It was the day after a White Christmas here in Colorado. Only one-in-three Colorado Christmas’s actually have snow. With temperatures forecasted in the 40′s made it a great opportunity to get out for an ATV snow ride. This time I was going to Rainbow Falls, not the Manitou Springs waterfall, but the popular off-highway-vehicle area 10 miles north of Woodland Park, Colorado.
I try to avoid Rainbow Falls OHV area during the summer due to the crowds but in the winter it offers some great terrain especially with about a foot of snow on the ground. I was meeting up with five other ATVers to challenge the snow and terrain.
When we pulled up to the staging area shortly after 10:00am there was only one other truck there. As we were unloading two other trucks pulled in hauling a RZR, a Kawi Brute Force and a couple of sport quads. It was partly cloudy with temperatures in the upper 30′s.
A couple of the guys brought their wife’s (to help push in case anyone got stuck). Myself and one other guy were riding solo. We hit the trails about 10:30am, I quickly volunteered to lead the pack in the beginning as I wanted to move at a little faster pace to take advantage of the snow to power-slide through the corners.
The trails had already been cut by some other ATVers until we got further into the area where we found several virgin trails waiting to be blazed. The snow was still a very light powder form which made the blazing very easy except for some areas where the depth was 18” or more. In those areas we motored through at a snails pace.
Once the lead ATV got through the deep areas the others made it through with little effort. We came across a couple of hills that had ice underneath the powder. But after a couple of running starts hitting the hill at top speed we all made it up to the top.
Amazingly with the deep snow we did not have to use our winches once. One of the lead ATVs got stuck in some deep powder going up a long hill, but a little quick work with a shovel and he was moving again and made it to the top with the rest of us behind. We only saw a couple of other ATVers through out the day.
In the afternoon we found another virgin trail, only this one was much deeper and slow moving. From all the earlier trail blazing and power-sliding I was down to less than a quarter of a tank of fuel and I was not packing any extra fuel on this trip. So we stopped blazing that trail and turned around to find our way back to the staging area.
We got back to the staging area just before 4:00pm and I had only one bar left on my fuel gauge. I burned through almost six gallons of gas and only went about 25 miles. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 40s, perfect for ATV snow riding. Another great ride with some great people.
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Amazing!!! I want to experience this also..Thanks for sharing this great post to us..
Pam recently posted..Paleo Cookbook
Thanks Pam. It is great fun so give it a try, you will enjoy it.
Wow! I love this experience! Playing on the snow riding on an ATV! Great Christmas experience! Thanks for sharing this…
marieljackson recently posted..surgical
It is great fun. This ride was particularly unusual because with the amount of snow we had nobody got stuck.
I want to experience this also, Playing on the snow riding on an ATV, thanks for sharing, keep up the good work.
Chris Danial recently posted..Forex Easy
Give it a try Chris, I sure you will enjoy it. Thanks.