Winter Fun Festival

Winter Fun Festival
January 2015

Each year, the California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs sponsors the Winter Fun Fest. This event is held in Grass Valley, California at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. With a variety of runs offered, there's something for everyone, including the Historical Tour and the snow runs such as the Blizzard Brigade, and Glacier Assault.

Our annual Winter Fun Festival, a major four-wheel drive event hosted by the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs, is held every January at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley.

Winter Fun will offer three different historical and narrated sport utility vehicle (SUV) trips and ten separate 4X4 runs in the high Sierra for experienced drivers. The Frostbite Extreme trip on Saturday is always a favorite for those seeking an experience in deep snow.

We fully expect that we will have 600 participants joining us this year, so we highly recommend that people register as early as possible. In addition to the various trips in the snow, we will provide great meals beginning with Friday night dinner through breakfast on Sunday. In our large facility at the fairgrounds, we will feature indoor entertainment and recreation for children and adults.

There are two historical SUV trips scheduled for Saturday and one additional SUV trip on Sunday. Additionally, the event features a Friday night moderately difficult run that begins after dinner and seven other snow runs on Saturday that range from the Blizzard Brigade in moderately deep snow to the Frostbite Express. In addition to the SUV run on Sunday, Winter Fun offers the Snowcat and Iceberg trips, moderately difficult in unlimited snow depths.

SUV owners will not require any special equipment and stock vehicles should have no difficulty in the snow using four-wheel drive, low range. Our experienced trail guides have selected routes that are historically significant, interesting, scenic and very safe for all makes and models of SUVs and other four-wheel drive rigs.

The Saturday Historical Tour will take guests to a number of significant locations in Grass Valley, through the historic town of Rough and Ready to the famous Bridgeport Covered Bridge, and tour the historic mining towns of Goodyear’s Bar and Alleghany. Another Saturday SUV trip affords participants the opportunity to learn about the Empire Mine, tour many of the old hydraulic mining sites, dine at the historic Washington Hotel and the tour ends at the Malakoff Diggins State Historical Park.

Sunday’s SUV trip permits participants to explore the middle fork of the Yuba River, visit the historic town of Alleghany and ends at the Graniteville Road.

Citizens Band (CB) radios are encouraged for all participants, but are not mandatory.

The cost includes meals beginning with the Friday night dinner through breakfast on Sunday.

Camping facilities with RV hookups and hot showers are available at the fairgrounds 530-273-6217. Motels and restaurants are available throughout Grass Valley and Nevada City.