

This is a hot spot for me since I'm only 2 hours away. I ride here about 20-40 times a year depending. This is a great state and local organized park. The town of Waynoka has more or less based it's foundation on Little Sahara dunes. The locals expect you and greet you with a smile. The park Rangers are courteous and a very fair. The park has 2 state owned campgrounds and there is also 2 private owned campgrounds. 2 speedshops, one which is very functional and the other being a shack for lessor parts, both owned by the same guy (Dan). There is also a clothes shop in South camp. plenty of restrooms and hot showers in both state owned camp grounds. There is power/water hookup for campers/rv's and plenty of camp sites for an off weekend.

The sand is a red coarse sand. Plenty of dunes in upwards of 70 feet in height. There are lots of sand trails that are fun to ride in about groups of 3's or more. The park is about 1300 acres in size and has plenty of playing area to keep a group busy for the better part of a week. They are open 24/7 and will wear you out after about 50 hours of straight riding. Not much more to say, except they are a good all around dune for just about anybody. My 8 yr old loves them. So I'd have to say they are family oriented. These are the hotspot for most midwesterners that get bored of Silver Lake. Compared to Walden, Kermit, Syracuse, and Silver Lake, they beat out all except Kermit, but are in a close second to Kermit. $10/day/rider... State campgrounds $18/nite...free during the day. I would make the 1000 mile trip to ride it, no problem.

They do celebrate Snakehunt the weekend after Easter of April every year. Sandfest I believe is held in September every year and Raptor Rally is held the first weekend of October every year.

I give Little Sahara an 8 out of 10 stars.
  Pros: Full amenities.
          Showers.
          Restrooms.
          Local speed shops with very reasonable prices.
          2 miles from town.
          Motels near by.
          Plenty of campgrounds.
          Restaurants.
          Race fuel on premises.
          No sound/spark regulations.
          Just about anything you need within 5 minutes away.
          Rentals near by, sandrails, utvs, sxs, atvs.
 
  Cons:Hospital 26 miles away.
          Limited shade.
         







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYupXZqZ-hE    <---------video

http://www.duneguide.com/sand_dune_guide_little_sahara_ok.htm <-------info






         
         

[MO RAPTOR 700]

Nice. Kermit looks good wouldn't mind going there sometime myself. But really your pissing me off with all these trips to dunes you making. Really looking forward to St. A's.  

[Krandall]

I'm very excited for Little Sahara

So I've heard your reports comparing LS to SL.. Is it more trail-ish kind of riding @ LS or what? What can I expect?

[jstev]

Add to the kermit dunes,  There is no parts or shops close to the dunes.   Bring all you might need.  The towns that are close are small and desolate.  Odesa is about 60 miles and will be the closest place for parts.

[1qwkgoat]

More pics from Kermit.

The open dunes

[Colorado700R]

How about Walden homie?

[Hefe]

very nice Mike!

[Peelz]

I'm very excited for Little Sahara

So I've heard your reports comparing LS to SL.. Is it more trail-ish kind of riding @ LS or what? What can I expect?

LS has a big dunes area 50-70ft, smaller dune area, then trails in between that rock at night!

lots of little areas to hang out and play. Flats, small hills, bowls. And you can ride both directions. most of the dunes are just like the one at SL we got kicked off of

oh, riding to and from campsite means riding 24-7
great write up gunnerz!

[Krandall]

I forgot about the 24/7 duning.

[Peelz]

I forgot about the 24/7 duning.

you'll notice those HID's out there!

[Gunz]

Walden and Silver lake write ups soon.

[als660r]

 snake hunt is the weekend after easter it is not the second weekend of april  every year.