Where are some good beginner off roading trails in the bay area?

Has anyone been to Hollister? How is that place?

Thank

 

as you may have noticed, the bay area is covered with concrete, cars, and people. there are no *legal* trails in the vicinity. closest trails would be at least an hour away.

now if you're talking "norcal" in general, there are plenty of trails depending on where you're at, most of them being located closer to the Sierras. A good book to buy and keep in the rig would be "Guide to Northern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles A. Wells - it's like $10 and very handy although of course not everything is listed in there, just some of the more popular trails.

 

cool thanks.. just ordered a used one on amazon $10 shipped

 

 

Hollister is the best place if you live in the bay area, its about 45min south of san jose, and i find myself going there to wheel almost 80% of the time. great place for beginner to pro.

 

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/4x4_trips.shtml#California

 

yeah i'll probably head to hollister.. any tips for a first timer? trails? what to bring?

 

Get a map there and follow the signs. Set up like a ski area, the round/green trail signs are the easiest, the square/blues are harder and the black diamonds are the toughest. And you can sign up for the Esprit de Four Safety clinic coming up on Sept. 19th and 20th:
- http://www.espritdefour.com/dynamic/

 

My advice would be to familiarize yourself with the NFS (National Forest Service). I recently went up to the Mendocino forest and hit up the Stanislaus forest/North Fork this past weekend. There are tons of places to go for overnight/camping trips where much fun 4wheeling can be had. Early start day trips are fun too, but these particular forests are a good 3 hours from the bay.

You definitely want to take a good map if you plan to go out to these areas. I prefer the Forest Service maps. You can find them here for California. I'd also suggest starting out with "roads not maintained for passenger cars" for your beginner wheeling adventures and then scout the 4wheel trails (all shown nicely on the maps) before running them. For example, if you search Sourgrass here on YT you can find some good pictures of that trail. I wouldn't call it a beginner trail though (unless you go with someone experienced). On the other hand, the trail to Sand Meadow is definitely a good beginner trail that takes you down to the North Fork Stanislaus River and a good campground (when it's not full).

There are so many trails in NorCal it's ridiculous!

 

ah awesome thanks!

 

Where are you located ? Im in san jose and will be going to hollister some time here soon , Im no pro so I need some easy to moderate trails myself.
let me know if your interested.