Beginner off-road trails in socal?

Go out to the desert in like Joshua Tree and have fun out there. That's where I hit my first dirt, super nice as your not far off the road if anything happens, and it's all flat.

 

Solid recommendation!

 

As recommended, Joshua tree is a great spot. Also can go to Cal City. Plenty of dirt out there. If you feel like dealing with all the sxs idiots, you can try Gorman too.

 

agreed was just out there near the south entrance doing some disperesed camping over the holiday weekend.

santigo peak is also a great easy trail.

 

Fish Creek and Berdoo Canyon in Anza Borego, CA are great beginner trails

 

Sin Nombre Canyon road too. Went out there last weekend. Super fun and easy!

 

Gorman has the 4x4 park which is super fun, trails are all listed in difficulty and there is a practice area too. I also like rowher flats, the drive up to the ridge from the south is amazing

 

Recommendations based on recent comments:

I wouldn't consider Joshua Tree proper (the national park) as a great off road destination, but *around* joshua tree is great! There is very little legal off road stuff within the park, most of it is a 35mph paved road.

Berdoo Canyon is a through route from JT to the south, which is great for beginners. There is one slightly technical spot in the narrows, but nothing your truck can't handle. To the north is Old Dale which is a fantastic but remote area with everything from super smooth sand tracks to boulder fields. Connecting through into or out of JT is a bit more technical than berdoo, but well within stock capabilities.

On the east side of the park is a dead end to Eagle Mountain, but I don't like it because I don't like gated roads and dead ends. I'd skip it and head down to I-10 and Chiriaco Summit, where you can take Red Canyon trail to the south. Another great one for beginners, and it connects to Bradshaw Trail which you can take east to Blythe or west to the Salton Sea.

Across the Salton sea from that is Anza Borrego, with tons of very interesting trails. Fish creek is great, as are the badlands to the north. Rodriguez and Oriflame are great mountain trails to the west.

If you want to drive off trail, jump dunes, and do donuts, then do not go to any of these places. Instead of Joshua tree, go to Johnson Valley. Instead of Red Canyon, go down to Glamis. Instead of Anza Borrego, go to Ocotillo Wells or Superstition. All are nearby options where you can drive like an ass hole without ruining our parks and trails. And that is a lot of fun too.

 

Oh, and truckhaven in Ocotillo Wells is a great place to watch serious off readers do crazy things, and maybe pick up some pointers from the crazy people!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/12-19-20-bee-canyon-trail-run.697194/

 

Perfect thread I’ve been looking for. Grew up down here and finally have a truck that can do this.

 

www.trailsoffroad.com has a plethora of trails with detailed guides.

 

Maple springs on saddleback mountain in Orange County is a good beginner run. Part way up there is a small area to get your feet wet with slightly flexing your rig. Once you get past that, it gets a little rocky, but the whole thing is nothing a stock rig couldn’t do. 2WD friendly as well.

 

Thanks for the info, I will check this out.

 

I’m also new to SoCal and new to TW. I have a 2018 DCLB OR that’s stock right now and I’d be interested in wheeling as well

 

Also, forgot 3N16 up in big bear. Easy trail with tons of offshoots for beginner to basically Jeep only trails.

 

Awesome write up. I especially liked the parts where you went over the proper etiquette at those places. I don't want to screw it up for the community. Thanks everyone else for solid info as well. Cheers.

 

Azusa OHV is a terrible place, do not go there...it's a waste of $5 or however much it costs to get in.

The Rincon Truck trail is a nice easy fire road right there across from Azusa OHV, there's a locked gate to it but the park ranger at the Azusa OHV entrance will give you the code. It's about 10 miles in and back, 2wd friendly with nice views of the mountains from the top. Although the fires this year went through that whole area so it may (probably) be closed for awhile.

Rowher Flats out near Santa Clarita is a great place for beginners, the Rowher 4x4 and Lookout trails over there are 4x4 only but there are fire roads for beginners that will take you up as well. Trails are all marked for difficulty. Near Rowher is another trail area called Drinkwater Flats and/or Deer Peak, both 4wd trails but easy/beginner ones.

Pilot Rock is another easy 4x4 trail, there's a more difficult version of it near the beginning that branches off but you'll know it when you see the gatekeeper.

Tons of trails up in the Big Bear area that are more easy/moderate 4x4 ones. The Coxey Truck trail starts in the High Desert near Hesperia and takes you all the way up into Big Bear, easy fire road. White Mountain is a fun 4x4 trail, probably shouldn't do it alone though without someone experienced to lead the way.

 

My job took me to Santa Clarita the other week, and I managed to escape for a few hours to explore Drinkwater flats. The trailhead is only a few minutes from town.

Heading north on San Francisquito Cyn Road, the trail is a steep uphill climb to the right, shortly before power station 2. The grade would be no problem if the terrain were slickrock, but in this case you get loose rutted dirt and gravel. So this is not a trail you can climb blindly with open diffs and highway PSIs in your tires, unless you are a better driver than I am. You will need to air down, pick your lines, and manage your momentum to get to the top in a stock vehicle. So in that regard, I would say this is good trail for beginners looking to gain offroad experience.

Other that that, it is a pretty boring area, and all other routes of interest are gated off by the city of Los Angeles. The fastest way out is the way you came in.

One bit of interest: The LA aqueduct runs through this corridor, which is responsible for the irreparable destruction of vast swaths of California's ecosystems and farmlands, but which helps to keep wealthy folks' lawns green year-round. When the aqueduct was built, almost 100 years ago, LA built a huge dam in San Francisquito canyon, just upstream from this trailhead, to contain all the water they had swindled from the farmers up north. But shortly after the dam was complete, it failed catastrophically, killing hundreds and hundreds of people as a tidal wave of destruction scoured the Santa Clara valley all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It turned out not to matter, LA still had enough water to hold the rest of southern California ransom for years to come, ensuring its rise to economic and political might. The dam's designer is memorialized throughout the city. You can see the crumbling remains of the dam in the valley below, but only if you hike, because all the access roads are gated off by--you guessed it--the city of Los Angeles.



From Wikipedia:


Today:

 

I've done that climb up the Drinkwater gatekeeper off San Francisquito probably a hundred times, it's a fun easy trail with great views in the winter/spring.

Last time I attempted it though about a year ago, was after a few big rain storms and that gatekeeper hill climb was super rutted out. I was being lax about it thinking how hard could it be, done it so many times before after all.

Well that was a bad idea because the rut pulled me into it and sideways right into that wall of dirt on the driver's side after you cut that tight corner. Totally demolished my front driver side fender, and my mirror, headlight and part of my hood.

I haven't been back to that trail since lol