Central California Off Roading Ideas

i want to hit go off roading this weekend and need ideas.

 

What are your capabilities?

4x4? Lift? Sliders? Bumpers? With winter/wet season upon us, tires? ATs or MTs?

Central CA is full of fire roads and easy spots in the eastern sierras. Check out Kings canyon and Inyo for generic “trails”. Maybe Stanislaus forest if you venture further north.

 

4x4, no lift, duratracs. Not looking for anything difficult, just something for my wife to have fun.

 

I’ve taken my peerunner down a lot of the fire roads up 108
What part of the Central Valley

 

Good start is get a forest service map from any area you’re interested in.

And a gps.

108 or 4 or 88 are all great corridors into the mountains. If you’re more south there are some fun trails out of Shaver lake.

Or if you just want to test out the truck on some obstacle OHV parks can be fun.

Hollister/frank Raines/la grange etc

Let us know

 

If you want a wide open, desert type off road area, check out Carrizo Plains. The visitor center has good info on what's to see around there. Mostly packed dirt and loose gravel trail. You can check out some attractions like Painted Rock and San Andreas fault
Make sure to gas up in Maricopa as there are no gas stations within the plains.

 

What nDub mentioned is what I was going to say. Up 108 and 4 there are a lot of fire roads in that area that are fun to explore.

 

Where in central cali are you at? That will help create a radius unless you plan on making it a weekend/multi day trip.

 

I’m in Fresno. Also, if there are places to shoot im also interested in those.

 

There is a place to shoot up by bass lake and plenty of fire/logging roads
No distance shooting there tho
https://maps.apple.com/?address=Sierra National Forest, Bass Lake, CA 93604, United States&ll=37.343168,-119.590492&q=Marked Location&_ext=EiQpz+MJlGKgQkAxGthmjAvtXcA5RtRIu3O3QkBBhFdgsYneXcA=&t=h

 

King’s canyon has lots of forest roads. Head up towards 10-mile Road and Hume lake. I spent a few summers up there and would venture off on the weekends out onto the roads.

 

So when your saying forest and fire roads around here. Are these marked? Am I allowed to be on them? Do I need a Off road permit?

 

That place near bass that you marked. Is that a public place to shoot? That appears to be really close to 222. California is so touchy about things I just want to make sure I’m not doing anything I’m not supposed too.

 

For daily use, To my knowledge, Not if it’s public land. Because it’s federal forest I believe it’s all open. It’s not an OHV area where you need to “pay-to-play”.

Now if you want to stay over night. You will need a wilderness permit in Kings/Sequoia National Forests.
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/wilderness_permits.htm

 

Dusy Ershim trail !!!

 

Might be tough in a mostly stock 4x4...

Awesome trail though. Probably one of the most scenic I’ve ever done.

 

I've run that trail many times and like you've mentioned very scenic

 

It’s a small pistol range I believe the sheriff department set it up 30+ years ago

 

If you want places to shoot, just go 100 yards down any FS road and look for large piles of shells. That's where everyone seems to go, and I guess they think a maid comes by and cleans up after them?

But I digress....

This is a great book:

$26 Guide to California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails (FunTreks Guidebooks)

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Califo...41&sr=1-1&keywords=California+off+road+trails

There's another book (that I actually own) that I can't remember the name, but it's geared more towards less modified SUVs and trucks with some easier trails in Northern CA, but I've done several of them and they are still very scenic and fun to drive.Still get some fairly difficult trails with some rated 5 to 7 or 8 (out of 10).

EDIT: that book is called Backcountry Adevntures, Northern California. Found it:

$35 Backcountry Adventures: Northern California

https://www.amazon.com/Backcountry-...try+adventures+northern+california+guide+book


Also look into FS MVUM's (motor vehicle use maps), and these:

$12 Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Map (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map, 205)

https://www.amazon.com/Sequoia-Cany...5&keywords=California+trails+illustrated+maps

Super useful! I also have Backcountry Navigator and Avenza apps on my phone where I can download FS MVUMs and trail maps. Good to have both the app maps and paper maps for planning and navigating.