Honestly torn on how to rate this business. First off, they were incredibly accommodating. We had scheduled a rental from 12-4, but called and they allowed us to come earlier to avoid the midday heat.
We arrived and check in went smooth. We went over paperwork and signed our life away, literally. They don't offer insurance or anything and if your vehicle gets damaged it costs A LOT of money because you're on the hook for all the repairs, $250 a day for the vehicle being out of service, etc.
We got checked in and got our helmets and goggles. The gentleman at the desk went over the map and had color photographs for landmarks to look for. The map and landmarks made zero sense in the shop and it was kind of overwhelming. I 100% expected us to get lost. However, when we got off road the directions and everything that was said made perfect sense.
We walked outside and the first UTV they assigned us had a tire with a "massive leak" according to the staff. We were assigned another and soon went on our way.
When you initially go off road, the river bottom you drive through to the river is a washboard for about an hour. They said the speed limit is 25mph and told us one person said they didn't go above 20. Honestly, we went 10-15 and I thought the UTV was going to rattle apart or we were going to get whiplash because the road was horrible. Given the quoted prices to fix damage and recover the UTV, it was always in the back of my mind that something was going to break if we went faster.
We got about halfway through the self guided tour, and our UTV started smoking and clunking. We had to walk to find cell service and eventually we called and notified the shop of the issues. We waited a little over an hour for someone from the shop to come, and they brought another UTV on a trailer.
The gentleman promptly unloaded the new ride and loaded up the broken one. He looked it over and I explained the issue, and he said it was most likely the clutch or belt and was absolutely not our fault.
We asked if we got an extra hour or something due to the mechanical malfunction that was no fault of our own. He said "well you should be able to do the route and get back on time, but I guess you can have until 1:45." We were supposed to return our UTV at 1:20.
Ultimately, we returned it at about 1:30 without even getting to drive all the roads we were supposed to be able to. We essentially paid for a 4 hour half day rental and got 3 hours of usage out of it. I would say you should allot about 3.5 hours for your rental. We used our three hours and didn't quite make it to some of the lookout points.
Staff wasn't too willing to give us any extra time, even the ~1 hour we waited. There was no offer of a refund for the unused time, a t shirt, or anything.
The staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating, but I felt in a way we were duped out of an hour of drive time and/or a reimbursement.
I would give this place another try, but I would carry a healthy dose of cautious optimism in my back pocket. Overall, it was a lot of fun.
Dress in your worst because you WILL get dirty and sweaty. They provide iced water in a cooler on your vehicle. Beware of other trail users as some people on the trail system were FLYING and there are a lot of blind corners and curves throughout pretty much the entire route. read more