Where to Run · California
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.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Air down
- 18-22 psi
- Season
- Jul-Oct
- Mapped trail
- 510 mi
- Elevation
- 6,459 ft
Trail map & conditions
510 miles of motorized routes within twelve kilometres of the anchor point, drawn from OpenStreetMap. Green lines are the network; zoom for detail.
Drive to
Wentworth Springs Campground / Rubicon Trail Trailhead
End of Ice House Road (Forest Road 3), ~24 mi north of Hwy 50, Eldorado National Forest, El Dorado County, CA
- Search in your maps app
- “Wentworth Springs Campground, Eldorado National Forest”
- GPS (entry)
- 39.01152, -120.32538
This is the original/traditional west-end start of the Rubicon Trail; access road is rough dirt only suitable for off-road-worthy vehicles, no fuel nearby (fill up in Placerville).
Entry info: fs.usda.gov
The rules of this place
Snow closes access well into early summer most years; call ahead rather than trusting the calendar.
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.
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.