School me on Texas

[Bray D]

I'm planning on wheeling Texas over Memorial Day weekend. It seems like every place operates differently down there and it's confusing as hell. The 4 potential parks on the list are Escondido Draw, Wolf Caves, K2, and Stillwaters Ranch. We plan to arrive on Thursday afternoon and depart the following Tuesday morning. Hitting each of these parks is not a necessity, but an option.

Does anyone have recommendations for the best tent camping location? I think Escondido is the only park open that early in the week, so we'll likely start there. Nothing is set in stone. We could spend a few days there, or just one night before packing up and heading elsewhere.

I'd like to limit the number of campgrounds to 2 for the trip, and staying somewhere central to the parks makes sense. That points to Wolf Caves or K2. We would use that camp as 'home base' for the remainder of the week, scooting over to SWR for a day if we want. Is either of those locations better set up for camping? Will they kick us out Monday afternoon? Any other recommendations?

 

[tribal4krawler]

Bray D wolves is generally not open during the week. K2 for sure isn’t (it’s technically only open on specific weekends). It looks like you’re in luck though - that both parks will be open from the 27-30th. What are you wheeling? There’s not a huge amount of trails at either park for a “mild” rig. Both parks are only about 400-500 acres and the majority of it being medium hard to impossible. If you do have a mild rig Stillwater and Hidden Falls adventure park will probably be a lot more fun for you than Wolf Caves and K2 (definitely still worth a one day visit tho) I haven’t checked our race schedule yet but if we’re not doing anything we’ll probably go out to either Wolves or K2.

 

[Bray D]

I've shot messages to the different parks asking how they operate over the weekend and it sounds like we'll have decent access, I just don't want to show up in the middle of the day and piss them off or something - or expect to camp Monday into Tuesday and have them kick us out. Lodging is the biggest hurdle for this trip.

I'm in the Ranger that is my avatar. Locked on 37's with a doubler and 19 years of experience in the same driver's seat. My buddies are on tons and big boy tires. Looking forward to playing on some serious rocks.

 

[Bray D]

Wanted to chime in as this trip is shaping up pretty well. The plan is to arrive at Escondido Draw Thursday night, wheel there Friday, then head to Wolf Caves Saturday morning to stay until Monday. Reservations have been made at both locations.

WC is my buddy's stomping grounds, but most of us are unfamiliar with Escondido. It would be nice to just trail ride all day Friday, nothing terribly challenging but more than gravel road cruising.

Anyone have some recommended blue / black trails at Escondido Draw?

 

['84 Bronco II]

I've never been to Escondido Draw, but I wheeled with this guy once who made some videos of some of the trails.

 

[Bray D]

Nice. Thanks for sharing those videos. Gives me an idea of what their rating system is like. I think we'll have a good time cruising through some 3's and 4's. Knock out a good amount of trail miles on Friday to get warmed up for the hardcore stuff at Wolves the remainder of the weekend.

 

[Bray D]

Both parks are only about 400-500 acres and the majority of it being medium hard to impossible.

This was the perfect description. Texas rock crawling is serious. I rarely leave parks with a list of upgrades I want to make, but I certainly did after this trip (namely hydro assist).

We spent 1 day at Escondido then headed to WC for the remainder of the weekend.

Escondido

It's a neat place and would be fun to explore more on another trip. We knew what was ahead at WC so we were eager to get over there for the sticky rocks.

WC has sticky rocks indeed, and many of them. We ran a whole bunch of greens and a couple yellows. Made it halfway through a red before I came to a rock that was so big I couldn't get my bumper over it. Things get difficult in a hurry at that place. Very cool park.

Wolf Caves

 

['84 Bronco II]

Thanks for sharing, I might need to check out some Texas stuff one of these days.