Unusual wheeling destinations

[open_circuit]

Since finishing our trip in September, I've been thinking about where to go next outside of the Ouray / Moab / front range area. I have some general ideas, but don't really know where to start in these places I've never been to.

Considerations for future long trips:

South Dakota - Badlands / Black Hills -- (https://www.blackhillsbadlands.com/outdoor-recreation/atv-roading) (https://www.fourwheeler.com/events/1701-south-dakota-black-hills-jeepin/)
Wyoming - Jeep the USA has a few trails listed in the Bighorn mountains and near Lander, but this is pretty sparse. I would expect there are many interesting roads and trails up here, but I've never been to WY and don't know much.
Idaho - https://www.alltrails.com/us/idaho/off-road-driving Again, I don't know much about the area, but it seems like it *should* have some great roads and trails.

Other suggestions? Any advice about these areas?

[RockyMtRebel]

I looked for wheeling spots in the Stanley, Idaho area when I went there last summer. There are a lot of forest roads to wheel on but I didn’t find a lot of reputable trails per se. Montana surely has a ton Of forest roads as I remember driving a lot of them when I lived there as a young adult - not technical wheeling back then so not sure about cool trails. I bet there’s some awesome trails in South Dakota! These states are all much less populated so the trails that are cool are probably out there just not advertised as much as here in CO,l and Utah.
My wife and I are planning a 3 week long overlanding trip up thru Montana and into the Canadian Rockies and I’m having a hard time finding specific cool trails, lots of forest service roads, old mining roads and stuff.

[Jim]

I'm trying to think of his name - I can picture his face - guy who went to college in ?MT? and is now working in the southeast. His comment - there are no trails/roads (in that area of college) as Colorado has. We have something special here. Utah is a nice tack-on to Colorado.

I'd be game to check out other states just for the sake of seeing some different areas - knowing it's not like "home".

[open_circuit]

I'm trying to think of his name - I can picture his face - guy who went to college in ?MT? and is now working in the southeast. His comment - there are no trails/roads (in that area of college) as Colorado has. We have something special here. Utah is a nice tack-on to Colorado.

I'd be game to check out other states just for the sake of seeing some different areas - knowing it's not like "home".

Dante? He had an 80s jeep pickup and had a severe failure of his control arm at the anniversary run a couple years ago?

[open_circuit]

I looked for wheeling spots in the Stanley, Idaho area when I went there last summer. There are a lot of forest roads to wheel on but I didn’t find a lot of reputable trails per se. Montana surely has a ton Of forest roads as I remember driving a lot of them when I lived there as a young adult - not technical wheeling back then so not sure about cool trails. I bet there’s some awesome trails in South Dakota! These states are all much less populated so the trails that are cool are probably out there just not advertised as much as here in CO,l and Utah.
My wife and I are planning a 3 week long overlanding trip up thru Montana and into the Canadian Rockies and I’m having a hard time finding specific cool trails, lots of forest service roads, old mining roads and stuff.

Interesting forest roads and public land to camp on through the route are the most I'm hoping for. If we find some real trails also, that would be a bonus. I'm not familiar with any of these states and have never travelled through these areas before.

[RockyMtRebel]

Trent if you don’t already have something similar you should get Gaia GPS. I have the App on my iPhone and you can look at the area your interested in going to and see mvum roads, forest roads, it tells you if it’s National forest or BLM land, any road (private, open or closed) is pretty much shown on the map and you can click on a road and read it’s status. The best feature is you download maps where you are going so no service doesn’t matter and you can see yourself on the map and pretty much it’s impossible to get lost!

[RockyMtRebel]

I looked around and this is a pretty interesting trail that I may need to add to the list - I downloaded the GPX file. It’s very close to where I lived when I was in college

[open_circuit]

Thanks Matt. This is the sort of stuff I was thinking we might find in WY and ID. It's a long way to these trails, so doing several things like this over a week to connect from CO to there and back would make for some pretty good adventuring.

[RockyMtRebel]

I have an “all access” subscription to trails off-road and although they don’t have all trails featured, the ones they do have gpx traxks and darn good trail descriptions.

I like your idea Trent! I definitely love that area and have spent years in the area as a young adult but never with a capable vehicle and going backcountry

[Java]

Made me think of the old ExpeditionOverland series, this one is in Wyoming


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAIUPl-L1ZY

and this one is in Idaho


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4rEmF2NEtw

[Java]

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?21302-Ramp-Exit-Jeeping-In-Mines

Check out the mine run in BC, a bit more of a drive but certianly unusual

[open_circuit]

Magruder corridor information -- https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm91_055707.pdf

[RockyMtRebel]

I was looking at something to connect the Magruder and found the Lolo trail - turns out it’s an common overlanding trip combining the two. Check this trip report out, looks amazing

https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/nf-500-the-lolo-motorway.5362/

[open_circuit]

I was looking at something to connect the Magruder and found the Lolo trail - turns out it’s an common overlanding trip combining the two. Check this trip report out, looks amazing

https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/nf-500-the-lolo-motorway.5362/

When are we going? June, July, August? If these are subaru capable roads, my wife and kids would be in for this as well (bring both subaru and jeep)

[Brian]

I've talked to a couple people who've wheeled some Chokecherry Canyon trails near Farmington N.M. and they really enjoyed it. Seems they have a little bit of everything on the difficulty scale.

https://chokecherrycrawlers.com/trails-and-ratings

https://farmingtonnm.org/choose-your-journey/outdoor-adventures/off-road

[open_circuit]

I've talked to a couple people who've wheeled some Chokecherry Canyon trails near Farmington N.M. and they really enjoyed it. Seems they have a little bit of everything on the difficulty scale.

https://chokecherrycrawlers.com/trails-and-ratings

https://farmingtonnm.org/choose-your-journey/outdoor-adventures/off-road

I've seen some old photos of chokecherry canyon on here in the gallery. It looks awesome. I think it'd be a fun couple day Moab alternative. I suppose I was thinking of through routes and overlanding with this thread and didn't consider chokecherry as that type of trip? Similar to chokecherry, there is an "anything goes" off-road area near Rifle, CO I want to check out sometime. I posted a thread about it this past summer. We should get a group trip to chokecherry together sometime too.

[RockyMtRebel]

When are we going? June, July, August? If these are subaru capable roads, my wife and kids would be in for this as well (bring both subaru and jeep)

i think it’s more of a late summer or fall route and probably more of a Jeep than Suburu trail based on this https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/2017-lolo-motorway-recon-trail-conditions.8088/


Now you got me researching this and looking at maps and stuff..... lol

[open_circuit]

I see the Magruder report says "a Cadillac could drive it". I'll have to research LoLo further. Regardless, this looks like something that can't be firmly planned until spring or summer when we see how snowpack and fires affect the area. Probably an August trip for best chance of success.

[The StRanger]

Iv heard of a trip running from Page AZ, running 5 to 6 days along the north rim finishing in Vargas.
Its always interested me. Unfortunately at 65 years old I don’t know if I’d be up for an Ultimate Adventure but I’d love to try....

[open_circuit]

Got my wife excited with this thread. She saw how close those trails are to Yellowstone and we're booking some time in Yellowstone for the fall. Might get to check out Magruder and LoLo as part of that. Maybe we can meet up with some of you all for those trails, but that trip won't be overlanding for us.

[goSlo]

Ultimate Adventure 2020 was up in MT mostly.

Made me want to go up and check them out. Maybe you can find something of interest too.

"kicks off from Kalispell, Montana and heads to the challenging Blacktail Wild Bill OHV Area which is one of the only off-road vehicle parks located inside a national forest."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-JSH7_Gr3A&list=PLGvTvFzdMg_MdI6dh7fIUUG2y-s6CjaUb

[open_circuit]

Adding one to my list -- Owyhee canyonlands of southeastern Oregon. The area is about 900 miles from here. Taking a route via Idaho invites other interesting remote trails as well.

https://wildowyhee.org/

As seen on recent softroadingthewest YT channel (https://youtu.be/QGdRHX7YCkg?t=349). For the canyon views, start at 5:49 in the video if the link doesn't take you there.

I've never been to the states that don't allow you to pump your own fuel -- Oregon is one of the two that does not let you. I guess I need to prepare for that and remember not to start filling my Jeep up there.

https://traveloregon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2020Summer_owyhee_road.jpg

https://traveloregon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/01_OwyheeSlideshow_Rafting1.jpg

https://www.northwestoverland.com/forum/trip-reports/owyhee-canyonlands-expedition-2020