We are getting closer and I'm starting to poke around and build a route.
To recap - my wife, two year old son and my parents will be making the trek with their 32' RV pulling their Jeep and I'll be pulling the Bronco with my new pickup. I've got to keep my travel distances somewhat sane due to the boy, I'm not sure how long he can go. He does 2.5-3hrs a shot without a problem. We will all be staying in the RV, so no tent camping this trip. We need to take that into consideration for where we go, we don't want to be scrambling during twilight hours trying to figure out where we can sleep or not.
The Jeep can keep up with me in the Bronco if it has an excellent driver, it's built well too.
The Bronco, well, it's capable.
There doesn't seem to be much of any four wheeling in Iowa. We can avoid going straight down and head through Wisconsin on our way to Illinois instead.
This is what I've initially come up with as the route - PLEASE let me know if there is something I missed.
Parks on the list so far:
The Cliffs Insane Terrain Off-Road Park
Badlands Off Road Park
Redbird State Recreation Area
Interlake State Recreation Area
Dirty Turtle Offroad Park
We would take off from north of the Twin Cities and drive all the way through WI with nothing to do and make out first stop at The Cliffs Insane Terrain (challenge accepted ;D) That is roughly a 6.75hr drive according to Google.
https://www.thecliffsinsanemusicthing.com/
Reservations are required, which is something we will have to plan ahead for. They also only list primitive camping, so we need to figure out if we can park the RV and stay in that or not.
We will probably leave early Saturday morning so we may be able to spend a few hours there on Sat or split up some time on Sat and Sun before leaving for the next trek.
The next leg is short, only 2.5ish hours from The Cliffs to Badlands Off Road.
https://badlandsoffroad.com/
A flag is required for the park - they are available there but we may look into getting those ahead of time. They need to be two feet higher than the tallest point of the vehicle.
After Badlands I've got Redbird State Rec Area, only a two hour drive straight south.
https://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/4276.htm
Non-registered out-of-state ORVs may purchase an annual Out-of-State Trail Use permit. This allows the ORV to be used on the Interlake and Redbird trails; but, not on county roads.
We will have to figure that one out - I assume I can purchase that at the location.
The next destination looks to be a 1.5 hour drive south again to Interlake State Rec Area.
https://www.in.gov/dnr/outdoor/4226.htm
Again, we need out of state ORV registration.
From Interlake we head roughly two hours East to Dirty Turtle Offroad Park.
https://dirtyturtleoffroad.com/
Simple rules and super affordable. I think a large chunk of time will be spent here-
The trick is going to see what other parks we could do or should hit to alter the schedule. What I have above could work depending on how much there is to do in each park on our way to the Louisville area. I believe we need to drop my wife off to work on Thursday and I think we would like to make it home sometime during the weekend, not to mention I'll have my son solo on the way home.
What do you guys think?