Gulches ORV Park 5-07-2011
Thread Starter
JK Freak
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 803
Likes: 0
From: Charleston, SC
Gulches ORV Park 5-07-2011
I rode Gulches in Laurens County, SC for the first time yesterday. I met Wallsofcrete from the forum and a coupe of his buddies and hug out with those guys most of the day. Since Wallsofcrete's JK is set up similar to mine, we did a lot of the same trails.
Gulches is a privately owned park of only about 80 acres set in the upstate of South Carolina. The trails vary from fairly easy rutted dirt roads to pretty insane near vertical climbs with plenty of rocks and a little mud and water thrown in for good measure. They do use a trail rating system similar to a ski resort with decent trail markings at the beginning an end of each trail and at most trail intersections. Since the park is only 80 acres, none of the tails are very long and the longest ones are also the easiest and are used to access the tougher ones. I got the sense of theme park with the short, tougher trails being almost like rides at the fair. We all noticed that after 5 hours or so of riding we felt like we had "done" the park. Of course, there were some very hard trails that we weren't set up for and saw a buggy bust his hydraulic steering on one and get winched out and a well set up XJ (with 2 kids in the back) close to rolling on another (see pics).
The owner, Skip, and his family/ staff were all very friendly and even offered an orientation ride. When we first got there, we followed a mildly modded Grand Cherokee around the easy and a few intermediate trails. We must have done ok, because they then got the YJ with the spring-over out. This is when we started having fun. We did a ride with several staff member and regulars over some tougher runs. Wallsofcrete and I both did some of the black rated "more" and "most" difficult trails. During this ride, we had a lot of help finding lines and spotting from the staff and locals. After a hot dog lunch provided by Gulches, we went out as a group with two JK's and two TJ's and did the rest of the trails and repeated a few others.
WallsofCrete on one of the more difficult trails:
Think this is where he smashed with nerf bar:
Doesn't look so bad at the start:
The end of "Heartbreaker" after I just did it:
Dashboard shot of one of the easy trails:
Danger:
The owner Skip out checking on us:
My JK from the cell phone camera at the sandy side by the Reedy River:
A buggy right after he busted his steering on Shipwreck:
The XJ that almost rolled (note the human ballast). This is after they roped him down on four wheels:
TJ on Shipwreck:
JK Rubi through the woods. Only spoke briefly to these guys. They had a little more courage than we did.
Nick's close to stock TJ got up one of the more difficult trails with some good spotting and a lot of skinny pedal:
Here's some pics of mine doing the trails:
Gulches is a privately owned park of only about 80 acres set in the upstate of South Carolina. The trails vary from fairly easy rutted dirt roads to pretty insane near vertical climbs with plenty of rocks and a little mud and water thrown in for good measure. They do use a trail rating system similar to a ski resort with decent trail markings at the beginning an end of each trail and at most trail intersections. Since the park is only 80 acres, none of the tails are very long and the longest ones are also the easiest and are used to access the tougher ones. I got the sense of theme park with the short, tougher trails being almost like rides at the fair. We all noticed that after 5 hours or so of riding we felt like we had "done" the park. Of course, there were some very hard trails that we weren't set up for and saw a buggy bust his hydraulic steering on one and get winched out and a well set up XJ (with 2 kids in the back) close to rolling on another (see pics).
The owner, Skip, and his family/ staff were all very friendly and even offered an orientation ride. When we first got there, we followed a mildly modded Grand Cherokee around the easy and a few intermediate trails. We must have done ok, because they then got the YJ with the spring-over out. This is when we started having fun. We did a ride with several staff member and regulars over some tougher runs. Wallsofcrete and I both did some of the black rated "more" and "most" difficult trails. During this ride, we had a lot of help finding lines and spotting from the staff and locals. After a hot dog lunch provided by Gulches, we went out as a group with two JK's and two TJ's and did the rest of the trails and repeated a few others.
WallsofCrete on one of the more difficult trails:
Think this is where he smashed with nerf bar:
Doesn't look so bad at the start:
The end of "Heartbreaker" after I just did it:
Dashboard shot of one of the easy trails:
Danger:
The owner Skip out checking on us:
My JK from the cell phone camera at the sandy side by the Reedy River:
A buggy right after he busted his steering on Shipwreck:
The XJ that almost rolled (note the human ballast). This is after they roped him down on four wheels:
TJ on Shipwreck:
JK Rubi through the woods. Only spoke briefly to these guys. They had a little more courage than we did.
Nick's close to stock TJ got up one of the more difficult trails with some good spotting and a lot of skinny pedal:
Here's some pics of mine doing the trails:
Last edited by JohnnyQuik; May 9, 2011 at 01:41 PM.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 411
Likes: 0
From: Greenville, SC
this is one of my favorite spots....I was not able to ride yesterday but our club is usually out there at least once a month. Hopefully next time you come up we will all be able ot meet up. Here are some pics from our previous ride at Gulches.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 155
Likes: 0
From: EVINGTON, VA
Yes it was alot of fun. And yes i got my first trail damage but its just the nerf bar could have been worse it did its job. I am still amazed on how well the rubi's do on the trail with just a set of tires and a budget lift. Going threw the trails and look back at it and say WTF I just did that with no problem.