i'm going on a camping trip with my kids at Joan's Gulch in La Honda, CA next month and would like to drive there using an alternate route that involves a lack of pavement if at all possible. any ideas?

i googled jeep trails in the area and a bunch of fire roads popped up, but i am not sure if they are open to the public or if they even exist at all.

thanks.

 

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the area but you definitely have the right idea trying to find people who might know. In your shoes, I'd grab a Forrest service map, identify all the numbers of the roads (ie 7N40) and call the rangers station in that district and ask them if those roads are open. No better authority than them. Without that information, I wouldn't even try it. The Nav in my Rubicon knows all the FS roads, but if I ask it for directions I usually end up at a locked gate. Good luck!

 

La Honda is a nice area but unfortunately I don't think that there are any trails .

 

In that are I doubt you'll find anything. Most of the fire roads are gated or private. A few minutes on earth view or google maps satellite and I guarantee you'll see the gates. I'm not aware of any significant dirt in the peninsula area

 

so we went on the camping trip and it was a great time. one of the other campers mentioned that he saw a trail leading up a hill on the way out of the campgrounds, so on the way home i kept my eyes peeled and found it. it looked to be relatively well traveled dirt trail leading up a steep hill. so i peeled off the road and up the hill. after about 1/2 mile it started to get really narrow with a steep drop off on one side and heavy brush on the other, so i decided to turn around and go back down.

so my question is, if there are no signs or gates, and it is clearly a trail that has been used before, is it safe to assume that it is legal?

 

Depending where you were, you can also end up on the bad side of an illegal pot farmer...besides the obvious possible trespassing claim