Finding Jeep Trails Online
When planning your off-road expedition it is nice to know what to expect from a trail before you visit it. Here are some sites that give you insights into what each trail has to offer.When planning your off-road expedition it is nice to know what to expect from a trail before you visit it. Here are some sites that give you insights into what each trail has to offer.
When planning your off-road expedition it is nice to know what to expect from a trail before you visit it. Here are some sites that give you insights into what each trail has to offer.
Trails.com
Trails.com is a subscription site that offers information on all kinds of trails across North America, including backpacking, cycling and horse trails. User can filter trail search to show just Off-Highway Drive trails. Trails are segmented by region of the country and then shown on a topographical map.
Trails.com offers a lot of valuable information on the trail detail page. Users can download a detailed topographical map of the trail in an image file that can be up to 2000 pixels wide. Users can also download a printable PDF file trail guide. The guides are produced by Falcon Guides , The Globe Pequot Press, The Mountaineers Books, and Appalachian Mountain Club Books. You can see a sample of one of the guides below:
View or download a full size trail guide example
Below is an example of the topo maps. You can also see a full size downloaded topo map example. Trails.com has additional samples for guides and topo maps.
Trails.com also allows users to upload photos and GPS files which other users can then view and download. At this point the GPS upload function is in Beta and not a lot of users have actually uploaded KML or other GPS files to be downloaded. But when this benefit gets out of beta and becomes more popular this will be a valuable part of the subscription.
Trails.com also has a mobile phone application which includes a GPS compass and what looks to be a real time trail guide. I can not recommend it because it is only for iOS devices so I have not had an opportunity to check it out.
Trails.com subscriptions can be monthly, for $7.95 or annual for $49.95. See more screenshots for Trails.com in the slideshow below.
For a full screen slideshow of the Trails.com screenshots click here.
Jeep’s Badge Of Honor
Badge of Honor is a program run entirely on the Jeep brand website at http://www.jeep.com/en/badge-of-honor . Badge Of Honor currently lists 38 “Jeep rated” trails. Program participants can use their mobile phones to check-in at each trail. Confirmed check-ins earn participants hard badges for each each trail. These badges can be displayed on the participant’s Jeep. Checking in, uploading photos, sharing the website and commenting also earn participants points which increase their “ranking” on the site.
It’s kind of gimmicky. That said, the trail information is pretty good. The trail detail gives overall details about the trail including the difficulty level, the contact information and a link to the trail website. There is also a list of participants who have checked-in on this trail. Users can contact these participants within the website to ask them questions. This, in my opinion, is the best part of the Badge of Honor program, the opportunity to interact with the Jeep enthusiasts community. They are willing to answer questions and they know what other participants are talking about because they have Jeeps too.
There are also user uploaded photos from the trail. Missing are downloadable GPS files. Trails can be saved to a specific profile. Users can leave opinions about the trail in a comment board. Be warned, the Get Directions tab does not work. It leads to Google Maps but Google Maps is unable to read the coordinates as they are written by Jeep. You'll have to re-type in the coordinates in a longitude/latitude format that Google Maps understands. Also be warned that the Android version of the Badge Of Honor application got terrible reviews on the Google Play store. The complaints were that it the GPS on the application did not function properly so users were unable to check in on specific trails because checking in through the mobile application is the only check-in option.
If you are going Jeeping with someone who is a beginner you might want to suggest they visit the Badge of Honor Off-Roading 101 page, which has some useful educational information. You can see screenshots in the slideshow below.
For a full screen slideshow of the Badge of Honor screenshots click here.
TrailSource.com
Trailsource.com is an irritating, glitchy website that, nonetheless, has some valuable information. Trailsource.com is a website that is divided into sections. So OHV parks are in their own section at http://www.trailsource.com/ohv/index.asp. The parks are subdivided by state. Once the user has picked a state the user gets a complete list of the the OHV trails Trailsource.com has documented in that state. The trails are indicated on a terrain map.
The trail detail page on TrailSouce.com gives a sometimes cursory, sometimes detailed set of information about a particular trail. This includes contact information for that particular trail and frequently a video showing what the trail looks like. The best benefits of the trail detail page are the downloadable topographical map and the downloadable GPS files. But these are not available for every trail. I downloaded the GPS file from the Hungry Valley trail detail page and uploaded it to Classic Google Maps. You can see the resulting Hungry Valley Trail With Waypoints map for yourself. You can see screenshots and an example of the topo map in the slideshow below.
View a fullscreen slideshow of Trails.com screenshots.
Trailsource.com has yearly subscriptions for $29.99, quarterly subscriptions for $19.99 and monthly subscriptions for $9.99. The site does not render well on mobile phones and has no mobile application. The site is stuffed with distracting banner advertisements, which is why I called it irritating. The topo maps are not available for every trail listed or the topo maps won’t download for every trail listed, which is why I called it glitchy. But is is a good source of at least finding all the OHV trails available in a given state.
OHVTrails.net
OHVTrails.net is a fun website to use. It has a Google Earth embed that shows OHV trails all over the United States. When the user clicks through to a specific trail detail page he or she can download GPX or KML files for the trail. Plus the trail is detailed quite well on the Google Earth map. Trail details are sparse. But for those looking to get GPS data for a specific trail, this website is quite a free resource.
Off The Beaten Track
There are a few other trail sites I would like to point out. They are not trail sites specifically for Jeep, Truck or SUV trails but they are quite useful nonetheless.
Falcon Guides
Above I wrote that the Trails.com downloadable guides were produced by Falcon Guides. Well Falcon Guides has its own line of eBooks that they sell through Inkling.com (https://store.inkling.com/store/brand/falcon/). These are rich media e-books which give the reader interactive maps, guided tours and high resolution photos. You can see an overview in the video below.
Each eBook is made up of chapters that are individually for sale for $2.99 to $3.99 each. Each chapter focuses on a specific trail. A search on the Inkling.com website for OHV returns a query with many, many OHV trail chapters from which to choose. Inkling.com books can be read online or offline on an iOS device and online on a PC desktop or laptop. So if you already know which trails you would like to visit and you are just looking for an in depth trail guide, there is no need for a subscription service. You can just buy the chapters for the individual trails in which you have an interest.
RiderPlanet-USA.com
RiderPlanet-USA.com is a resource for dirt bike enthusiasts. But it is also an excellent resource for those searching for trails and parks at which to ride their ATVs. RiderPlanet has a large database of privately owned OHV Parks. The trail detail page typically includes videos of the trail, a lot of data points about the trail terrain, a list of helpful rules and regulations about the trail, and the distance from the trail to helpful resources like gas and lodging. The trail maps provided include a street map, an aerial map and a topographical map. RiderPlanet also provides an Android application called Moto2Go which has received favorable reviews on the Google Play store. It provides all the detailed trail information plus updates from ATV and Motorcross news in your area.
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