You’d think there’d be a way to make up large buckets or bins of murky/dirty water (think chocolate milk consistency) and use a power washer to lightly apply it to the road surface so when it drys it leaves a thin coating of tan/khaki.brown dirt on the road. Then just hose it off later or wait for it to rain.
I like the muddy water approach! It would combine well with tarps, if needed.
Sand ain’t cheap. Road crush would be cheaper and probably similar to a macadamized surface, but may be difficult to remove with out marking up the surface. A Mulch as posited by the OP does make sense.
What about painting it brown with whatever paint and then rather than removing it, just re-paint it asphalt color?