Just got back from a week at
Durhamtown Plantation and Highland Park Off Road Park in Georgia. Both are monster size Off Road Parks.
DURHAMTOWN: Primary trails are wide and very well groomed. Maybe too well groomed. Secondary trails are more narrow with a nice balance of grooming vs. rocks,ruts and roots. There are also lots of "play areas" like a hill climbing area, a canyon area etc. They have 6 MX tracks that I am not in a position to review but I will say they looked very impressive. The kind of stuff you see on TV. None of the trails are especially difficult. The novice or low intermediate rider will be in off road heaven. If you are looking for very technical trails
Durhamtown is not for you. Amenities and staff were excellent. There are a lot of ATV's at
Durhamtown.
HIGHLAND PARK: Incredible. Only 2 primary "loop" trails - wide, mostly groomed - but they are long, fairly challenging and have some very nice hill climbs. The primary loops are great rides for a low intermediate rider or better riders who want to go really fast but with enough technical stuff to keep them honest. The secondary trails all come off the primary trails and are rated from 2 to 5 diamonds. I did the 2 and 3 diamond trails and they are plenty challenging with some steep, rocky climbs. 4 diamonds are considered expert and 5 they call "Superman" and strongly recommend "fresh tires" for 5 diamond trails.
All the trails are PERFECTLY MARKED and there is no chance of going down the wrong trail - NONE.
Amenities are very limited at HP except for a real nice Pro Shop. ATV's are allowed at HP but they don't rent them and I suspect they get very few of them ( I saw one over 3 days).
BOTH PARKS ALL TRAILS ARE ONE WAY - SWEET!
Bottom line:
Durhamtown for beginners, novice and low intermediate riders. Highland Park for all level riders including beginners (though the bulk of the trails are for better riders).
Attention Florida Riders: If you've been to Croom and think it's awesome then get your butt up to DP or HP and you will have died and went to heaven.
Croom is a 2, DP is an 8 and HP is a 10. Actually, that's way too generous to Croom. Croom is like skiing down a hill in your backyard and HP is like skiing in Aspen. Just Go.