List of dirt roads in US?

[the freeak]

Is there a list of (maintained or unmaintained) dirt roads in the United States?

I would like to travel cross country using as little paved roads as possible... thoughts?

[jperecko]

google maps... select "by walking" instead of driving or public transit... also "avoid highways"

you can drag the route around to incorporate a lot of roads that are not really able to be seen with regular settings

[82FB]

Check out the Transamerica Trail. I have a buddy who has been doing a week of it each summer. I think last year he did from east coast somewhere, to Oklahoma, and this summer he did from Oklahoma to middle of Colorado, and plans to finish it next year gong through Utah, Nevada, corner of CA and up into Oregon. I think somebody mapped the route and is selling maps or gps locations for it.

Here is a link.

http://www.transamtrail.com/

[the freeak]

Thanks guys, I will check that out...

[Jeffb_79]

Isn't the transamerica trail a dirtbike thing? I'm sure some of the roads are open to all vehicles, but I was under the impression you couldn't run the entire trail in a 4 wheel vehicle.

[p14175]

That's an ambitious project! If you do it, write a book about it!

Here in Az we have a portion of the Great Western Trail and is a N-S 4x4 route on mostly dirt roads and trails. I am not sure what the current status is.

http://gwt.org/

This site has links to some other sites that might be helpful.

Good luck!

[82FB]

Originally Posted by Jeffb_79

Isn't the transamerica trail a dirtbike thing? I'm sure some of the roads are open to all vehicles, but I was under the impression you couldn't run the entire trail in a 4 wheel vehicle.

He mentioned something about that, but he is able to drive nearly all of it in his cherokee on 31's.

Another thing that might be fun, would be to buy a forest service map($10-12) of a particular national forest, and spend a week covering every road in it, camping wherever you find a nice spot. I am out in CA so Sierra NF is about 15 miles away from me, and I have probably driven maybe 10% of the roads in there. You can see some amazing stuff!

[Skerb]

one thing i have seen in my fs road adventures is dont always assume a fs road is open...many are marked open but are gated.

[Jeffb_79]

Originally Posted by Skerb

one thing i have seen in my fs road adventures is dont always assume a fs road is open...many are marked open but are gated.

That's very true.
I've spent the past few months doing this throughout George Washington National Forest. I would say at least half of the listed FS roads are seasonal... meaning they only open them during hunting season, or they'll open up one one year, and close it the next to help preserve the area. If you're not on a set schedule with set stops, it's usually easy to find your way around them. Also beware that some FS roads may run between private property for a few miles (most property owners will make it very clear that anywhere off the road is private property). If you pick up a delormes atlas for the states you want to go through, they're very accurate as far as the roads go.

[Jeffb_79]

Originally Posted by 82FB

He mentioned something about that, but he is able to drive nearly all of it in his cherokee on 31's.

Another thing that might be fun, would be to buy a forest service map($10-12) of a particular national forest, and spend a week covering every road in it, camping wherever you find a nice spot. I am out in CA so Sierra NF is about 15 miles away from me, and I have probably driven maybe 10% of the roads in there. You can see some amazing stuff!

I was thinking about driving across the TN portion last year, but could never find anything about taking my jeep on the trail... I might have to start looking further into it again.

[TBItoy]

From everything I've read, most of the TN portion is gravel roads and tar/chip country roads.

I've been on some of the roads the "trail" takes in middle TN, they are all doable in a 2wd truck.

[Skerb]

from some of the writeups i have seen that is the case. there was a report where a group in a cherokee, tacoma, and a subaru ran most of the tenn portion, and there were only 2 times in the whole state where the subaru had to take a bypass because a water crossing was too deep, and even then it was gravel, from the pics i dont think it starts gettin good till you get out west.

[82FB]

Originally Posted by Skerb

from some of the writeups i have seen that is the case. there was a report where a group in a cherokee, tacoma, and a subaru ran most of the tenn portion, and there were only 2 times in the whole state where the subaru had to take a bypass because a water crossing was too deep, and even then it was gravel, from the pics i dont think it starts gettin good till you get out west.

That's very true. I think it is more "off the beaten path, sight seeing, cross country tour", than "off-roading".

[tj willy]

Originally Posted by Skerb

from some of the writeups i have seen that is the case. there was a report where a group in a cherokee, tacoma, and a subaru ran most of the tenn portion, and there were only 2 times in the whole state where the subaru had to take a bypass because a water crossing was too deep, and even then it was gravel, from the pics i dont think it starts gettin good till you get out west.

All true.

I just completed Jellico, TN to Trinidad CO. (I skipped over most of Arkansas and a bit of eastern OK, b/c I did that last year)

3900 miles. 8 states (actually 9). All on my F650 Dakar.

There is nothing in TN that is not doable in a truck or 2wd for that matter. Depending on rain, a couple water crossings can be deep though causing a reroute. On a bike, the slick stone bottom of most of the water crossings is the real peril.

Mississippi is way more mud. And a couple reroutes are necessary no matter what you are in/on b/c bridges have been washed out for years. A skidder could not get through/around some of these.

Arkansas gets more technical and only one bit would be difficult in a truck and that is b/c it gets fairly narrow. But a Jeep should make it. Truck too if not too concerned with a little scratch here and there and maybe some leg work. It is called Warloop Rd. There are youtube videos.

Oklahoma is doable by truck all the way. The sand gets deep out in the panhandle in a couple places. This was the only place I went down the entire trip. There are also a couple water crossings that depending on rain, get VERY deep. Also, one I forgot about in AR. The mud in OK can be very bad depending on rain as well. But nothing a 4wd would not breeze through.

New Mexico was amazing even though you only get about 60 miles of trails. Some of it gets very narrow. One place I would consider avoiding and there is a go around. It depends on the weather. The drop over the edge would most certainly spell immediate death. It was one of those, don't drop the bike, don't look over the edge scenarios, all the way up. Rocks, drainage crevices, mud, etc make it challenging on a loaded, heavy thumper (650 - single cylinder)

I did not get that far into Colorado but it is more of the same. Some of the passes are narrow. That will be the challenge.

Check out ADVrider.com and look at trail reports. Find you some TAT or Trans Am reports. Mine is there under "TJ Willy".

Hope all that helps.

Buddy and I are planning a northerly expedition to benefit the ALD Foundation and plan to leave Big Bend for Prudhoe Bay next summer. We plan to stick to trails/gravel/etc as much as possible. Sam Correro also has a trail (creator of Trans Am Trail) called Shadow of the Rockies. I have an email to him concerning taking Jeeps on the trail but no response yet. From what I have seen, hopefully we can take most of that trail all the way to Colorado. From there, we still need help planning our route.

Thanks.

[Skerb]

Originally Posted by tj willy

All true.

I just completed Jellico, TN to Trinidad CO. (I skipped over most of Arkansas and a bit of eastern OK, b/c I did that last year)

3900 miles. 8 states (actually 9). All on my F650 Dakar.

There is nothing in TN that is not doable in a truck or 2wd for that matter. Depending on rain, a couple water crossings can be deep though causing a reroute. On a bike, the slick stone bottom of most of the water crossings is the real peril.

Mississippi is way more mud. And a couple reroutes are necessary no matter what you are in/on b/c bridges have been washed out for years. A skidder could not get through/around some of these.

Arkansas gets more technical and only one bit would be difficult in a truck and that is b/c it gets fairly narrow. But a Jeep should make it. Truck too if not too concerned with a little scratch here and there and maybe some leg work. It is called Warloop Rd. There are youtube videos.

Oklahoma is doable by truck all the way. The sand gets deep out in the panhandle in a couple places. This was the only place I went down the entire trip. There are also a couple water crossings that depending on rain, get VERY deep. Also, one I forgot about in AR. The mud in OK can be very bad depending on rain as well. But nothing a 4wd would not breeze through.

New Mexico was amazing even though you only get about 60 miles of trails. Some of it gets very narrow. One place I would consider avoiding and there is a go around. It depends on the weather. The drop over the edge would most certainly spell immediate death. It was one of those, don't drop the bike, don't look over the edge scenarios, all the way up. Rocks, drainage crevices, mud, etc make it challenging on a loaded, heavy thumper (650 - single cylinder)

I did not get that far into Colorado but it is more of the same. Some of the passes are narrow. That will be the challenge.

Check out ADVrider.com and look at trail reports. Find you some TAT or Trans Am reports. Mine is there under "TJ Willy".

Hope all that helps.

Buddy and I are planning a northerly expedition to benefit the ALD Foundation and plan to leave Big Bend for Prudhoe Bay next summer. We plan to stick to trails/gravel/etc as much as possible. Sam Correro also has a trail (creator of Trans Am Trail) called Shadow of the Rockies. I have an email to him concerning taking Jeeps on the trail but no response yet. From what I have seen, hopefully we can take most of that trail all the way to Colorado. From there, we still need help planning our route.

Thanks.

thanks for the comments man, this is exactly what i have been wanting to hear, from somebody that had actually been on the trail.

thanks man

[upsidedown]

There was a National Geographic Adventures magazine about 3 yrs ago that had an article about a couple that ran off road from Canada to Mexico. No on road miles at all. Pretty cool article and they did it in a Jeep Rubicon sleeping in a tent. Very ambitious trip for a couple of journalists that had not done much off-roading.