How to find 'legal' off-road trails for our Broncos

raqball

Jun 19, 2024

Finding out if a trail is legal for off-roading is pretty easy. Here are a few mapping systems that will assist you in finding legal off-road trails.

National Forest Service Interactive Map: https://www.fs.usda.gov/ivm/
- A lot of people don't know about this map but it's cool!

onX Off-Road: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/offroad/map#3.76/40.36/-94.31
- If you have onX Elite you can also see private property

I use both of these when looking for and planning routes on unknown trails with no trail reports. These mapping tools, at their most basic levels, can at least let you know if the trail is legal for the vehicle that you are driving. The NFS maps will obviously only work within a national forest area.

NFS Interactive Map example:

onX example:

These are not trail reports or conditions of trails. These will allow you to see if the trail is legal for your vehicle. If you have onX Elite then you can also see private property boundaries which is a massive bonus in my book. Known and previously mapped trails that are on - onX, will have trail reports, trail conditions and photos.

Hopefully this helps and remember to Tread Lightly and to Pack in and pack out.

What about Gaia you ask? I don't use it as it gives zero information.

onX Trail Guide & Tread Lightly Member
2023 Badlands 2 door in Hot Pepper Red 🌶️ 🌶️

UserError, JoergH

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Jun 19, 2024

Thanks for this really helpful information!

Riding OB1, 23 4- door Outer Banks, SAS, MOD, MIC, Lux, Ordered 10/20/22, delivered 1/13/23

Wood J, raqball

Jun 19, 2024

Thank you very helpful for those of us new to this Off Roading adventure!

Wood J, raqball

Jun 19, 2024

SwitchItUp
Thank you very helpful for those of us new to this Off Roading adventure!

No problem. Those tools will only let you know if the trail is legal to be on with your vehicle. They will not let you know, by themselves, if it's passable / usable.

For instance, I was on a trail a few weeks ago that is listed as legal for a full width 4x4. However, once on the trail it was not passable due to massive overgrowth. Legal to be on? Yes! Actually able to traverse it in a full width 4x4? Nope!

onX Trail Guide & Tread Lightly Member
2023 Badlands 2 door in Hot Pepper Red 🌶️ 🌶️

Sven, Deano Bronc

Jun 19, 2024

Great post.
I use trails off road and GAIA.

GAIA was helpful a couple weeks ago on the road going from Carmel to big sur, in a ... gasp .... rented Camaro convertible. Found a road down to the beach and we used it on some hiking trails.

I'm trying to use it more so I can truly use it.

raqball, Sven

Jun 19, 2024

OnX Off-road Elite has been awesome in regards to mapping private property. I’ve been able to reach out to a couple owners and one of them gave me the go ahead to pass through their property so long as I understood that anything that may happen to my vehicle is my own responsibility.

No surprise though that the National Forest map shows nothing for Eastern PA, lol.

2023 EG 4-door Badlands SAS, 2.7, High Package w/ soft top

raqball

Jun 19, 2024

Lots O Fords
Great post.
I use trails off road and GAIA.

GAIA was helpful a couple weeks ago on the road going from Carmel to big sur, in a ... gasp .... rented Camaro convertible. Found a road down to the beach and we used it on some hiking trails.

I'm trying to use it more so I can truly use it.

GAIA just added a map overlay that shows all the cell phone coverage. You can plan your trip and then show the overlay to see if you will be out of range. Not sure if others off this.

Lots O Fords, raqball

Jun 19, 2024

WildHorseJoe
OnX Off-road Elite has been awesome in regards to mapping private property. I’ve been able to reach out to a couple owners and one of them gave me the go ahead to pass through their property so long as I understood that anything that may happen to my vehicle is my own responsibility.

No surprise though that the National Forest map shows nothing for Eastern PA, lol.

I don't have the URL any more, but the forest service has most of their MVUM's that can be overlaid in Google Earth. I think they had them as KML files. You download them to your device and then create the file in GE. I have the set of the Black Hills in SD. It was nice to see the roads and then lay them out on GAIA or your Garmin.

raqball

Jun 19, 2024

MIGeezer
GAIA just added a map overlay that shows all the cell phone coverage. You can plan your trip and then show the overlay to see if you will be out of range. Not sure if others off this.

I just download off-line maps. I download through onX and check for any off-line map updates before heading out. I am rarely ever inside of cell coverage on my off-road trips so I just download the offline maps ahead of time. I think I've got almost the entire States of Washington and Oregon downloaded in overlapping segments. LOL

Speaking of cell coverage. If you are going to be outside of coverage when off-roading or hiking then do yourself a favor and get a Satellite communicator, it could save your life. I have and use a Garmin inReach Mini.

onX Trail Guide & Tread Lightly Member
2023 Badlands 2 door in Hot Pepper Red 🌶️ 🌶️

RobWTx, Lots O Fords

Jun 20, 2024

MIGeezer
GAIA just added a map overlay that shows all the cell phone coverage. You can plan your trip and then show the overlay to see if you will be out of range. Not sure if others off this.

Personally, I don't care about this feature, and I'm generally not a fan of GAIGPS at all. It's terrible for planning a trip route for a group. I use OnX instead for this purpose. BTW, I'm a trail guide for OnX as well, so if you want a 30% discount on a membership drop me a line and I can give you a discount code.

In general, I assume that I'm going to be out of cell range as soon as I hit the dirt, or shortly thereafter, and plan for that. Just a quick reminder, always download the offline maps before you head out of cell range. I usually do that as part of my trip planning. Also note that there are spots where even Google Maps needs a downloaded offline map while you're on your way to the trailhead and you can download those in Google Maps as well.

From a general communications perspective, I carry the following:

Mobile Ham/GMRS radio in the Bronco as well as a few hand-held radios for when I'm out of the Bronco, and, if I'm leading a run, for those that show up without a radio. I consider having a radio on a run as a safety issue. This is mainly for trail communications within the group I'm running with. However, I also download all of the repeaters in the area I'm running in just in case I need to reach out due to an emergency. But, even that's not 100% coverage so...
I have a Zoleo satellite communicator that I can use in case of a real serious emergency. That will get me in touch with their emergency communication center who can dispatch the appropriate authority to my location (note that the Zoleo will send them my GPS coordinates).

Finally, I always carry a serious first aid kit in the Bronco, just in case.

OnX Trail Guide
4 Door BadSquatch | Soft-top | Velocity Blue | 2.7 Auto

Lots O Fords, UserError

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