1) Paiute Trail – Utah
- Length: 275 miles main loop route with side detours
2,500 miles of additional side trails/roads - Difficulty: Easy
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Marysvale, Richfield, Beaver, Fillmore and Salina
- Ideal Riding Season: September/October
This ATV trail system in south central Utah offers up some great family friendly riding. The trails are a combination of old roads and trails that were combined to form this interconnected riding area.
While any rider would enjoy these trails, they’re especially well suited beginners and families who are looking for easy relaxing riding conditions.
Passing through the Fishlake National Forest and BLM land, a lot of the trail is heavily forested with routes through the mountains which provide sweeping views for miles.
There are plenty of campgrounds located conveniently along the trail – both privately owned campgrounds with all the amenities as well as government run campgrounds with limited amenities.
The Paiute Trail varies quite a bit in elevation with 6,000+ feet of difference between the lowest and highest points of the trail.
This means that in spring and early summer there may still be snow at the higher elevations. But in the summer, the higher elevations are perfect for riding, while the lower elevation areas will be too hot.
The best season for riding is fall when the temperatures drop a bit and the fall foliage is beginning it’s change.
You can ride the main loop in about 25 hours, but your best bet is to spend a few days on this amazing trail system to experience all that this amazing area has to offer.
This website is run by the town of Marysvale UT. It’s not the prettiest website, but the info is solid:
2) Black Hills National Forest – South Dakota
- Length: 700 miles of trails
500 miles of roads - Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: None
- Ideal Riding Season: September – October
With over 1,000,000 acres of pristine wilderness, South Dakota is a riders paradise. Lush forests, beautiful mountains, rolling hills and deep canyons provide amazing scenery with trails for riders of all skill sets.
Hill City, Lead and the historic town of Deadwood are all great jumping off points for accessing the Black Hills National Forest.
This area has a lot of motels/resorts that have direct trail access as well as ATV rentals making it super easy to hit the trails.
Here a few places to check out:
- Recreational Springs Resort & Lodge, Lead SD
- Trailhead Lodge, Lead SD
- Mystic Hills Hideaway, Deadwood SD
South Dakota is an ATV friendly state and allows OHV operators to ride on most roads providing they have a driver’s license and the ATV is registered. Of course, major highways are off limits.
Here’s a list of some of the Black Hills ATV trails from the Forest Service:
Free map pdfs and phone apps from the Forest Service:
While you’re in the area be sure to check out Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument and Badlands National Park.
3) Hatfield McCoy Trails – West Virginia
- Length: 700+ miles
- Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Logan, Ethel, Matewan, Delbarton, Williamson, Man, Gilbert, Ashland, Northfork, Keystone, Mullens, Pineville, Coaldale, War, Gary
The Hatfield McCoy Trails are widely recognized as one of the best trail systems in the US and it’s easy to see why.
With over 700 miles of well marked trails, ATV friendly towns and riding for all skill levels, you could spend weeks exploring the region and never run out things to do.
This trail is now comprised of 10 separate sections with plans keep adding trail miles over the next few years.
For a more in depth look at this trail system check out:
Hatfield McCoy Trails – West Virginia
4) Arapeen Trail – Utah
- Length: 600 miles trails
1,000 + miles of Forest Service roads - Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Fairview, Mt. Pleasant, Spring City, Ephraim, Manti, Sterling, Mayfield
Is it fair that Utah has so many epic ATV trail? No, it’s not, but at least we all get to enjoy them.
Despite the fact that the Arapeen Trail is only a couple hours outside of Salt Lake City, you won’t run into big crowds.
This expansive trail system encompasses 350,000 acres with 600 miles of trails plus 1,000+ miles of Forest Service roads.
This trail system has plenty of mileage for full size vehicles like Jeeps and SxS as well as trails for ATVs with less than 50” wheel base.
There are multiple loops of various lengths and the trails are all interconnected so you can easily spend days riding without ever riding the same route twice.
Because this route is at higher elevations, snow pack is possible through June, so plan you trip from July – mid October. This is a high desert region, so summers will be hot even at the higher elevations. Plan your trip for early fall for ideal for riding.
Best Arapeen Trail: Skyline Drive
Skyline drive takes you 100+ miles along the spine of the Wasatch Plateau for sweeping views in all directions.
5) Lost River Valley/Salmon-Challis National Forest – Salmon Idaho to Mackay Idaho
- Length: 600+ miles trails and roads
- Difficulty: Mixed
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Salmon, Mackay
From the Salmon-Challis National Forests of Salmon to the Lost River Valley area of Mackay, this 112 mile long corridor is trail riding heaven.
Check out all these OHV Trails and OHV Roads:
The town of Mackay loves ATVing and ATVers so much, they allow riding OHVs on all city streets. Several trails start in town, so you can ride right from town out onto the trail.
They love ATVing so much they trademarked the terms “ATV Capital of Idaho” and ATV Capital of the West”.
Mackay has hundreds of miles of ATV trails and roads surrounded by 12 of the highest mountain peaks in Idaho.
You’ll find canyons leading in all directions to long abandoned mines, alpine lakes, sweeping meadows and flowing streams. This slice of ATV heaven is a hidden gem.
Salmon is also surrounded by mountains and forests with easy access to miles of Idaho ATV trails.
For some extra fun, plan a trip during the Rally In The Pines held in early July.
This popular ATV Jamboree offers a variety of trail rides from scenic to challenging to accommodate all skill sets.
6) Ride The Wilds – New Hampshire
- Length: 1,000+ miles
- Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Pittsburg, Colebrook, Stewartstown, Columbia, Stratford, Millsfield, Errol, Dummer, Dix Grant, Berlin, Cambridge, Gorham, Milan, Success, Lancaster, Groveton
There’s no doubt about it, the big open spaces out west provide more overall ATV and 4 x 4 opportunities.
But, don’t despair! If you live on the East coast you can still find plenty of awesome riding.
Check out Ride The Wilds in northern New Hampshire for 1,000+ interconnected ATV trails.
All the towns within the Ride the Wilds trail system are ATV friendly and allow ATVs on town roads for easy access to gas, food and lodging.
This also makes it easy to travel between different sections of the trail without having to trailer.
Plan a trip during the first two weeks of October and you will be wowed by the amazing New England Fall foliage. Plus, this area has plenty of wildlife including abundant moose, so be sure to pack your camera.
Berlin, New Hampshire hosts the annual Jericho ATV Festival at the end of July. They have mud races, monster trucks, demo rides, food and heavy metal concerts.
Clickable link:
One of the most remarkable aspects of this trail is that it was community built by 11 local ATV clubs. With grit and determination, they built this trail system for all to use and financed it all with a mix of club fundraisers and grants. No taxpayer money was used.
7) Okanogan County – Washington
- Length: 300+ miles
- Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Conconully, Loomis, Tonasket, Okanogan
300 Miles of ATV Trails and Multi-Use Roads beckon you to north central Washington.
The trails interlink several towns including Conconully, Loomis, Tonasket and Okanogan. All these towns are very ATV friendly and allow ATVs on the city streets which is pretty rare in Washington state.
No need to trailer – ride out from your motel straight on to the trails. You’ll find thick forests, many lakes, rolling hills and mountains.
Conconully hosts the popular Conconully ATV Jamboree which features fun rides as well as events including a poker run and a scavenger hunt.
8) Arizona Peace Trail – Arizona
- Length: 750 miles
- Difficulty: Advanced (if doing as a loop, due to remote desert)
Moderate (if doing day trips and prepared/experienced) - Access: Moderate (some of the trail heads are in remote desert areas)
- ATV Friendly Towns: Arizona allows for street legal ATV use, so it’s easy to navigate through towns along this trail.
This 750 mile loop in southwest Arizona can be done as a multi-day overnight trip or broken into bite size segments. You have the option of camping or motel overnight stays with plenty of small towns along the way.
This trail takes you through some remote deserts with part of the loop passing through the mountains outside of Kingman Arizona which are a higher elevation that will get snow in the winter.
So, from extreme deserts to snow covered mountains, this trail isn’t for the inexperienced or ill prepared.
I’ve done a more extensive write up of this trail which you can find here:
ATV Arizona – Two Epic Trails For Your Next ATV Adventure
9) Wagon Wheel Trail System – Colorado
- Length: 610 miles
- Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Easy
- ATV Friendly Towns: Meeker, Rangely
The Wagon Wheel Trail System is the largest OHV trail system in Colorado.
This off roading trail system in the northwest Rio Blanco County of Colorado is broken into two separate sections.
Wagon Wheel OHV Trail East is based out of Meeker Colorado and Wagon Wheel OHV Trail West is based out of Rangely Colorado.
Both Meeker and Rangely are ATV friendly and allow ATVs on city streets except for the main highway.
Meeker/Wagon Wheel OHV Trail East is 250 miles and offers 16 interconnecting loops.
Rangely/Wagon Wheel OHV Trail East is 360 miles. Most trails are 4 – 35 miles from the center of town and can be accessed without having to trailer.
For more great riding in Colorado, check out 10 Best ATV Trails In Colorado.
10) Big Horn Mountains – Wyoming
- Length: 188 miles of trails
962 miles of roads
33 miles of single track - Difficulty: Varied
- Access: Moderate (will have to trailer if staying in town)
Easy (if staying at the lodges up top) - ATV Friendly Towns: Remote wilderness. No towns, but services available
You’ll always find the Big Horn Mountains on all my “Best Of” lists. I wrote about the Big Horns High Country Lodge in 10 Awesome ATV Resorts.
I love Wyoming and I love the Big Horns!
And with 188 miles of ATV trails, 962 road miles and 33 miles of single track what’s not to love.
Check out all these trails:
This is pretty remote wilderness, but it’s only about a 40 minute drive to Sheridan, which by Wyoming standards is a pretty big town – population 18,000.
You can stay at one of the 3 ATV friendly resorts for a few days and ride from your room right out onto the trails. The resorts have gas and casual restaurants too, so just pack a bag and go.
Featured Image Paiute Trail by Michael Wachel Photography | Flickr