Where to Run · California
Ocotillo Wells SVRA
Free, no permit, mixed sand and desert terrain in one of the largest state vehicular recreation areas in California. Blow Sand Hill, Shell Reef, Gas Domes, and Pumpkin Patch cover everything from whooped-out washes to soft dune faces.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Air down
- 15-18 psi
- Season
- Oct-May
- Mapped trail
- 521 mi
- Elevation
- 299 ft
Trail map & conditions
521 miles of motorized routes within twelve kilometres of the anchor point, drawn from OpenStreetMap. Green lines are the network; zoom for detail.
Drive to
Ocotillo Wells SVRA Ranger Station / Discovery Center
5172 Highway 78, Borrego Springs, CA 92004
- Search in your maps app
- “Ocotillo Wells SVRA Ranger Station, Borrego Springs, CA”
- GPS (entry)
- 33.15513, -116.16894
No entrance fee; park is open 24/7 but full-size vehicle (Red Sticker) season runs Oct 1-May 31; Discovery Center on-site has trail maps and info.
Entry info: ohv.parks.ca.gov
The rules of this place
Shell Reef looks tame and eats undercarriages; walk anything you have not run before.
Also worth the trailer miles
Glamis / Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area
The proving ground. Oldsmobile Hill, Razorback, Comp Hill, and China Wall separate the trucks from the trailer queens. Gecko Road and Wash Road are the mellow on-ramps if you are new to sand.
Johnson Valley OHV Area
Home of King of the Hammers, roughly 96,000 acres of open BLM land, free, no permit. The fast desert washes and graded roads out of Hammertown are Raptor territory; Backdoor, Sledgehammer, and Chocolate Thunder are built for buggies on 40s, not full-size trucks.
Barrett Lake / Wentworth Springs / Loon Lake (Rubicon-adjacent)
The Rubicon Trail itself, Georgetown to Lake Tahoe, is free to run but a full-size Raptor genuinely does not belong on it — Little Sluice and Cadillac Hill are body-panel and rocker-panel damage waiting to happen. The forest roads around Barrett Lake, Wentworth Springs, and Loon Lake give you the same granite-and-pine High Sierra scenery on routes actually sized for a full-size truck.