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What is the best info out there on off road

brennaman

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Wife and I are going to head down to AZ this winter, and would like to know the best place to find detailed off roading. I have seen the series called Guide to "add your state" backroads and 4-wheel-drive trails. It looks great, but it only has 100 trails in it, eveny distributed between easy, moderate and difficult. We will probably stay on the easy for our first trip in the Jeep, and 34 trails in that large of an area is not a lot. Maybe when I get it I will see that it is all I need, but if there are other options out there, I would like to hear about them.
I also have Overland Bound One, onX offroad, AllTrails, Gaia GPS and Badge of Honor apps on my phone. Another place I have been looking is on youtube, and we have marked quite a few places we would like to go to, after seeing them there.

Thanks
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Wife and I are going to head down to AZ this winter, and would like to know the best place to find detailed off roading. I have seen the series called Guide to "add your state" backroads and 4-wheel-drive trails. It looks great, but it only has 100 trails in it, eveny distributed between easy, moderate and difficult. We will probably stay on the easy for our first trip in the Jeep, and 34 trails in that large of an area is not a lot. Maybe when I get it I will see that it is all I need, but if there are other options out there, I would like to hear about them.
I also have Overland Bound One, onX offroad, AllTrails, Gaia GPS and Badge of Honor apps on my phone. Another place I have been looking is on youtube, and we have marked quite a few places we would like to go to, after seeing them there.

Thanks
Looks like you're missing TrailsOffroad.com. Lots of detailed trail info there.
 
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brennaman

brennaman

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Looks like you're missing TrailsOffroad.com. Lots of detailed trail info there.
Thanks, I just came across that in another thread. Appreciate your reply. I could not find an app for that on my android. Do you know if they have one? thanks
 

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Thanks, I just came across that in another thread. Appreciate your reply. I could not find an app for that on my android. Do you know if they have one? thanks
No app for Android. I generally go old school with this site, printing the trail guide and taking it with me with track uploaded to Gaia GPS.
 
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brennaman

brennaman

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No app for Android. I generally go old school with this site, printing the trail guide and taking it with me with track uploaded to Gaia GPS.
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I have Gia and the paid version, but I think its worthless for offroading but great if you are a hiker or something other than motor vehicle.
They don't seperate hiking from motor roads.
 
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brennaman

brennaman

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I have Gia and the paid version, but I think its worthless for offroading but great if you are a hiker or something other than motor vehicle.
They don't seperate hiking from motor roads.
Thats nice to know. thanks
 

Dustin

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Thats nice to know. thanks
So that info about gaia only being for hikers and not showing road info is completely false. Not sure what this person is on about.

With Gaia premium you can show just about anythIng you want, on one map, in layers.

on my main everyday map I use gaia topo as a base. This has most if not all major and minor roads, topo, landmarks, etc. i the layer on forest service maps, including mvums, which is the national forest road maps. Check out mvums if you aren’t familiar, they also include gravel, dirt, etc. then you can layer in satellite or whatever and see roads that arent listed.

my custom map is

shading
Public lands
Hydrography
Mvums
Forest service roads and trails
Timber harvests
Mines and mineral resources
Bedrock geology
Gaia topo as a base.

All of this i fo is layered at varied transparencies onto my own custom gaia map.
 
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brennaman

brennaman

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So that info about gaia only being for hikers and not showing road info is completely false. Not sure what this person is on about.

With Gaia premium you can show just about anythIng you want, on one map, in layers.

on my main everyday map I use gaia topo as a base. This has most if not all major and minor roads, topo, landmarks, etc. i the layer on forest service maps, including mvums, which is the national forest road maps. Check out mvums if you aren’t familiar, they also include gravel, dirt, etc. then you can layer in satellite or whatever and see roads that arent listed.

my custom map is

shading
Public lands
Hydrography
Mvums
Forest service roads and trails
Timber harvests
Mines and mineral resources
Bedrock geology
Gaia topo as a base.

All of this i fo is layered at varied transparencies onto my own custom gaia map.
Wow, OK thanks. This is a little overwhelming, but youtube is my best friend, so I am sure I can get a lot of the "how to" stuff there. Thanks
 

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Wife and I are going to head down to AZ this winter, and would like to know the best place to find detailed off roading. I have seen the series called Guide to "add your state" backroads and 4-wheel-drive trails. It looks great, but it only has 100 trails in it, eveny distributed between easy, moderate and difficult. We will probably stay on the easy for our first trip in the Jeep, and 34 trails in that large of an area is not a lot. Maybe when I get it I will see that it is all I need, but if there are other options out there, I would like to hear about them.
I also have Overland Bound One, onX offroad, AllTrails, Gaia GPS and Badge of Honor apps on my phone. Another place I have been looking is on youtube, and we have marked quite a few places we would like to go to, after seeing them there.

Thanks
Hello,

I’m not sure if you have made your trip out there or not but in the event that you haven’t, I figured that I would chime in and give you some advice and feedback.

I was born and raised in San Diego and have been around off roading my entire life including go to numerous areas in and throughout Arizona. In fact, unless it’s summer time, Arizona is probably my most favorite State to off road in.

Since Arizona has a ton of versatility in and throughout its entire off road locations, take these points listed below if/when you decide to go out there.

1. Make absolute, 100% sure that you know exactly what the weather is going to be like at the same exact time where you are going to be out off roading at as well as what it has been like in the last week or so prior to you going out there on your trip. The same thing applies as well, to both your current weather and what the weather was for the past week or so within 100 miles from you. The reason why I say this is because Arizona is very prone to flash flooding and when it rains out there, it rarely just sputters a little bit and sprinkles the ground. Generally speaking, when it rains out there, it pours! Bad too! So if any rain has taken place in the last week from wherever it is that you’re going to be at or with 100 miles of you where you may be very well may look dry but then a moment later you suddenly have a wall of water heading your way very rapidly and it also has lots of debris and other dangerous things. If you go camping and/or see rain in the distance you have to be on high ground at least a good 30’ or so above the desert floor. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! This is why this first piece of advice is #1 on the list. I’ve experienced this happening first hand and I’ve also known other people whom this has happened to as well and one friend was almost killed as he was trying to out drive a sudden flash flood from heavy rainfall that took place 30 miles East of his location. All of a sudden he saw a very fast moving wall of water headed towards him that he estimated was at least 5’ high and traveling insanely fast debris and all. Fortunately he made it to a hill and was stranded on it for 2 days straight until the water subsided.

2. If you do any off roading in the dunes you need to know that the dunes can be one way one minute and within 3 to 4 hours can be totally different due to the shifting sands and high winds. Especially at night! Mount a very high orange flag/whip to the highest point on your Jeep. Explore all terrain slowly at first. Especially driving over dunes. A number of years ago a friend and I were out at Glamis, that is right on the California/Arizona border. We had been going off all of these hills and catching mass air and having fun. This one hill in particular had about a 4’ drop off on the back side of it and it was a fun hill to launch air off of. The next morning my buddy went to hit the same hill again but he neglected to re-check the terrain first. In the span of just a few ours that drop off on the back side of the hill went from 4’ all the way to about 20’ and had he not seen it at the last second and braked really hard he could have either been seriously injured or killed.

3. No matter what the weather will be like bring a ton of water and non perishable food as well as warm clothing and a thick blanket. Same thing as well as an ELB, tools and first aide kit and at least 1 signaling mirror. You will be in many areas where you may not run into anybody for months and you also have very poor to no signal at all in regards to cell service so, you may very well be your own only chance of rescue if you break down and/or get hurt. And with the water, non perishable food, clothing and blankets etc. just know that it can get crazy hot on occasion, even in winter, and get below freezing at night on certain occasions but definitely in winter!

4. Watch where you walk no matter what time of the night or day that it is! In addition to several species of scorpions, centipedes, and venomous spiders, there are Gila monsters that are venomous too, and have no antivenin for one of their bites. And with the several species of rattlesnakes that live out there too, not all of their venom is the same. Even among specific species like the western diamondback rattlesnake, they normally just have hemotoxin venom that effects the blood stream but some have a very strong neurotoxin venom that is almost identical and as strong as a mojave and southern pacific rattlesnake. If you or anyone that you’re with gets bit and you’re out in the middle of nowhere, even assuming you have a strong cell signal, that bite will most likely turn fatal due to the amount of time that it will take to get to the hospital.

5. Let people who you know, know where you are going, how long you expect to be gone, how many people will be in your party. So if it’s you and a spouse, 2 etc.. Even local places too, like the motel that you’re staying with. Tell them this info and if you have not returned or called to check in within 24 to 48 hours of your expected return time then they need to call the police with the information of where you were going and with how many people so should they only find lets say your spouse and they are deceased or unable to communicate in any way, then authorities know that they will still need to be searching for you and/or however many other people that went with you and are also missing too!

Now onto the off road parts. Throughout the entire State of Arizona, you can pretty much do every kind of off roading that exists and in a majority of places, you can even do all kinds of off roading that exists in one single area. If you’re wanting to go check out some of these places, talk to locals and they can share with you some pretty amazing and very beautiful locations.

You can also find a bunch of local off road clubs all throughout Arizona and almost all of them are very welcoming to out of State off roaders that want to go along with their group or club for specific events that they put together and all go out as a group.

I hope you have or had a great time depending on if you have gone or not already yet? If you have any other questions, feel free to hit me up or to shoot me a message on here and I’ll try and answering any other questions that you may have.
Peace!
J
 

wibornz

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I have Gia and the paid version, but I think its worthless for offroading but great if you are a hiker or something other than motor vehicle.
They don't seperate hiking from motor roads.
You need to learn how to use Gaia, You can select what type of activity your doing. It sounds like you have it set up for hiking, not Off roading or overlanding. Learning how to use different layers is vey important so that Gaia will display the type of information that you need.

I have found that Gaia is great for exploring. There are many trails that are already mapped out for you if you search for them. You can also upload GPS tracks files to Gaia.
 
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brennaman

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Hello,

I’m not sure if you have made your trip out there or not but in the event that you haven’t, I figured that I would chime in and give you some advice and feedback.

I was born and raised in San Diego and have been around off roading my entire life including go to numerous areas in and throughout Arizona. In fact, unless it’s summer time, Arizona is probably my most favorite State to off road in.

Since Arizona has a ton of versatility in and throughout its entire off road locations, take these points listed below if/when you decide to go out there.

1. Make absolute, 100% sure that you know exactly what the weather is going to be like at the same exact time where you are going to be out off roading at as well as what it has been like in the last week or so prior to you going out there on your trip. The same thing applies as well, to both your current weather and what the weather was for the past week or so within 100 miles from you. The reason why I say this is because Arizona is very prone to flash flooding and when it rains out there, it rarely just sputters a little bit and sprinkles the ground. Generally speaking, when it rains out there, it pours! Bad too! So if any rain has taken place in the last week from wherever it is that you’re going to be at or with 100 miles of you where you may be very well may look dry but then a moment later you suddenly have a wall of water heading your way very rapidly and it also has lots of debris and other dangerous things. If you go camping and/or see rain in the distance you have to be on high ground at least a good 30’ or so above the desert floor. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! This is why this first piece of advice is #1 on the list. I’ve experienced this happening first hand and I’ve also known other people whom this has happened to as well and one friend was almost killed as he was trying to out drive a sudden flash flood from heavy rainfall that took place 30 miles East of his location. All of a sudden he saw a very fast moving wall of water headed towards him that he estimated was at least 5’ high and traveling insanely fast debris and all. Fortunately he made it to a hill and was stranded on it for 2 days straight until the water subsided.

2. If you do any off roading in the dunes you need to know that the dunes can be one way one minute and within 3 to 4 hours can be totally different due to the shifting sands and high winds. Especially at night! Mount a very high orange flag/whip to the highest point on your Jeep. Explore all terrain slowly at first. Especially driving over dunes. A number of years ago a friend and I were out at Glamis, that is right on the California/Arizona border. We had been going off all of these hills and catching mass air and having fun. This one hill in particular had about a 4’ drop off on the back side of it and it was a fun hill to launch air off of. The next morning my buddy went to hit the same hill again but he neglected to re-check the terrain first. In the span of just a few ours that drop off on the back side of the hill went from 4’ all the way to about 20’ and had he not seen it at the last second and braked really hard he could have either been seriously injured or killed.

3. No matter what the weather will be like bring a ton of water and non perishable food as well as warm clothing and a thick blanket. Same thing as well as an ELB, tools and first aide kit and at least 1 signaling mirror. You will be in many areas where you may not run into anybody for months and you also have very poor to no signal at all in regards to cell service so, you may very well be your own only chance of rescue if you break down and/or get hurt. And with the water, non perishable food, clothing and blankets etc. just know that it can get crazy hot on occasion, even in winter, and get below freezing at night on certain occasions but definitely in winter!

4. Watch where you walk no matter what time of the night or day that it is! In addition to several species of scorpions, centipedes, and venomous spiders, there are Gila monsters that are venomous too, and have no antivenin for one of their bites. And with the several species of rattlesnakes that live out there too, not all of their venom is the same. Even among specific species like the western diamondback rattlesnake, they normally just have hemotoxin venom that effects the blood stream but some have a very strong neurotoxin venom that is almost identical and as strong as a mojave and southern pacific rattlesnake. If you or anyone that you’re with gets bit and you’re out in the middle of nowhere, even assuming you have a strong cell signal, that bite will most likely turn fatal due to the amount of time that it will take to get to the hospital.

5. Let people who you know, know where you are going, how long you expect to be gone, how many people will be in your party. So if it’s you and a spouse, 2 etc.. Even local places too, like the motel that you’re staying with. Tell them this info and if you have not returned or called to check in within 24 to 48 hours of your expected return time then they need to call the police with the information of where you were going and with how many people so should they only find lets say your spouse and they are deceased or unable to communicate in any way, then authorities know that they will still need to be searching for you and/or however many other people that went with you and are also missing too!

Now onto the off road parts. Throughout the entire State of Arizona, you can pretty much do every kind of off roading that exists and in a majority of places, you can even do all kinds of off roading that exists in one single area. If you’re wanting to go check out some of these places, talk to locals and they can share with you some pretty amazing and very beautiful locations.

You can also find a bunch of local off road clubs all throughout Arizona and almost all of them are very welcoming to out of State off roaders that want to go along with their group or club for specific events that they put together and all go out as a group.

I hope you have or had a great time depending on if you have gone or not already yet? If you have any other questions, feel free to hit me up or to shoot me a message on here and I’ll try and answering any other questions that you may have.
Peace!
J
Wow that is great. I think the only thing that I had totally covered was #3, the survival stuff. I go a little overboard on that, but great info.

As for the rest of your post, thank you very much. My wife gets a little intimidated with some of the things I like to do, so she really likes to pull me back some on adventures. But I only do stupid things when it impacts me only, so taking my wife, I need all the info I can get. Being this will be our first "overlanding" trip, (I hate to call it an overlanding trip, it is more of an extended camping trip) I will really take it slow till we figure out what we like and don't like.

Thanks again for taking the time for such a great write up filled with great info.
 

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No app for Android. I generally go old school with this site, printing the trail guide and taking it with me with track uploaded to Gaia GPS.
The Trails Offroad App is available on Android now. I just installed it and you can download the offline trails for each state.

There is OnXOffroad, JeeptheUSA.com has a lot of free gpx files. Where2wheel.com . Traildamage.com etc.

You can find several more for local areas. azoffroad.net for Arizona, www.rr4w.com for Moab, etc.

Greg
 
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brennaman

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The Trails Offroad App is available on Android now. I just installed it and you can download the offline trails for each state.

There is OnXOffroad, JeeptheUSA.com has a lot of free gpx files. Where2wheel.com . Traildamage.com etc.

You can find several more for local areas. azoffroad.net for Arizona, www.rr4w.com for Moab, etc.

Greg
Thanks, the Arizona and Moab look great.
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