ATV Adventures: SxS Adventure Rally is the last hurrah for 2021
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- From left, Gayle Blamires of Layton, Becky Newton of Halladay, Shelly Miles of Centerville, in helmet, and Carol Sanders of Layton pose for a picture inside the Flinstone House.
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- Cruising the Hurricane Sands south of Sand Hollow State Park.
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- UTVs among the hoodoos in the Hurricane Sands.
Lynn Blamires, Special to the Standard-Examiner
From left, Gayle Blamires of Layton, Becky Newton of Halladay, Shelly Miles of Centerville, in helmet, and Carol Sanders of Layton pose for a picture inside the Flinstone House.
What better place to hold Utah’s last jamboree of the year than in the Hurricane Sands of Southern Utah. The normal high temperature for mid-November is 82 degrees and the normal low is 50.
The SxS Adventure Rally is set for Nov. 11-13 at Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane. Registration is $135 per person and includes an event T-shirt, breakfast each morning and three days of guided adventures. You can register on-site, but the fee will be $145 and it will not include a T-shirt. Wednesday, Nov. 10, is set aside for check-in and vendor set up.
The Hurricane Sands are unique in that there is more to it than just sand. Rock features provide spectacular backdrops to the trails and they also feature Moab-style rock crawling that reaches 9 out of 10 on the Oh-My-Heck scale.
At the Adventure Rally, the trails are rated green, blue and red, with the red trails being the most difficult. However, to keep from scaring people away, they admit that there are easier trails that work around the No-Way-in-Heck places.
It is for that reason that ATVs are not allowed on this jamboree. Only machines with a steering wheel and a roll cage can register. In fact, to feel the maximum amount of confidence in riding the blue and red trails, your machine should be at least 60 inches wide — the wider the better. It is noted that 50-inch width trail machines will struggle with the higher numbers on the Oh-My-Heck scale.
Lynn Blamires, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Cruising the Hurricane Sands south of Sand Hollow State Park.
The sponsors of the rally are going all out to make this a memorable event. Yamaha is staging a private event open to Yamaha drivers only. Billed as the Yamaha VIP Trail Experience, this ride will include a dinner and a show. Entertainment will be provided by a country band known as Jagertown.
In addition to Yamaha, Can-Am and Kawasaki will be offering demo rides in their latest UTV models. This is a great opportunity to get a feel for the performance of a machine in a real-time trail experience instead of a dealer’s parking lot. Representatives from each of these companies will also be on hand to answer questions about their products.
A host of other sponsors will be offering services at the rally. Camp Chef will be providing breakfast on Thursday and Friday mornings. PRP Baja Designs, a company specializing in seats and harnesses, is hosting a “Beach Party Drive in Concert” featuring Preston Creed, the lead singer and songwriter for Jagertown. Other sponsors will be standing by to help you add functionality and bling to your ride. With the list of sponsors participating in the rally, an amazing number of prizes have been contributed to be raffled off at 4 p.m. on Friday.
This year, the rally features a fun challenge — a geocache hunt has been set up. Participants can download GPS information to use in finding a series of geocache locations. Prizes are awarded for finding them. Because the guided rides end each day at 3 p.m., there is free time available to join in the hunt and test your GPS skills.
I am not a dune rider, but I am a big fan of the Hurricane Sands. There is so much to explore in these sands.
Lynn Blamires, Special to the Standard-Examiner
UTVs among the hoodoos in the Hurricane Sands.
One of the rides offered at the rally is labeled “The Top of the World Loop” and it is listed as one of the green rides. It encompasses the dunes on little-known trails that wind through hoodoos that are a unique part of Hurricane Sands. There are some high points on this trail that offer wonderful views of the surrounding valleys.
This ride also makes a stop at what is known as the Flintstone House. This is a favorite hoodoo of mine in the dunes. When you see it, you won’t be able to pick a better name for it. Forces of nature have hollowed out a rock so that it looks like something Fred Flintstone would live in. It even has stone pillars that make windows to fit the part.
Nearby Hurricane offers a nice variety of places to eat and they welcome responsible riders on their streets. Now, what would you rather be doing? Shivering in chilly weather or riding with like-minded people in the beautiful Hurricane Sands?
Extend your summer by attending the SxS Adventure Rally. When you do, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down and go play in the sand.
Contact Lynn Blamires at quadmanone@gmail.com.