After consultation and evaluation, it has become necessary to postpone this year's Winter Fun Festival originally scheduled for January 14 -16, 2022. The event is now scheduled for the weekend of February 25 – 27, 2022.

Background

The Sierra Nevada Mountains and specifically Nevada County received historic levels of snow in December and early January. These storms brought havoc to the infrastructure of the entire County. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trees were brought down throughout the County blocking access and knocking out power to thousands of residents. This, coupled with the inability to deliver fuel oils and propane to residents, has caused the California Governor to declare Nevada County a disaster area. The sheriff and local officials are asking that only necessary travel be conducted throughout the County. Crews from across the Western United States are still attempting to restore power and regain access to county roads and highways.

The lead trail club for Winter Fun Festival is the Grass Valley 4-Wheelers. They have been out attempting to pre-run any of the high country routes we historically use and found that none are available. It is their evaluation that the event would not have access to virtually any of the routes that we need to conduct a safe and respectful event.

Please be respectful of the citizens of Nevada and Sierra County and keep them in your prayers as they literally dig out from this.

What needs to be done regarding reservations:

• We are working with the Fairgrounds to find out the transferability of RV reservations to the new dates.
• For those of you with motel or other accommodations, you will need to contact them as to cancellations or date change.
• Your event registration will automatically be moved to the new dates unless you instruct us otherwise.

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 (lunches are on your own). In our large facility at the fairgrounds, we will feature indoor entertainment and recreation for children and adults.

Additionally, the event features 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.

GMRS radios are encouraged for all participants, but are not mandatory.

Twelve runs are available on Saturday and Sunday, with difficulty levels ranging from easy SUV runs all the way up to hard runs in unlimited snow depths. Choose your runs when you register.

The runs fill up quickly, so register early. Be sure to tell us what runs you would like to go on as alternates if your first choice is full.

Winter Fun Festival includes meals for the weekend, so pricing is per person.

$100 members/$110 non-members (per person)
$50 children ages 8-14
$0 children 0-7

$20/$23 T-shirts
$25/$28 Long-sleeve T-shirts
$25 Ladies V-neck T-shirts
$18 Youth T-Shirts
$32/$35 Hoodies

We highly recommend pre-ordering your event apparel; a limited quantity will be available at the event.

Meals include Friday night dinner, breakfast and dinner on Saturday, and 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. A list of hotels is available at this link

If you are planning to camp at the fairgrounds you will need to contact them directly. The campground person is Debb, 530-273-6217.