Sport-Touring.Net - durhamtown/highland park

some quick info: i went with a 2000 drz400kick, and rode with a friend with a 2006 tw200...

so, we ended up doing durhamtown for 2 days, and highland park for 1.and here's a semi-thorough review.

both were awesome. we did highland park in the rain second, which eliminated a lot of trails. we could only do 1d/2d/3d - and the 3d ones were tough in the rain (it rained about an inch before during the time were at hp). yes, add 2 diamonds to all the trails there when wet. i didn't even attempt the 4d or 5d trails. it took all i could to get up some of the hills on the 3d's in the wet greasy red clay. (never ridden on wet red clay before - that stuff is slick!) - hp has some rocks/gravel type of trail base which i am very used to, and i welcomed that in the rain versus the red clay...when wet all the trails are basically giant drainage ditches, so there's a major amount of water on the trails...

hp is easier to navigate, has much nicer single track/trails - they're laid out better, and are way better maintained...and the mx gp track was stellar. but so muddy that the backside hills on it were really really soft, and even the drz400kick had problems. the tw just sunk in and couldn't finish it even once... but i noticed he had no wheel spin ever with the tw200 - that thing just grabbed and tractored right up the hills. the main problem was rear wheel width / swingarm width causing it to get stuck in deep ruts. aside from that it did great. the tw doesn't have enough suspension to launch any jumps without bottoming out, so he couldn't get much air without fearing a major suspension breakage... hp had much nicer trails overall, but i think 8 hours would be all you would need to hit all the trails once or even more than once. in 4 hours we did all the 1d/2d/most of the 3d trails.

durhamtown has more range of use, although the single track was way too easy (until we got to the 9/10/11/12 which had some nice elevation changes.) the single track at durhamtown is only difficult because of trail width - a lot of trees smacking the bark buster stuff. tight trails, but no challenge aside from squeaking between trees...the dirt drags was surprisingly fun - i thought it would be lame, but it wasn't. i really enjoyed the redlands area, nice range of hill climbs, although all very short, some were really steep (i flipped my bike on a landing after launching way too high speeding up one of the hills.) straight up the hill, and straight down on the front wheel first on the landing - ouch..but the drz was tough, and took the abuse...) the transfer trails and atv trails were nice because you could really get moving on them with lots of jumps. the 'natural' mx track (moonshine run i believe) was really nice, but man are there too many whoopd's on the bottom of it.. i was amazed at how many mx tracks they jammed into that place - gotta be close to 10 of them... it took us a good 2 or 3 hours just to get a feel for the map - it's a really convoluted layout, some trails are not accessible without going through other trails, etc.

overall, i think hp is a better park, with much nicer trails, more scenic, more hills (it's on a mountain versus durhamtown's relatively flat layout) - it is definitely smaller though. and it's not speed oriented at all - with just one giant mx track (which was really really neat). you're not gonna get lost at hp. the trail signage/map is light years ahead of what durhamtown had. the trails really didn't need arrows to follow - they were cleared enough that it was obvious as to where to go.

durhamtown is more jumping/speed oriented. less technical, more about getting air and going fast. the atv specific trails (especially 'p' i think was really nice for riding very fast.) d and f (transfer trails) are really nice to blaze through and get serious air. you can easily get lost, and it does take some time to get back to where you want to be - there are no real shortcuts anywhere. you can wander a long time in durhamtown - which might be a good thing. the single track is not well marked, there is a lot of it, but it seems not many in the park are running single track. it looked like the park staff didn't run the single track much to re-mark/maintain at all.

either way, i think you could spend twice as much time at durhamtown 'playing' but for sheer ride quality/skills building hp is a significantly better park. if you like jumping 4 foot hills at 40mph, durhamtown is the place for you. durhamtown is more of a play in the dirt typa park, and is more family oriented.. if you like serious, challenging single track/atv wide track (with almost no ruts), hp is the clear winner.

durhamtown is more hodgepodge, appearing to appeal to every audience (mc/atv/side by side/rv park/4x4/etc..). hp is definitely dedicated to the serious rider...very enduro rider based, which i like..

as for lodging: we stayed at durhamtown in a cabin, worked well - heat/ac, 2 beds, shower, refrigerator, and sink. cabins are older, but you get towels and soap.

hp has nice new cabins, but it's community showers/toilets...

both are priced about the same....

i'm going back in late february. i'd hit hp first for a day, and durhamtown after for a day... you can be a lazy rider at durhamtown...so if you're beat up from hp, you can relax and just tool around....or you can get your go fast stuff out at durhamtown...

Topic: durhamtown/highland park - georgia review... (Read 1084 times)