Recommendation for moderate off-road trail in SoCal

[adrewpower]

Hi. I’m looking for a moderate off-road trail in SoCal. Anyone have a good recommendation? Not looking to do any rock crawling or hardcore trails. Just trails that are good for a family outing but more than a dirt road. I’ll also have a lifted Crosstrek traveling with me.
Thank you in advance for the recommendations.

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[rblock50]

Yeah, me son and I did this trail last month, it was on the back side of Mt. Palomar. It was maybe 22 miles or so and it took us all the way up to the top (6,100 ft). Bring your lunch, there’s some picnic tables at the top.

 

[adrewpower]

Looks beautiful. I don’t see the name of the trail. Do you have the name?

 

[rblock50]

Yeah looks like it is High Point Truck Trail and then we took it to Palomar Divide up to High Point (the peak) and took Palomar Divide back down the mountain. It was great!

 

[7sKnuckledragger]

SoCal is HUUUUUGE! where are you located? Give me a region and i can help, maybe.

 

[rblock50]

There’s a lot of trails in Big Bear too. Unfortunately, most trails seem to be 2+ hours drive away from OC. There’s always Joshua Tree as well.

@7sKnuckledragger would love to hear what you think.

 

[7sKnuckledragger]

There’s a lot of trails in Big Bear too. Unfortunately, most trails seem to be 2+ hours drive away from OC. There’s always Joshua Tree as well.

@7sKnuckledragger would love to hear what you think.

If you are in OC big bear is an easy go to.
mild… gold mountain is a really fun trail with only a couple of technical sections. Around the lake and to the north around John Bull and Holcomb there are a ton of dirt roads that take you to neat meadows and vistas.
If you’re in SD area head east, really neat exploring off the 8 (Julian area) and east is salton sea. Around there is ocatillo wells, anza borrego, borrego springs and in that area there are slot canyons, sandstone caves and tons of very mild to intermediate trails to explore. North east you can find 29 palms area and take the trails to pioneer town. Really cool restaurant out there and you can trail ride out or Johnson valley from there.
Johnson / Lucerne valley is rock crawler Mecca (king of the hammers)
North west is calico ghost town. Amazing dirt road and mine exploration with the Odessa and Duran loop trail that’s intermediate.
South at the 15 and 138 you have cleghorn which can be mild to intermediate
North west you have restock canyon, dove springs, McIvers cabin, Burro Schmidt and all the areas south of the 178 off the 14
Easr of the 14 is trona and the piutes
Isham canyon is over there definitely advanced.
Near the 14/5 fwy you have boquet trail
Rower flats
Drink water flats
All the backroads up around the 2 between the antelope valley and San Gabriel. Lots of dirt roads to cruise
North of SCV is miller jeep trail and Gorman (hungry valley)
Lots and lots of places. I’ve been wheeling and exploring the south west for 30 years. Hope this helps and if you have questions just ask

 

[adrewpower]

Wow. That’s some great info. I’m in OC and willing to drive about 2hrs to get to the trails. Looks like I now have a great list to start investigating and eventually exploring. B6G forum coming through again.
Thank you @7sKnuckledragger and @rblock50.

 

[IwannaGOfast]

In orange county there isn’t much. Holy Jim’s trail or Silverado canyon, but they aren’t much more than fire access roads. Like mentioned above Johnson Valley or Lucerne Valley have unlimited trails to explore. Rock crawling, sand dunes, dry lake beds, it pretty much has it all. Giant rock is kind of cool to check out. You can actually take trails from Johnson valley up to big bear. So you can plan a big loop around either direction.

 

[2fast4u]

How do you find trails around big bear?

 

[IwannaGOfast]

Google "big bear 4x4 trails"

https://www.alltrails.com/us/california/big-bear-city/off-road-driving

 

[2fast4u]

Great what maps do you guys use? alltrails? or is there something better for 4x4?

 

[rblock50]

I don't like all trails, it seems to be mixed with hiking trails too much. I use "OnX offroad", the Bronco one isn't mature enough, not enough content.

 

[Theblobishere92]

not sure if it’s been mentioned here already, but Silverado Canyon is pretty tame with some insane views once you get to the very top. You can see all of LA, OC, and more.
Overall, it’s easy, at least when I did it about a year ago. We’ve had a lot of rain since then, so hopefully it’s not washed out.

there are some points where you’re riding along a sheer cliff and if you have to pass someone it can be pretty sketchy. I have a base Bronco non-Sasquatch and I was able to do it no problem as a novice off-roader.

 

[Theblobishere92]

When I went I took the road in that runs through a very small and very old looking town called Silverado.

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