Full Video Transcript (auto generated):

Dirk van Reenen:

Hi my name is Dirk van Reenen and I’m the founder and a partner in Merus Adventure Park.

TX:GX Overland: what is Merus and then what kinds of activities can people find out there?

Dirk van Reenen: we offer hiking, mountain biking and off-roading and over landing. it’s the kind of design where you can hike and have an amazing experience, you can mountain bike and have an amazing experience, and you can go off-roading and over landing and having an amazing experience and then to kind of bind that all together you know we really wanted to create some amazing campsites that you can choose to camp on the rim or down in the canyon.

TX:GX Overland first question, because i think this it is really important to cover, can you go off-roading anywhere you want to in the canyon?

Dirk van Reenen: neither state park allow you to go off-roading and then the rest of the the canyon is privately owned lands. Merus Adventure is the only place that you can go that’s public or members of our park can go and off-road in Palo Duro Canyon.

TX:GX Overland: so you’ve got 50 miles of trails right now and you’ve got a plan to get up to 120 miles worth of trails out there. how many trails do you have and what is the rating system like?

Dirk van Reenen: so right now we’ve got, probably got around 24 trails right now. we actually use the the kind of rating system that the ski area uses and you know so we’ve got green circles for our beginner trail, we have blue squares for our intermediate, black diamonds for our advanced trails, double black diamonds for expert trails and then we’ve got purple hexagon for what we call just like our full-on crazy trails. right now the mix between green, blue, and black is probably about 90% of all the trails. we’ve got  I think three double black trails and then we’re just bringing online our first purple trail.  we’re opening it in two weeks we’re really matched with that 60% in the middle that  you know that has a four wheel drive vehicle that wants to come out and wants to play and they’re not necessarily looking for like the most hardcore thing on earth that they can find and they’re also not looking for just like i want to drive down a straight dirt road that has nothing on it so.

So that’s how we design our trails. right and  we’ve got trails that are, that are fairly easy. like if you only did the greens on the rim you know it’s fairly chilled out. when you go down into the canyon you’re on the 101 and you actually go into the drop-in right and the drop-in should really be rated more like a blue because it is steep. it’s not something that’s undoable i mean you got to maintain your speed and everything but we really wanted to create trails that challenge people, and that doesn’t mean like put you in a dangerous situation or tear your vehicle up, but you know challenge you meaning that oh my gosh like okay this is this is a little bit more than i thought it’s gonna be. and with our trail building crew we’ve got an extremely experienced trail building crew. so the this crew really understands what vehicles are capable of at what angles of being off camber or  you know the angle of approach departure, all that kind of stuff, so that we can really build the trails. so we can say look if you go on this trail with that vehicle you’re gonna be just fine. most people that come out are probably in the class of their vehicles are more capable than what they know and what their skill level allows for right. so we really like it because again the reason we’ve got adventure behind our name behind Merus and it’s not just Merus Park is that we want people to experience adventure. and when i think of all the adventures i’ve had in my life adventure doesn’t happen when things are like when you’re in your comfort zone and things feel ultra safe. that’s not adventure that’s just being safe in your comfort zone right. adventure happens when you get outside of your comfort zone and you’re like oh my gosh that was intense, like whew! you know when you get that little shot of adrenaline – you’re like yeah that was cool. that’s adventure and so whether you’re on a green trail, blue, black, double black whatever,  that’s what we want people to experience, like we want them to have that little shot of like whoa that was actually kind of cool. like we don’t think of Merus Adventure as like a park where you can buy a day pass and you go wheel right. again for us it’s about creating experience of connection. it’s that adventure. it’s that you’re getting outside of your comfort zone. you’re doing something that you ordinarily wouldn’t do and when you leave here you’ve got that extra shot of confidence and clarity in your mind set of now when you’re engaging your family your business your job like whatever it is you just have a little bit more edge because you spent two or three days at Merus. like that’s what what again what we’re about here. so we really try to reflect on everything that we do including the trail building.

TX:GX Overland: i could definitely tell that the trails have been designed for a lot of different kinds of vehicles and i think that’s one of the great things about it is it’s not just a jeep park right. i can go out there in a 4Runner. i can go out there in a Lexus GX. i can go out there in a tacoma. there’s a lot of different vehicles that are going to find your trails a lot of fun. so let’s talk about the trails – what is your favorite green trail?

Dirk van Reenen: the 101 is definitely my favorite green trail. i mean it’s just it’s a beautiful drive. i mean we you know usually at least once a week our family just jumps in the jeep and we just cruise down the 101 and stop at a creek and kind of play with the kids and whatever the case may be. but i mean the 101 is definitely my favorite green

TX:GX Overland:  if someone goes out to your place to Merus Adventure Park and they’re new to overlanding and they want to start experiencing what it means to off-road or to overland I would tell them to go down Merus 101. that is a great way to just dip your toe in the off-road waters and really start to experience what it’s like because it’s not a trail where you know you’re going to get high sided or you’re going to you know slide off the trail and get stuck in a ditch. it’s a relatively safe confined trail but it’s got some technical aspects to it that people will find entertaining and they’ll find it challenging if they don’t have the experience.

Dirk van Reenen: there’s one of the things we love about this piece of property is there there are places hereand again like people that are probably watching this and have never been here – they’re just like okay like you guys are full of it right – but there are places here where all of a sudden you look up and you’re like am i in moab right now? like i am literally i am on sandstone –  everything is kind of red around me this must be moab. and then 10 minutes later you’re like okay i must be in sedona now because there’s a lot more green trees and this and then the next thing we’ve got places where you truly feel like you’re in colorado. you know the next thing you’re you’re in sand and you know that’s one of the things that i love about this property is the the variety of what you’re going to deal and that’s why i do think that you know this is such a good place to come hone your off-road skills. it really is the idea that you can have an over landing experience here. you know that’s what people don’t understand like they’re like oh you can’t go over landing in in a private park and it’s just like really – like i think you should come here and try it out because you know we we have had groups that said hey we want a wheel for four days camp for three nights but we want to be in different spots and not run the same trails. okay no problem. 

TX:GX Overland: it’s so incredible that you’ve been able to create this kind of true overlanding experience in Texas where like you said people can go drive for days and not drive the same trail. they don’t stay in the same spot each night. they won’t see a lot of people while they’re out on the trail – maybe they won’t see anyone. when they’re out on the trail that is.  I think it’s the truest overlanding experience that we have here available in Texas. and what about your favorite blue trail?

Dirk van Reenen: yeah the vr4 north is definitely  my favorite. now we we did just downgrade lonesome dove from a black to a blue and it is amazingly fun so i would say the vr4 north is is my favorite rim blue and then  lonesome dove is my favorite  blue down in the canyon.

TX:GX Overland: what about your favorite black trail?

Dirk van Reenen:so for me that has to be the Bergflow trail and  the the Bergflow trail is really kind of a special trail to me. that was the first trail that we started working on. it’s an incredibly challenging trail. I mean we’ve had some serious breakdowns because it’s a it’s a black double black variation trail so there are some sections that you can take the black bypass or you can hit it as a double black. so it’s it’s definitely a hairy trail that’s awesome.

TX:GX Overland: what is your favorite expert trail?

Dirk van Reenen: yeah so we have a trail called  log Cabin that is really amazing. it’s a double black and it is really has a very deep moab feel. so there’s a lot of the just the rock the red sandstone, things like that on on that trail. it’s not actually mapped yet so we’re about to actually add it to our map but it’s called log cabins. i mean it’s a really fun trail. it’s very engaging.

TX:GX Overland: you know one of the things that i noticed about your park out there is just how well everything is marked. the signage out there on the trails is great. you provide everybody with these you know maps, not only of the trails but also at the campsites. and you know you’ve done a great job of really making it easy for people to get around on the property which i really appreciate because I’ve been to several other places where you’re looking around you’re like wait a minute where am i? is this the right spot? am i headed in the right direction? if I want to come out to Merus adventure park, whether it’s for the day or for a couple of days, like what’s the best way to do that?

Dirk van Reenen: so if you go to merusadventure.com it’s really easy to book your day passes.  you can book, reserve your camp spot, book a tour, whatever the case may be, we make it really easy for people to do that. the other thing too that you could consider is to actually get a Merus membership and typically we sell one-year memberships that allow 365-day access to the park as a member.  but we also have added a lot of perks to that – we’ve got special member weekends so we bring all of our members together. that has free camping. we provide food. we have trail runs. you know whether it’s Off-roading, mountain biking, hiking and really we just bring the community together from from all over the state of Texas and outside of the state – we’ve got members that are that are from two three states away – and bring them together to connect with like-minded people. so that’s also a cool experience. and then  you know starting in 2022 we’ve got about 10 events that are already scheduled to happen at the park. anything from mountain biking type events to off-roading, over landing, camping type events where you know you could really come here and just hang out with like-minded people and enjoy the park together. you know we do weekend tours on saturdays. we typically do guided tours. we do a green and a blue tour and the green tour starts off by just running the green trail over to hetz’s bluff and kind of checking that out and then coming back  and then running the 101. that is our green tour –  we stop for lunch along the way. it usually takes about five hours to do that tour and you know people love it because it’s engaging enough where you’re not going to ever be bored. we’re actually launching a professional off-road driving school in the start of Q2 next year. you know people can come here and get anything from the pure basics to you know recovery, advanced recovery, advanced wheeling, like all of this kind of stuff where with what you learn here you can go explore with confidence anywhere else.

TX:GX Overland: if i’m coming out to the park for the first time what advice do you have for me?

Dirk van Reenen: yeah i mean just realize that still at this point we’re very primitive right. so we’re starting some more infrastructure so  you know by march of 2022 we will have  you know our new office built with the bath house,  10 full hookup rvs sites, so there’s gonna be a little bit more amenities, but if you’re coming before that just realize like once you get out here it’s real primitive right. there’s no gas station out here. the closest gas station’s about 15 miles away.  you know we do have some some access to water so if you run out of water and you just need water we have water,  but you know there’s not like a quick oh i’m just going to go over here to the little cafe and buy some food or anything like that. so if you’re coming out to Merus especially for a multi-day trip like you got to be self-sufficient all the way. so that’s that’s the first thing. the second thing is  just understand that it’s rugged and  you got to kind of be prepared for that. i mean it’s not a a five-star resort. i mean even our campsites are primitive. You know you’re gonna maybe find some cactus you know here and there and things like that. and then like you said like you kind of get to the campsite and you’re like looking around like oh my gosh like I’m in the middle of nowhere and i’m alone right now so it’s one of those things like  just be prepared. that it’s not like a state park where they got paved roads everywhere and like you know all the necessities and there’s plenty of people. like i mean if you come out here you’re coming out here because you want a premium, rugged outdoor experience right.  the other thing too is that we would encourage people, even people that are off-roaders, is man go for a hike while you’re out here. like we have some areas that you’ll never see from a vehicle that are exceptional. so you know maybe think about going for a hike. moving your body a little bit.  and yeah just try to familiarize yourself with the property a little bit before you get here. you can do that on our website merusadventure.com.  you know make sure that you definitely grab a map. don’t just take off and think that you’re going to you know find your way around because things are marked and things like that. i mean all of a sudden you can get down the canyon and start driving in the wrong direction and then it gets dark it’s one of those things that you want a little bit of a game plan before you just head out into the park. you don’t want to head out like oh i’m just going to explore for the fun of it. like you could do that if you are that kind of person. you have that kind of gear and that kind of experience and you’re ready that hey if i get stuck in a creek and it’s dark i’m going to spend the night here and i’m fine with that. so  if that’s your style you can do that too but i mean it’s like look you have a little bit of a game plan. know what your your intentions are when you come out here.

TX:GX Overland: if i wanted to get more information do you have a website, do you have social media platforms, where can i go get additional information online?

Dirk van Reenen: yeah so  our website is probably the best source merusadventure.com and you can find us on instagram at merusadventure and at facebook.com/ merusadventure.

TX:GX Overland: so you know obviously amazing off-roading. you’ve got great camping options. you’ve got hiking. you’ve got biking. i can’t recommend enough people go out and check out Merus adventure park. i had a great time – i want to go back. i had just such a tremendous time and i really feel like this is a true overlanding gem in Texas. it’s something that we don’t have and so you really have a unique piece of property out there. 

Dirk van Reenen, thank you so very much for joining us. i appreciate you talking to us about what Merus adventure park is. 

TX:GX Overland: for anybody that is looking at this or thinking about going out to Merus adventure i can’t say enough about how amazing this place is, how beautiful it is, how rugged it is, the kinds of experiences that you offer on this property. it’s just second to none when it comes to overlanding in Texas.  really appreciate your time today. i wish you the best of luck 

Dirk van Reenen: well kelly I’ve certainly enjoyed the conversation.  you know thank you for for doing this as well. it’s been fun to visit with you and especially since you’ve been out here already. i think you know that’s what makes the conversation special that you you get it you’ve been out here so I appreciate your questions your thoughtfulness and really appreciate that and hope to see you back soon.