Hidden Falls Adventure Park Review

[Younggun]

I’m not a traveler, prefer being home and comfortable. But last year my wife made me promise to take her somewhere for our 15th wedding anniversary and said she’d let me choose the place. Even said she’d pay for it! After 6 months of hoping she’d forget I finally settled on Hidden Falls.

We don’t have any real dedicated off road vehicles. I’ve got my old 94 4X4 Chebby and we have a Polaris Ranger 500 Farm Buggy. No lift kits or suspension work. Original tires and wheels. Just added a light bar, windshield, and vertical gun rack in the cab. It’s a farm buggy. Most off roading it’s done is when we’d drive the kids around when the roads flood or playing in the ice when we get it. Or just driving in the pasture. But I thought it would be fun to get it on some real trails.

We had reserved a small cabin called Zips House. I’ll get to it in the next post.

We left early Friday, about 715 to beat the heat since the AC doesn’t work in my truck. Got there around 1015. Got a couple maps of the trails, one for full size and one for ATV/UTV/bikes, and a key to the cabin. Signed a couple waivers and paid for our driving passes and any remaining fees from the reservation. In and out in maybe 5 minutes. On the way back to the truck I asked a younger employee sitting nearby where we would probably hit the limits of our farm buggy on the trails. He said we probably wouldn’t want to go past a level 3. In the words of Project Farm: “We’re gonna test that”.


Drove in to the park and after a small navigation error we made it to the room. A little closer to the RV sights than I would have preferred but overall in a good spot. Unloaded the truck and hit the trails by 1130 or so.

Lodging and trail review in following posts.

Hidden Falls Adventure Park | Texas' Premiere Off-Road Park | 7030 E FM 1431, Marble FAlls TX, USA

Looking for an outdoor adventure? Come out to Hidden Falls Adventure Park! We have trails for everyone, Jeep, Bronco's, Toyota's, Motorcycles, ATV/UTV, there's something here for YOU and your family!

www.hiddenfallsadventurepark.com

"

 

[Younggun]

Lodging options are available for primitive camping, RVs, and several options for air conditioned buildings from small bunkhouses to a 3 room small apartment. We chose Zips house. One room semi divided with a kitchen area, shower, queen bed, and a triple bunk bed. Ran about $300/night, plus a cleaning fee, tax, and driver/passenger passes. A little steep for my cheap sensibilities but the location was great at the edge of the camping area so less traffic and trail access right across the road.

The kitchen had a mini fridge and microwave, as well as a hot plate, nonstick skillet, some silverware, cooking utensils, oven mitts, coffee cups, and dish soap. Basic necessities were pretty much covered, though we chose to mostly use what we brought.

Bathroom was pretty basic. Toilet, sink, and shower. Didn’t care for the shower head.

In the semi divided area was a bar height dining table between the queen bed and triple bunks. Each bunk had its own wall mounted fan. Large ceiling fan in the center.

Water pressure was pretty low, but otherwise it was hard to find complaints. And the front porch was plenty big and facing the east so sitting out in the evening was fairly comfortable even with the heat this weekend. There was a picnic table, 2 other benches, a grill, and a fire ring (but we couldn’t use it to do a burn ban). Nice wood pile by the grill. No idea if it was supplied by the park or left by someone.


The RV spots looked pretty nice, lots of them with shade trees. The tent sites…well, I feel bad for anyone staying in a tent over the weekend. I wouldn’t have made it.

There’s also a day use area for those who just need to park an u load.

 

[Younggun]

Lost a long post on my phone, so part 3 will come later when I’m at the computer.

 

[Younggun]

OK, hopefully this goes better than the last attempt.


After getting unpacked and settled Friday morning we hit the trails. Our first few hours were a bit of a mess. We were given 2 maps when we came in, thinking one for each of us and not looking too closely. It turns out that one was for full size vehicles and the other for ATVs, UTVs, and dirt bikes. We set out and soon found ourselves on trails we couldn't locate on the map. Our goal was to hit a very easy trail called Hog Ally accessible from the path just across the road. We turned off on what according to the map we thought would be Hog Ally but it wasn't the easy starter trail we were looking for. Instead we found some steep rock ledges with lots of loose dirt and pretty large chunks broken away. We took several detours each time having to carefully turn around after reaching a point we couldn't go any further. Found our way back to where we started and decided to find somewhere else to start. No pictures here, we were still more concerned with exploring than documenting anything. This first adventure may have gone differently but I still really had no idea what the little Ranger could do or how it was going to handle the different situations.

Went to a different park road and eventually found our Hog Ally. Had a blast, it was a mostly flat trail with some slow turns and water holes of various sizes, deepest we went in to coming up to the floor boards. There were a few spots that may have been deeper but it looked like we'd high center on ruts already there and it was too early to bother getting stuck.

We moved on from there to some other level 2 trails. or mostly level 2. We were still getting pretty confused by the map. We kept seeing intersections that should be the one on the map, but they seemed to be in the wrong place or going in a different direction. Still, we managed to work our way up and down obstacles of increasing difficulty. After a couple hours we went back to the "cabin" and look over the map and plan our next move. This is when we found our issue. The 2 different maps show different trails. Our ATV map didn't show the trails intended for full size vehicles so when we thought we were taking the only turn off in an area, we were actually passing trails shown on a different map.we took both maps from then on. We also started getting used to how the signs were used.

The trails themselves were easy to stay on and most of them had options to bypass any really difficult or possible dangerous situations with a more reasonable path. On day one we ran a lot of the level 1 and 2 trails, testing the limits f the Ranger and learning how it would act as it climbed over uneven ledges or tried to pull itself up over loose gravel. This is one thing I really enjoys about the park, even on a lot of the obstacles there would be multiple ways to approach it from "cheating" to "lets try the hardest part" so we could push a little more and find our limits. Most of the trails also have plenty of room to turn around, though some area one way.

The highest point of the park is Wildcat Mountain. Definitely a cool place to go. There are multiple trails leading up to it allowing a fairly accessible location for most stock trucks, or a challenging crawl for a custom crawler or trail rig. The view from the top was amazing.

 

[Younggun]

More phone pics

 

[Younggun]

Sunrise view and loaded up to head home.

 

[Younggun]

I've got some more pictures to steal from my wife's phone and some stuff from the DSLR I haven't sorted yet. Will post those later.



As for the Ranger 500 farm buggy: After 2 days of riding we were crawling over stuff I wouldn't have considered on day 1. It exceeded my expectations in every way despite it's little 25" tires, 500CC engine, limited travel, and stiff sway bar. I drove most of the trails in turf saver mode (open rear diff). If we were coming up on a climb with loose gravel or it looked like a tire might lift on the rear I'd lock the rear and we'd go right up. If it was a larger rock ledge i'd lock both axles and drop it in low range and it wouldn't miss a beat. The only thing that held it back at all was tire size, some rock ledges were just too tall. I'd have to watch my angles due to the sway bar making the rear end pretty much set the stance, and I may experiment with disconnecting it for trails like this specifically, but I'll have to see how it handles. The rear end being held like it is would lead to some abrupt changes as we came off of or climbed on to some uneven rock ledges.

Coming off ledges I quickly became comfortable using the skid plate to slide off of places that were just a little too high.I wouldn't have had to much faith in that plastic but it definitely proved itself. The 105 degree heat didn't phase it either. Even on steep climbs and under loads it would climb to the usual 200 before the fan would kick on and bring it back to 180. We were able to butt the front tires up to several vertical walls and give a little gas and it would walk up them, and with just a little coaxing the back end would follow.

There were some areas where having both axles locked would really limit the turning radius. Usually with the back axle on a rock we just climbed and the front on some loose gravel. I could ether flip a switch to unlock them or back up a touch and try again. Maybe an option to unlock just the rear would have been nice, but asking a bit much for something intended to haul feed to the cows or carry some wire to patch fence.

I filled it up on the way our and took a 5 gallon can of gas. We burned about 4 gallons with a good 10 hours of riding and climbing over the 2 days. Probably a little more.

By the end of the day Saturday we were laughing about the tricked out CanAms and RZRs with big tires and suspension kits running around on the light trails while the Danger Ranger was climbing rocks and kicking ass! I'm not saying it's more capable, but it was funny how people spent so much money on the capability that the seemed afraid to risk it anymore (unlike a certain member here who is more than willing to give it the full send).




All in all, we had so much fun we were talking about going back before we even left. It was our anniversary trip and the first time in 13 years we've had a chance to act like kids instead of the parents. we did the stupid stuff from our younger years with enough sense to not hurt ourselves, almost reaching back to those dating days. Yeah, we argued a little about those stupid maps, but never go mad. I scared her a couple times, but we topped the hill laughing. And that time may have a big influence on how much I enjoyed our time there. I'd be back this weekend if we could. Just getting out and having fun. in the end the map challenges and sometimes arriving at shit we'd have to sit and ponder before locking the axles and creeping forward made every defeated rock or hill that much better and we enjoyed every second.

 

[jrbfishn]

I'm glad y'all had fun. You deserved it.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

 

[Hoji]

Happy Anniversary!

 

[TxStetson]

By the end of the day Saturday we were laughing about the tricked out CanAms and RZRs with big tires and suspension kits running around on the light trails while the Danger Ranger was climbing rocks and kicking ass! I'm not saying it's more capable, but it was funny how people spent so much money on the capability that the seemed afraid to risk it anymore (unlike a certain member here who is more than willing to give it the full send).

If you had one of those all tricked out, it wouldn’t be any good as a farm buggy.

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

I've been wanting to do a TGT meet there forever. Between the shooting range and 4x4 trails, plenty of yee yee for anyone. I'm in the same boat as you. Just an old 96 ram used to go down the river sometimes. Did more trails than I probably should have, but we survived. Glad you had fun.

 

[toddnjoyce]

I've been wanting to do a TGT meet there forever. ]

It’s free and easy to make happen.

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

It’s free and easy to make happen.

I mentioned it and no one cared so it died

 

[TreyG-20]

Sounds like a blast. I live 25 minutes from there and go a few times a year. Next time bring some shotguns and hit the sporting clays range. It is fantastic!

 

[BBL]

Congratulations on your anniversary. And much deserved congratulations on picking a girl that will do THIS for an anniversary. Lucky dude!

I have been to the Hidden Falls park before. And I cannot agree more on the confusion about mapping out the trails. The signage could be better, the maps could be clearer.
But ... I believe there is an app that shows dirtbike/adventure trails and shows your GPS location on them (if you turn your GPS on). I am not sure if it is free or not, though. If you cannot find it, PM me and I will try to figure out what it was. I had it a while ago but deleted it.

 

[BeatTheTunaUp]

I loaded up Google maps while I had signal and GPS roamed all over it showing me where I was. It really helped out.

 

[popper]

Even more fun in the Rockies. It's green there. Son took me for a ride, 50th anniversary party. One of the less lumpy parts of the trail, no go-fast on that trail. Got a vid somewhere of the steep part. IIRC they call it telephone pole road. I was recovering from altitude sickness after 6 mi @ 9k ft on a mountain climb. Old men really shouldn't try that. He really wanted to do the old Trail Ridge road but it opened the day we left for Texas.

 

[mp_tx]

Wheel and range weekend would be fun. Especially when it cools down some.


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[Younggun]

Congratulations on your anniversary. And much deserved congratulations on picking a girl that will do THIS for an anniversary. Lucky dude!

I have been to the Hidden Falls park before. And I cannot agree more on the confusion about mapping out the trails. The signage could be better, the maps could be clearer.
But ... I believe there is an app that shows dirtbike/adventure trails and shows your GPS location on them (if you turn your GPS on). I am not sure if it is free or not, though. If you cannot find it, PM me and I will try to figure out what it was. I had it a while ago but deleted it.

I found some of the trails on google maps, but it seems mostly to be the full size trails. In the end we found most of what we really wanted to hit, except for Turkey Run Spur and Lazyman Spur (which we might have found by accident and not realized it).

When we hunted for Turkey Run Spur we wound up at Red Oak. My wife said no, but I ticket sent it! Was the only 4 we went down, but we made it!

Marked our accomplishments as we went.

 

[Younggun]

Sounds like a blast. I live 25 minutes from there and go a few times a year. Next time bring some shotguns and hit the sporting clays range. It is fantastic!

I noticed that it had a range before we headed down there, but never been a big clay shooter. And wasn’t happy with the $50 to qualify for the 600 yard range.


Not bashing it at all, just wasn’t tempting enough to pull me away from what we had planned. And honestly I don’t think it could have competed with the fun we had!