We recently visited Merus Adventure Park in the Texas Panhandle to see for ourselves what all the chatter is about. Check out our YouTube video or you can also read the transcript below (this is a direct transcript from the video but serves as a nice record of the discussion).
The Texas panhandle is a fertile and flat land for thousands of miles but between Amarillo and Lubbock the ground drops a thousand feet from the surface creating the second largest canyon in the United States striking canyon walls, red rock striations, and seemingly endless views of Palo Duro Canyon and just about the only way to drive off-road is at Merus Adventure Park. Come along as I solo explore Texas newest adventure park on this episode of TXGXOverland. Come find out why this may very well be the best over landing in Texas.
Merus Adventure – VR4 Trail Review
You know the first trail took me about two hours to drive and it’s 3:40pm right now. I probably could squeeze in another trail but i’ll be honest with you i’m a little hesitant too because if I get stuck I’m gonna get stuck during the night and again I’m driving solo so I do have to think about self-recovery and what that entails and doing anything at night is twice as hard, if not harder, so this is something that you have to think about when you’re driving solo. You have to think about how you are going to recover yourself. You have to think about, you know, what kind of obstacles can I do. What kind of obstacles am I willing to try and what kind of obstacles is there no way in hell am I going to do that.
I will say there was one part of VR4 today where it had a pretty significant drop and then it was followed by a very very steep descent. I actually measured it it was so steep. It was 36 degrees – that’s really steep… and at the end of the trail it took a hard left but if you kept going straight you would do some “Dukes of Hazzard” style jump off the cliff and of course fall to your death… which it’s that last part that I was not real fond of. Fortunately they had a cut out and I took it. I’m man enough to say it. If I were here with several other people sure I would try it but solo, alone, no I’m not doing that today.
This road that I’m on (Merus 101) – it actually goes down into the bottom of the canyon and that’s notable because the only way you can drive into the bottom of the canyon other than in the state park is at Merus Adventure Park. All the land outside of the state park is privately owned so you have to have permission from someone who has private property in the canyon to be able to come down here and drive in it and so it’s pretty notable that Merus Adventure has opened up to the public. I gotta say… great facility out here. I’ve been really impressed with all of the signage. The roads are in great shape. They’re challenging but they’re in great shape. Trails are nice and wide. They’re well marked. Lots of vistas… there were several points along the trails today where I could have pulled off and taken a beautiful photo.
I’m going down the Merus 101 right now. i’m about to go into the Drop In and I gotta say this is a green trail and it’s no slouch. It’s kind of coming at me. Definitely got some steep parts to it… in fact he was telling me I’m gonna need to put it in low to go down this little stretch called the drop zone because it’s so steep. I’m gonna try to figure out how to navigate this thing – wow that is steep. All right i just hopped out – I wanted to go take a look at this trail see what it’s gonna be like and it’s impressively steep so going to put it in four low. I’m going to take his advice and put it in drive and then slowly creep my way down this trail. There’s a little bit of a rock ledge right here that’s going to make things even more interesting and you can’t see it but i’m on this really loose gravel right now – very fine dust so you definitely… man i’m sliding… i mean this stuff is like moon dirt it is so fine. I wish you had a sense for how steep it is here. I am sliding my way down this hill! I got no control! I’m sure this could be fun getting up so you definitely want to make sure that you maintain your speed and keep it under control because it would be easy to you know get sideways and then you’re off camber and you could you could potentially flip that would be a bad situation.
But I can’t tell you how beautiful the vista is right now! I mean it – I feel like I’m driving in the Grand Canyon. That’s exactly the way it feels – everywhere you look here there’s some kind of beautiful vista that you’re looking at. There’s just nothing but canyon for as far as I can see. I mean, other than, you know, looking straight down at my imminent death, it is gorgeous out here. I can’t tell you enough how beautiful it is out here and the trails out here… I mean, they respect the land. They take advantage of its natural contours. There are some impressive trails out here!
Looking at some of the black diamond and double black diamond trails out here… just the entrance to them I will say that they are impressive. I would encourage you to have either an incredibly aggressive, you know, Jeep that’s street legal or some kind of rock crawler set up to be able to tackle those trails.
And then coming down here into the bottom of the canyon- I mean this is like otherworldly. It feels like I am in the Grand Canyon. It really does – I don’t see any identification of any man-made object as far as I can see. I don’t see any cell phone towers. I don’t see any electrical lines. I don’t see any other cars. I don’t see nothing! I mean it is desolate out here! You’re by yourself out here. For a green trail this is a little impressive. The trail I was on earlier – it was a blue and that one nearly ate my lunch. I almost got high centered maybe once or twice but it was recoverable that was you know my biggest concern was getting high sided and i’m out there solo so it’s not like i have someone that can pull me out. There’s several wash outs that make the trails interesting giving you a pretty deep dip and then you’ve got to watch your clearance on the back end. Even this green trail is no exception to that.
There’s definitely some parts where you’re going over a pretty tall crest and you can’t see where you’re driving. Well no worries, there’s only like a 200 foot cliff on the other side so nothing to worry about. Everything’s fine… I’m being safe mom! If you have a long overhang in the rear like a Toyota Tacoma or the Lexus GX or the Gladiator you are probably going to scrape in a number of places so just keep that in mind. And think about any potential damage to your body panels… your rear quarter panels… you know there’s ways to avoid that when you’re on the trail. You can angle your car slightly as you’re leaving a departure or if you have some kind of protection like I do in the hitch receiver you can make sure that you line that up perfectly so that it takes the brunt. I mean look at this scenery! If you told me that i was in the Grand Canyon or somewhere in Utah I would believe you. I mean – this is just unbelievable scenery! It is rugged. It is pristine. It is beautiful out here!
But definitely air down the tires when you come out here!
Look at that view! I zoomed out here so you can get a look at this amazing peak right here. Look how beautiful that is! The striations and the coloring… just beautiful! That sun is getting low it tells me it’s time to head to camp and have a cold beer!
Wow we are definitely driving in a riverbed here. You can definitely see that this is a trail coming down through this riverbed… I bet that gets interesting when it rains! That is a blue course right there with all this sand.
Merus Camping – Boots Off Camp
i’m pulling in here to the Boots Off Camp. This is where I’m gonna be staying for the night. The nice gentleman at the park entrance told me that I could park in a nice little spot next to this creek so looking forward to the view. Look at this… it’s already four o’clock in the afternoon and I can tell you that my campsite is already in the shade. That’s crazy!
Wow now look at that… this is aggressive!
Boy it’s been a good day out on the trails! That uh first trail that I drove was pretty impressive. It kind of ate my lunch really! But I am now here at my campsite and wow what a spot. This one was one that was recommended to me and I gotta say I understand why. This place is beautiful – got a nice little campsite here. You can easily fit you know three or four cars here if you needed to but the great part is you’ve got this great bluff right behind me and there’s a little creek bed just over the tree line there. Really beautiful spot. I’m the only one down here. I don’t know if there’s other people that are showing up tonight but as of right now I am definitely the only one out here by myself… just me and the occasional cow, maybe coyote. I’m going to go ahead and get ready for camp because it is going to get dark soon… as you can see the sun is already setting. It is 4:10pm in the afternoon. That’s partly because of you know winter hours but also the sun just sets earlier in the canyon and so you have to be prepared for that. You have to make sure that you’re at camp by the time you need to be to get set up or else you’re going to be setting up in the dark.
Overland Camping – Chuck Box For Cooking Organization
When you’re out camping it really helps if you have all of your things in one box, or at least organized in boxes, by category. I’ve taken these Pelican cases, these are the 1500 and the 1600 cases, and I’ve organized them by category. I have one for camp that has my lights, my hammocks, all kinds of other things I need in there for the camp and then i have one for my chuck box. So this is my chuck box… you can see here I’ve politely named him “Chuck.” But this is where i keep all of my camping cooking equipment. You can see here I have my spices. I have my utensils here… my knife there. And then on the bottom here obviously hot pads, I have grills, I have plates, I have a gas stove, I have pots and pans, paper towels, aluminum foil… all kinds of great stuff that you need when you’re cooking. But the great thing about having it all contained in one box is that when you’re ready to go camping you simply grab the box… you throw it in the truck and you know you’ve got everything that you need for a successful cook when you’re at the campsite.
Good morning… it’s a little bit chilly out here. I’m estimating it’s probably 35 to 40 degrees down here in the canyon. It’s a little bit chilly but I was pretty warm last night. Looks like the sunrise is about to come up. Won’t see it when it first comes up just because I’m down here in the canyon but I can see that it’s starting to put out a lot of light. You may be able to see it already up top but I’m gonna go ahead and get some coffee in my body, get ready to hit the trails, pack up the campsite and go have another day of fun.
All right… I have coffee. The world can return to normal. Please proceed with your lives. Something about campfire coffee that just really hits the spot in the morning… plus this holiday blend is just delightful! Sun’s coming up, starting to hit the clouds. I’m gonna go try some more blue trails today. I guess I didn’t get my fill yesterday. I think i’m gonna go do maybe two or three blue trails. These are gonna be shorter… only about a mile in length. The one yesterday was close to four miles long but i am hopeful that they are less challenging than yesterday because gosh yesterday was tough. So I’m gonna go hit the trails today, pack it up, head home but before I do i’ll let you know what I think about this place out here. So quiet out here… preview it’s amazing!
Off Road Trail Review – South Fork Creek Sec 4 Trail
All right… this happens to be the first car that I’ve seen out here on the trails today and as it turns out it’s a Lexus. So you know these Lexuses are starting to get pretty popular. People are starting to realize that they are decent off-road vehicles. I’m going to try this Salt Fork Creek. This run down a riverbed and uh might be a little bit rocky but we’ll see how it goes.
Merus Off Road Trail Review – 101 Loop Back Trail
It is hard to take in all the beauty of this place so I wanted to show you this panoramic . I think this is just an unbelievable shot of how just beautiful and rugged this entire place is. Basically everything you see at this point is part of the Merus Adventure Park. As I said earlier 5200 acres of off-road driving, mountain biking, hiking, and camping. Just take this in… not a bad way to wake up on a Saturday morning i’ll tell you that right now!
Leaving the Canyon on Merus 101 Trail and Driving Up the Drop In
Ascending from the canyon requires a challenging drive up the Merus 101 drop in. The steep grade and loose gravel create a challenge for any vehicle and you’ll want to use your lowest gearing to tackle it. Leaving the canyon floor is a bittersweet moment for me. I will miss the time spent here and will remember the beauty majesty, challenge and unique aspects this property provides. But I know I’ll be returning to further my adventures and all she has to offer. You see Merus Adventure Park is the overlanding destination every Texan wishes was more widely available in this great state. Few other places allow such uninterrupted trail riding with desolate, ruggedly beautiful views and campsites along the way. Though my trip was a short 24 hours I recommend two or more days at Merus Adventure Park to fully appreciate the diversity of trails, hiking and biking and the many camping options. Personally I can’t wait to come back to experience all the park has to offer. Wanting to take it all in just one more time before hitting the road home I parked on the canyon rim and broke out a chair for a most perfect picnic.
If you enjoyed this video please consider subscribing and clicking the notification button also check out our interview with Merus Adventure Park founder Dirk van Reenen. Thank you for watching and until next time we’ll see you on the trails.