Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, there were few social faux pas more glaring than the simple act of being a poser. And for a long time, that fear helped gatekeep enthusiast cars behind various mechanical thresholds. You know the rhetoric: “No real sports car is front-wheel drive,” or “It can only be a real off-roader if it has a low-range gearbox.”
There aren’t many sports cars left in 2025 (“real” or otherwise), but we’re up to our proverbial eyeballs in off-roaders. Just last week, Nissan invited us out to Silver Lake Sand Dunes in western Michigan to try out their latest, the Armada and Frontier Pro-4X. A more elaborate write-up on their performance will come later, but suffice it to say, with their locking rear differentials and low-range transfer cases, they’ll pass muster with all but the most hardcore of enthusiasts.
Silver Lake is a state park. The ORV (off-road-vehicle) section is open to the public year-round (with some exceptions) and requires no specialized equipment. You’ll need a set of state ORV stickers and a flag, both of which you can purchase on-site and re-use at any state ORV park in Michigan. Total cost out-of-pocket? Less than $100. Nissan literally had the receipts, but I didn’t need them. My personal Wrangler is stickered and my flag is stowed in the garage rafters for safe keeping. Keeping it tagged each year runs about $70 all-in. And for that, plus the price of park admission, you get something like this as your playground.
There really aren’t many rules here. There’s no hand-holding, no nannying. You won’t have an instructor over your shoulder or a park ranger stalking you like a hungry coyote. Some sections are one-way, and some high-traffic areas have a posted 25-mph speed limit, but apart from that, you’re only restricted by common sense and your comfort level.
And no, you don’t need a Pro-4X to do this. In fact, it’s overkill. Seriously. We never touched 4-low on the entire outing, let alone the locking rear differential. Standard 4WD and manual gear selection was more than enough to get around. All you really need is a little ground clearance and some torque, both of which you’ll find in spades with most modern trucks and SUVs—even the many “soft roaders” out there that don’t benefit from a platform with 4×4 DNA. Give me a Ford Bronco Sport with all the fixings and I reckon I could get around just as well as either of these bigger trucks.
So, at the risk of being rude, what’s your excuse?
The one I most commonly hear is that places like Silver Lake are too far or too expensive to be convenient, but both are often flimsy excuses. Even in states with heavy restrictions on motor vehicle use on public lands, private off-road parks exist, and they’re often shockingly affordable and accessible. The most spectacular option may not be the closest, but that’s generally how nature works. Take Southeast Michigan for example; the closest full-featured site near Detroit is Holly Oaks ORV Park in Oakland County, which is nothing more than a giant gravel pit reclamation project, albeit one where you can catch air in, say, a Land Rover Defender or Ford Bronco Raptor without breaking a single law—or, for that matter, the bank.
If the 4×4 is the future of automotive enthusiasm, then so be it. But if you’re going to spend thousands in an effort to look the part, it’s ridiculous to let a hundred bucks in fees stand between you and actually using the thing. It’s fun, and you’ll learn a thing or two about car control to boot. And if you’re lucky enough to have someplace like Silver Lake in your back yard, you’ll have a beautiful backdrop while you’re showing off whatever obstacle you just cleared to all your TikTok friends.
So what are you waiting for? Go touch sand!
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