ATV and OHV Season Begins This Month! Are You Ready to Rumble?

Spring has returned once again to Colorado, and for some of us, this winter might have been hard to get through with the lack of snow. Never mind that you didn’t get your snowmobile fix for the season. It’s time to take the tarps off your OHVs, put in some fresh fuel, and get back out on the dunes and trails this summer!

Memorial Day Weekend is the kickoff for off-roaders, and ATVs. There’s no better place in Colorado to ride than North Park! We’ve got sand dunes, hundreds of miles of trails on public land, and wide open spaces to really get out there and explore. So if you are jonesing to get back on your ATV, side-by-side, 4X4, or motorcycle, we’ve got the place for you!

Places to Ride in North Park

Jackson County has the advantage over many other Colorado off-roading destinations of not only being remote, but also very rider-friendly when it comes to off-road use. We have a long history of four wheeling, jeeping, and riding the dunes that goes back to as long as people have been driving vehicles off road. 

To get started, make sure your OHV licenses are up to date with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Registering your Off Highway Vehicle helps fund CPW to continue to protect the lands and ensure their future use. Lots of locations are being shut down every year, mostly because of some bad apples who would rather tear up our public lands and let someone else deal with the mess.

Hot Spots for Off-Roading Near Walden

With hundreds of square miles of public land, it might be tough to pick where you want to go first. Here’s some of the places you can ride your ATV in the mountains using Walden as a jumping off point.

BLM

The Bureau of Land Management is a great place to ride trails. Much of our public BLM land is accessible by paved county roads and dirt roads in areas that have been reclaimed from oil and gas leases, or used as open range by our local ranchers. From Walden, you can find the largest chunks of BLM public use areas east of Walden on County Rd 12, with several spurs running throughout the flat, sandy North Park basin. Just be sure you watch your spark suppressors, since the sage brush can sometimes be a risk during fire season.

Sand Dunes

The North Sand Hills are about 14 miles north east of Walden. The turnoff for the Sand Hills can be found on HWY 125 about a mile north of Cowdrey. These dunes are the leftovers of a shallow inland seaway that used to run from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the Arctic Ocean during the age of the dinosaurs. In some places, visitors have found fossils and shark teeth. These sand dunes continue to move and reshape, offering a literal sandbox to play in with your OHV. It’s a great place for riders of varying skill levels to test out their ATVs and bikes. Side by sides will find plenty of trails going from the dunes to the surrounding foothills too, with plenty of technical obstacles and wildlife to be found along the way.

*The North Sand Hills can be very busy during Memorial Day Weekend. As long as everyone plays nice in the sand box you’ll have a great time!

National Forest

North Park is home to large portions of the Arapaho National Forest and the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. You’ll find some excellent OHV trails which mostly follow old jeep and logging roads. They offer spectacular views for passengers and plenty of mud holes, steep inclines, and technical spots to test the driver. Check with the National Forest website for maps and information about camping and off-roading here.

Colorado State Forest State Park

A great place to run OHVs in the shadow of the Never Summer Mountains and Medicine Bow Range. One of Colorado’s largest state parks, and Colorado’s only State Forest, Colorado State Forest State Park offers campgrounds, plenty of parking, trails, and unbelievable sights. Most of the trails here are multiple use, with many of them year round. They pull double duty in the winter months as snowmobile and ski trails. In the summer, they give you some excellent access to remote areas that are on par with Rocky Mountain National Park—without all the restrictions against OHV riders you’ll find at RMNP.

Day Use Areas and Free Sites

Many of our public lands have begun to require day use fees, but many are still free to use with up to 14 days of camping allowed in some spots. Be sure to check your public lands use maps you can download from the sites above to learn more about what is free, and what is now pay-to-play.

Rules of the (Off)Road

Unfortunately many Memorial Day weekends in Jackson County see an uptick in the numbers of emergency response calls to the North Sand Hills and other public lands. The vast majority of these collisions could have been avoided! Whether it is inexperienced riders, broken equipment, or crashes with other riders, the results are often very serious. Flight for Life Helicopters often fly in and out of the county during times of high-traffic. Fatalities and serious injuries are all too common. 

Flight for Life and EMS

North Park is very remote and the nearest trauma center is at least 60 miles from Walden. Flight for Life is often the only way to quickly get someone to a hospital to save their life. When seconds count, helicopters still take a minimum of forty-five minutes to get to Walden.

Depending on where the wreck has happened an ambulance might take even longer, so please keep that in mind.

To make sure you get home in one piece and have a great time, here’s a few rules—mostly common sense—we wish more people would follow.

Watch Your Speed

Excessive speed might be a rush, but it also means you have less time to react and drastically increases the chance for serious injury. Opening that throttle all the way is a shortcut to getting yourself hurt or killed. Go only as fast as your experience allows. And even then, drive at a safe speed, because you won’t always know what is coming your way.

Don’t Tear Up the Trails

Reckless riding not only endangers your safety, but also ruins our trail systems, making them difficult and dangerous for other riders. More often than not, Rangers will close off an area permanently, rather than incur the expense of grading or rebuilding a trail. Then the area isn’t fun for anyone anymore.

Keep Your Eyes Open

Issues with visibility are a big reason people crash. Whether it’s a rock or a stump they didn’t see or another vehicle in their blind spot, you have to keep your head on a swivel, constantly check your mirrors, and make sure your goggles and windshields are clean when you ride. What you can’t see might just kill you.

Don’t Ride Intoxicated

Intoxicated riding and driving never made off-roading more fun. Best case scenario, you will probably hit something and ruin your day with broken equipment. Worst case, you could injure or kill yourself or someone else. Either way, it’s illegal and just plain stupid. Never ride drunk, buzzed, or on any substances that will impair your reaction times. Rangers and law enforcement are out all Memorial Day weekend handing out tickets and passing out steel bracelets. Just don’t do it.

Be Aware of Others

You’re only as safe as your worst rider. On heavy use days, that number goes up quite a lot. Whether it’s people speeding, riding recklessly, or aggressive wheelers, the chances of having a serious accident rise dramatically the more people are on the trails or dunes. Don’t forget too that you might be sharing the trails with hikers, horses, and livestock!

Breakdowns

Eventually things break, especially if you have been riding trails long enough. Walden, CO has a number of places that offer auto parts that will help you out in a pinch. Check out Jack’s Auto Parts and Service, Timberline Builder Supply, and North Park Supers for hardware, oil, fluids, and automotive supplies.

Check our local gas stations for ethanol-free fuel. You can find them with the link here.

Don’t Be a Jerk

Get along with others using public lands. In recent years there has been an influx of visitors who have gotten very territorial of public lands. Just because these are the great outdoors it’s still not an excuse to be an aggressive idiot. A few bad actors can spoil things for everyone.

Violent or aggressive people will not be tolerated and law enforcement will do everything to keep the peace. So don’t leave your junk, garbage, dog poop bags, or fires burning. Don’t discharge firearms or fireworks (read our last article about fire season in North Park this year). 

We are all out here to have fun on the weekend. Not start a fight and have someone go home hurt, or sent to jail. There are other places to work out your aggression and none of them are here. Try therapy or stay in your house. Thanks!

Ride Safely and Get Home in One Piece

We want your visit to North Park to be memorable. Many of our visitors have been coming to Jackson County for years and years to enjoy the trails and wide open spaces. North Park is one of the few remaining places in Colorado where you can still go off-roading and not have to fight crowds and long lines of vehicles. 

We have plenty of great places you’ll want to go off-roading, from jeep roads and trails to hill climbs and sand dunes! Ride safely and have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

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