Hollister Hills

Go in the morning. You’ll be fine

 

If you air down make sure you have a way to air back up! I think the ranger station has a compressor but I’ve been there when it wasnt working. You can ask when you get your day pass.

 

Thanks - good point. I have a portable compressor and will be sure to bring it.

 

I had a lot of fun there in my 2wd, all good on the green and even blue trials, the black trials looked impossible unless you were in a side by side or something lol. I just aired down to 25 psi, my truck has some Toyo at3s a 2inch lift and Truetrac lsd. I went later in the evening a few hours before sunset and it was a graveyard, I didn’t see a single person there.

 

If you're by yourself, you might want to keep to times others are around in the off chance you break something

 

I haven't been back since last summer but like everyone else has said, there's plenty of green and blue trails which are mostly dirt roads. When you drive into the ranger station/front gates to pay for access, there are paper maps you can grab. It's a nice place. We even attempted the steps/stairs that the tesla Cybertrash struggled hard with. Here's a few clips of the stuff we did, I was behind the camera while my friends drove my truck through these but I did try them as well.

https://i.imgur.com/2ALVd3T.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/ZaNeLLP.mp4

 

Thanks for sharing - those videos are awesome - I'd love to know what the audio was like - looks like everyone was having a blast!

 

That bridge and tunnel look like great fun - do you recall where it is?

 

Upper ranch, 4x4 obstacle course

 

Thanks for the encouragement folks - we went down to Hollister Monday evening for a few hours, just to scope it out - and had a blast!

It was already 16:30 when we arrived so we paid our fee and went straight to Upper Ranch, and stuck to the green trails.
We did a few simple loops to see what it was all about, but just as you guys noted, the greens are pretty much fire-roads.


It was all super safe - but still "off road" enough to be exciting for the little ones.


I even pulled the child seat into the front to let my navigator have a better view.



And couldn't resist the bridge and tunnel. I was very tempted by the teeter-totter but chicken out. Maybe next time.



I'll probably try to go back for another spin in the next week or so.
Ideally I'll figure out which blue trails are safe. I know you guys said that 9/10 of them are fine for 4x2 and stock, but I was afraid I'd find that 1/10 that wasn't!
I've read that Bonanza Gulch Rd is a relatively easy Blue trail (https://www.jeriandpenguin.com/rv-travel/hollister-hills-svra), any other suggestions?

 

I just noticed how appropriate my choice of music was when I snapped that last pic:



Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCcWzLAcv4o

 

Good luck getting on to it! It’s not an easy obstacle to get up. I tried and the rear end just kept digging. There’s an elevated platform getting onto it, similar to a curb. Try it though, maybe you’ll prove me wrong, but I think you’d need a 4x4 to get onto it