Nothing Special 'wheeling at Windrock

[Nothing Special]

My niece was getting married in Kentucky, so we decided to piece together a vacation that would include the wedding. With 'wheeling being such a big part of our vacations we definitely wanted to see what we could fit in there. Windrock Park is a little outside of Knoxville Tennessee. I'd heard a lot about it and seen a bunch of videos ("Bleepin' Jeep" is a pretty big YouTube channel, he's based in the area). We were able to get campground reservations right at the park, so we had the 'wheeling figured out!

Jumping to the conclusion, Windrock is definitely my least favorite place I've gone 'wheeling. It was still good (even a bad day of 'wheeling beats a good day at work!), but I won't be going back unless I have a guide who knows the area.

The biggest problem with the area is also the biggest positive. It's huge! That can obviously be a great thing, but it also means you need to drive a lot between fun areas.

We got there around noon on a Sunday, so after getting camp set up we headed to the trails! The trail map had trails listed as green (easy), blue (moderate), black (difficult) and black/red (most difficult). We decided to start with blue until we had a feel for the ratings, so we started in from the main entrance on trail 2. We pretty quickly confirmed that blue was not enough challenge for us. But it got us to black rated trail 16.

Trail 16 had some fun challenges. We also ran into a couple of families in Jeep Wranglers, so we were able to watch them for a little while (until they left us behind).

One unfortunate (from my perspective) issue was that many of the challenges were in the form of deep ruts where my 33" tires wouldn't reach bottom. Here's a picture of one such obstacle. The only way to stay out of the ruts would be to ride the right bank, and that looked like more lean than I wanted to risk. But in this picture you can see my front diff plowing pretty heavily, and both front tires just kissing the ground. It was soft dirt and I was going downhill so I was able to drive through this.

But I did drag the driver's side in the dirt pretty good here. Fortunately Pluto didn't sustain any significant damage, but you can see the mud he picked up dragging the upper hinge and rear view mirror on the ground.

This next little climb ended up being the first of several times I "got to" use Pluto's winch. Shortly after this picture was taken I ended up with the rear diff on the uphill side of a rock. I needed to back up to get a little momentum, but both back tires were in the air so I couldn't back downhill.

After going about 1 mile we were at a place where blue rated trail G10 intersected trail 16. With dinner time approaching and about 5 miles of trail 16 before the next escape route we decided to bail out at this point.

That was the first of three days at Windrock. I'll pick up the other two days as I get a chance.

[Nothing Special]

On day 2 we started in on the same blue trail 2 and went to where we had gotten off trail 16 the day before. We still decided not to start down the rest of trail 16. With the deep ruts we were seeing we figured it wasn't a question of "if" we would get stopped and have to turn around, but "when". So instead we ran black trail 17 in the same area. This gave another "opportunity" to exercise the winch. The ruts in this picture lifted my tires off the ground again, so the winch was the only way to get up the hill.

We then made our way across blue trail G1 and green trail G5 to get to a loop on trails 82 (black) and 83 (blue). 82 gave us our third chance to use the winch. In this picture Pluto had all four tires tring to climb damp rocks at the same time. I MIGHT have been able to drive up it, but after a few unsuccessful attempts I pulled rope.

From there we started down black trail 35. That was fun for awhile, but not challenging enough for Lesley to get out and walk, so no pictures . But again we ran into ruts that were too deep to navigate on 33s. So we turned around and finished the day a little early heading out another exit on part of blue trail 22.

[Gary Lewis]

Yikes! That looks more difficult than I'd want to tackle. But you obviously made it. I'm anxious to see the next episode!

[Gary Lewis]

On day 2 we started in on the same blue trail 2 and went to where we had gotten off trail 16 the day before. We still decided not to start down the rest of trail 16. With the deep ruts we were seeing we figured it wasn't a question of "if" we would get stopped and have to turn around, but "when". So instead we ran black trail 17 in the same area. This gave another "opportunity" to exercise the winch. The ruts in this picture lifted my tires off the ground again, so the winch was the only way to get up the hill.

We then made our way across blue trail G1 and green trail G5 to get to a loop on trails 82 (black) and 83 (blue). 82 gave us our third chance to use the winch. In this picture Pluto had all four tires tring to climb damp rocks at the same time. I MIGHT have been able to drive up it, but after a few unsuccessful attempts I pulled rope.

From there we started down black trail 35. That was fun for awhile, but not challenging enough for Lesley to get out and walk, so no pictures . But again we ran into ruts that were too deep to navigate on 33s. So we turned around and finished the day a little early heading out another exit on part of blue trail 22.

So, are you upgrading the tires? Or staying away from ruts? Or planning to "pull rope" more often?

[Nothing Special]

So, are you upgrading the tires? Or staying away from ruts? Or planning to "pull rope" more often?

What was it that looked more difficult than you would want? The first picture? If so, I agree with you!

Obstacles that lay you on your side aren't really what I want to subject Pluto to. I hit both mirrors against the ground at least once. That's not a recipe for keeping sheet metal straight! Fortunately I wasn't laid over very hard in any of those instances and fortunately '71 Broncos are pretty thick skinned. But this isn't really my cup of tea. Again, not my favorite 'wheeling venue.

And more on that... In most videos I've seen the Windrock trails are wet and muddy. It was dry when we were there. There were a few puddles, but for the most part water wasn't an issue. But when big tired rigs drive on these trails when they are wet, there will be tire spinning and deep ruts will get cut in the mud. Now it was dry dirt, which is a lot easier to navigate, but the ruts are still there.

As far as what I plan to do in response to this, no, Pluto's not getting bigger tires. The 33s that are on him are a pretty good fit for the kind of 'wheeling I want to do with him. Plus Lesley has said she won't climb into him if I put any bigger tires on! As it was, I would've turned around sooner if the ruts hadn't been soft dirt, so winching out didn't seem like a terrible option here. But in general I don't think I'll do a lot more of this type of 'wheeling with Pluto.

(and it looks like I might have been posting day 2 while you were replying to day 1, so don't miss that second installment above)

[Gary Lewis]

What was it that looked more difficult than you would want? The first picture? If so, I agree with you!

Obstacles that lay you on your side aren't really what I want to subject Pluto to. I hit both mirrors against the ground at least once. That's not a recipe for keeping sheet metal straight! Fortunately I wasn't laid over very hard in any of those instances and fortunately '71 Broncos are pretty thick skinned. But this isn't really my cup of tea. Again, not my favorite 'wheeling venue.

And more on that... In most videos I've seen the Windrock trails are wet and muddy. It was dry when we were there. There were a few puddles, but for the most part water wasn't an issue. But when big tired rigs drive on these trails when they are wet, there will be tire spinning and deep ruts will get cut in the mud. Now it was dry dirt, which is a lot easier to navigate, but the ruts are still there.

As far as what I plan to do in response to this, no, Pluto's not getting bigger tires. The 33s that are on him are a pretty good fit for the kind of 'wheeling I want to do with him. Plus Lesley has said she won't climb into him if I put any bigger tires on! As it was, I would've turned around sooner if the ruts hadn't been soft dirt, so winching out didn't seem like a terrible option here. But in general I don't think I'll do a lot more of this type of 'wheeling with Pluto.

(and it looks like I might have been posting day 2 while you were replying to day 1, so don't miss that second installment above)

You are right, it was the first pic!

That's way beyond my experience level, beyond my desire, and beyond what I want to subject BB to. No way do I want to get anywhere close to hitting the mirrors on the ground. So I understand why you don't want to do it either.

As for the 33" tires, I'm with you there as well. My son suggested 35's for BB, but I told him the 33's are "just right". Tall enough to get over about anything I want to tackle, and about the tallest his mother is willing to climb over. Plus 35's would make 2nd gear starts harder and hurt the MPG even more. Just right.

And yes, I was posting when you posted #2, but I went back and read it. So I'm caught up.

[Nothing Special]

You are right, it was the first pic!

That's way beyond my experience level, beyond my desire, and beyond what I want to subject BB to. No way do I want to get anywhere close to hitting the mirrors on the ground. So I understand why you don't want to do it either.

As for the 33" tires, I'm with you there as well. My son suggested 35's for BB, but I told him the 33's are "just right". Tall enough to get over about anything I want to tackle, and about the tallest his mother is willing to climb over. Plus 35's would make 2nd gear starts harder and hurt the MPG even more. Just right.

And yes, I was posting when you posted #2, but I went back and read it. So I'm caught up.

After 'wheeling only about 3 hours on day 1 and 6 on day 2 we had pretty much exhausted the black trails that were reachable from the main entrance (except for the 5 miles of trail 16 that we still didn't really want to bite off). So we found another entrance on the map that showed where we could pick up trail 30. After getting a little los... er, temporarily disoriented we found it, but it had been blocked. So we found another entrance that went in to trail 28. But that went up a private driveway with lots of "no trespassing" signs.

Back at the visitors center we had seen stickers that said "we survived trail 47" or trail 15 (both red/black trails). We knew we weren't earling those stickers, but there was also a "we survived trail 22" sticker. We had already done about half of that trail (blue). And even though Lesley had dozed off (yes, literally) on that trail we decided that if it was worth a sticker we could try the rest of it. So we went back to the main entrance.

For the most part it was a pretty easy dirt road. But it did turn out to have a couple fun rocky sections that I think deserved a "black" designation.

That still only took a couple of hours, but on our way out we passed signs that said "to wind mills". We decided to see what that attraction was all about, so we went up green trails G37 and G2 to what turned out to be a couple of modern wind turbines. For midwesterners who see huge wind farms along the freeways frequently it wasn't really that big a thing, but it was a nice drive on a nice day with the top down.

That pretty much wrapped up Windrock for us. Again, it seemed like a good place, but we really needed a guide to help us get to the type of trails we wanted to run if we were to spend more than a couple days there. Not at all sorry we went, we definitely enjoyed it! But not planning a return trip either.

I do have some video that I still need to put together, so I'll be posting that when I get it ready.

The next day we drove Pluto to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a day of sightseeing. Unfortunately this turned out to be our one rainy day of the trip (well, other than day 1 of our drive home in the motorhome), so the views were a lot less than spectacular. But it was still a nice day.

On Thursday we drove the motorhome from Knoxville up to a campground near Louisville KY, then drove Pluto back to Lexington where my brother moved a couple years ago and spent the evening with him and his family before driving back to camp.

Friday we drove Pluto to Mammoth Cave National Park. That turned out to be a really nice day.

Saturday we drove back to Lexington in Pluto to take a hike with my brother's wife and daughter. Then drove back to camp to get ready for my niece's wedding (different niece than we hiked with! the wedding was Lesley's side of the family) which was on her farm not far from our campground.

Then Sunday we started the drive back home.

Altogether we put over 800 highway miles on Pluto, not counting the 2100 miles we towed him with the motorhome. So a lot more non-'wheeling than 'wheeling on this trip, but we knew that would be the case. Like I said at the beginning, this was a vacation of a lot of different things pieced together.

 

[Gary Lewis]

After 'wheeling only about 3 hours on day 1 and 6 on day 2 we had pretty much exhausted the black trails that were reachable from the main entrance (except for the 5 miles of trail 16 that we still didn't really want to bite off). So we found another entrance on the map that showed where we could pick up trail 30. After getting a little los... er, temporarily disoriented we found it, but it had been blocked. So we found another entrance that went in to trail 28. But that went up a private driveway with lots of "no trespassing" signs.

Back at the visitors center we had seen stickers that said "we survived trail 47" or trail 15 (both red/black trails). We knew we weren't earling those stickers, but there was also a "we survived trail 22" sticker. We had already done about half of that trail (blue). And even though Lesley had dozed off (yes, literally) on that trail we decided that if it was worth a sticker we could try the rest of it. So we went back to the main entrance.

For the most part it was a pretty easy dirt road. But it did turn out to have a couple fun rocky sections that I think deserved a "black" designation.

That still only took a couple of hours, but on our way out we passed signs that said "to wind mills". We decided to see what that attraction was all about, so we went up green trails G37 and G2 to what turned out to be a couple of modern wind turbines. For midwesterners who see huge wind farms along the freeways frequently it wasn't really that big a thing, but it was a nice drive on a nice day with the top down.

That pretty much wrapped up Windrock for us. Again, it seemed like a good place, but we really needed a guide to help us get to the type of trails we wanted to run if we were to spend more than a couple days there. Not at all sorry we went, we definitely enjoyed it! But not planning a return trip either.

I do have some video that I still need to put together, so I'll be posting that when I get it ready.

The next day we drove Pluto to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a day of sightseeing. Unfortunately this turned out to be our one rainy day of the trip (well, other than day 1 of our drive home in the motorhome), so the views were a lot less than spectacular. But it was still a nice day.

On Thursday we drove the motorhome from Knoxville up to a campground near Louisville KY, then drove Pluto back to Lexington where my brother moved a couple years ago and spent the evening with him and his family before driving back to camp.

Friday we drove Pluto to Mammoth Cave National Park. That turned out to be a really nice day.

Saturday we drove back to Lexington in Pluto to take a hike with my brother's wife and daughter. Then drove back to camp to get ready for my niece's wedding (different niece than we hiked with! the wedding was Lesley's side of the family) which was on her farm not far from our campground.

Then Sunday we started the drive back home.

Altogether we put over 800 highway miles on Pluto, not counting the 2100 miles we towed him with the motorhome. So a lot more non-'wheeling than 'wheeling on this trip, but we knew that would be the case. Like I said at the beginning, this was a vacation of a lot of different things pieced together.

That sounds like a good trip when you don't know about slapping the mirrors on the ground. And I think I could do those rocky sections in Big Blue.

But even with the mirrors bit I'll bet it was a good trip. You got to spend time with several family members, do some 'wheeling, see Mammoth Cave and the Great Smoky Mountains, and just have fun.

[Nothing Special]

That sounds like a good trip when you don't know about slapping the mirrors on the ground. And I think I could do those rocky sections in Big Blue.

But even with the mirrors bit I'll bet it was a good trip. You got to spend time with several family members, do some 'wheeling, see Mammoth Cave and the Great Smoky Mountains, and just have fun.

It was a very good trip. It's funny because there wasn't really any one part that was so special. But put together it was one of the best vacations we've had!

[BigBrother-84]

It's funny because there wasn't really any one part that was so special.

Who says this?