wheelin' at Silver Lake

[srlbotanical]

When its cold, I want snow! It has been a warm January here in West Michigan and we have had no sun for 13 days straight... I am going to go nuts!

 

Anyway, yesterday I was looking through some pictures, dreaming about my next off road trip. I thought it would be fun to post a few of those pictures here.

 

These are all from a trip my son and I took to Silver Lake ORV area in October 2005. Silver Lake is 450 acres of dunes and scramble areas along the coast of lake Michigan. Needless to say, its a blast!

 

You need a flag and a MI ORV permit and your ready to go! After I aired down to 12lbs in front and 10lbs in back we were ready to roll.

 

The dune area is one directional, you can only go one way. The photos are deceiving, those dunes are bigger then they look!

 

we decided to drive around for a bit first to get used to the sand before attempting the big dunes. I was surprised how well my truck did in the sand.

 

This is part of the scramble area, it was still early, so not a lot of people were here yet. The wet strip of sand you see here is an area that people like to race.

 

We were finally ready to make a run at the dunes! Now, when you run the dunes, you want to accelerate up the face pretty fast so you can break the sharp crest at the top, but you also have to let off at the right time so you don't launch yourself over the other side. I put the truck in 4low and we accelerated up the hill. I let off to soon and we sat, stuck on top of the first dune.

Look at the trees in the background, past the lifted Ford, see how high we are?

 

My buddy Brendon pulled up behind us and snatched us back. we were ready to try again. Here is the view back down the hill...

 

We tried again, I stayed on the gas, and we made it over! Once I had the feel for it, I never got stuck again (during this trip at least...)

At about noon, we stopped and had a picnic lunch. You can't drive near the lake, so the DNR has picnic benches set up along the no-drive line. We parked, ate, and hiked around a bit. It really is a beautiful area. This was the time to go, you can see that there was not a whole lot of people here on this sunny October weekend. During the summer it can be a MADHOUSE.

 

 

My brother-in-law, Chris, wanted to drive around a bit, so I got out to take a few more pictures. This is a good shot of my truck before the 2" lift, new rims and shocks that it has now. I can't wait to wheel this spring!

 

Well, that's it, I hope you guys enjoyed it!

 

Steve

[curly]

Looks like a good time! That is a rally clean truck you have there . Your body style is still my favorite!

[ElephantNest]

Looks like a blast! Wow, very cool. Wish we had areas like that around here. Thanks for sharing the pics!

[asilverblazer]

A little off topic but does anyone know of a place to look for places to wheel, it's knida hard to find places like that through the grapevine...

"I gotta a buddy who lets us go drive through his pasture..."

or

"We just go down by the river..."

or

"Theres this place behind this hopusing developement..."

 

And all those places being private property. I only know of a couple legal places even in my state.

[PELICAN]

Those are some great pictures. After looking at those pictures I miss not having a 4x4 anymore.

 

asilverblazer

you can go to this link to check out some different areas to go fourwheelin. There is a place That I believe is in South Oklahoma but I do not remember the name now.

http://www.fwd-fwd.org/index.htm

[SkyHigh]

Nice pics! Last summer was my first time at Silver Lake...it is defintely on my list of places to return to this summer.

 

Great family environment, touristy town with loads of stuff to do. We had alot of fun and a weekend was hardly enough.

 

The wheeling was fun, but if your used to something more challenging than you may get bored pretty easily of whipping up and down sand hills, but there is enough there to do to keep everyone in the family entertained for at leat a weekend. maybe i'll see some of you guys out there this summer.

 

couple shots from our trip...

 

 

 

 

 

[RyanbabZ71]

Nice pics,

 

There were some pics maybe a yr or 2 ago of a guy who took an almost brand new truck there and jumped a dune and came down wrong and destroyed the front of his truck. That was crazy

[99silveradoz71]

Darn nice pictures there. Hmm, MI is a neighbor, perhaps I need a roadtrip.

[srlbotanical]

Nice pics Skyhigh, frickin' huge pictures, but nice all the same! That second shot made me laugh. I count a minimum of three people stuck! Makes me feel good, I think everyone has to get stuck at least once out there. Its a right of passage for sand driving...

 

Steve

[SkyHigh]

Nice pics Skyhigh, frickin' huge pictures, but nice all the same! That second shot made me laugh. I count a minimum of three people stuck! Makes me feel good, I think everyone has to get stuck at least once out there. Its a right of passage for sand driving...

 

Steve

 

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Yah Sorry about the size. LOL. Yeah that hill was fun! I don't think I got stuck at all...at least nothing i couldnt free myself from My girlfriend got buried in the cherokee, but I just hit everything bouncing off the rev limiter

 

I will defintely be going back this year!

 

one more giant stuck pic...

 

[General Lee 01]

Darn nice pictures there.  Hmm, MI is a neighbor, perhaps I need a roadtrip.

 

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Heck, MI is quite a ways from me, but I'm wanting to plan a trip now myself!

 

 

Nice pics guys!

[Mark2500HD01]

Where exactly is this place at. I went to the dunes ALONG time ago when I was like 8. Im moving to Kalamazoo next year, so hopefully there will be some dunes within a few hours.

[srlbotanical]

Where exactly is this place at. I went to the dunes ALONG time ago when I was like 8. I'm moving to Kalamazoo next year, so hopefully there will be some dunes within a few hours.

 

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I live just east of Grand Rapids and it takes exactly 1.5 hours for me to get to Silver Lake state park. Kzoo would add about 45 minutes to that....

 

You can get the official Silver Lake ORV info here