Has anyone ever ridden an ATV from Stoddard Wells/Barstow area out to Laughlin? My friends have a vacation home out there and suggested that maybe we could ride from the Barstow area all the way out to Laughlin. I know there are power roads through Stoddard Wells from Victorville to Barstow, but I don't know about past that. We of course will have someone monitoring us from the I-40 with lots of water, fuel and a trailer in case we get tired. But we thought that this may be a cool way to start off a long weekend. Any ideas on which agency to contact to make sure that this is legal and that there are open ATV trails?

 

I would get the BLM maps. They show roads and powerlines, and more important, all the wilderness areas where you can't ride!

 

Thanks. How's it goin? Hope all is well with the family. Maybe we'll see you on another ride sometime soon. We are probably hitting Stoddard again next weekend, another cousin is getting her Honda 250 today and she'll be ready to ride by the weekend.

 

You cant legally do this ride. You will need to travel on public, private and BLM land both protected and unprotected.

I wanna go! Sounds like a blast!

I was at the Slash-X a month ago or so and there were 2 girls on 400ex's that were riding to stateline,Nv from there.

The owner of the Slash said that you can ride there if you follow the powerline roads or the RR tracks since both go by Stateline.


The RR tracks follow I-40 most of the way to Laughlin. Around Goff's they turn left, follow Goff's rd and cross I-95. I dunno where they go from there.

The RR tracks are private property and are patrolled by the train police.

 

I have dirt bike friends who do Barstow to Stateline every year. They always go in the dead of winter, and have some great stories about snow storms and such. They aren't all dual-sport riders, so I know you can get a quad out there. As for Laughlin???? You might try a dual-sport web site. Those guys are into this kind of thing.

 

Sounds too good to be legal.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

But man does it sound fun! My family use to do Barstow to Vegas years ago before the Sierra Club won the fight to take it away. I would love to ride from Barstow to Laughlin.

Please keep us posted on what you find out OK?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I looked at the BLM maps, and there is probably a route that could be worked out. There are several pipelines that run that way, and they always have a road, and more important they skirt around the numerous little wilderness areas (thanks Bill Clinton!!). No powerlines jumped out at me though. I think the powerlines mostly run north along the I-15 rather than along the I-40.

You will need these BLM maps: Victorville, Newberry Springs, Amboy, Needles, and Davis Dam. You can order them off the BLM web site store. I would also contact the Barstow and Needles BLM field offices. There are 3 types of BLM lands: Wilderness-can't go there; Open Areas (like Rasor, Stoddard, Johnson, etc.)-you can ride anywhere; and Regular BLM Land-you can ride on "established" roads and trails. Anyway, most of your route would be on regular BLM land.

Barstow to Stateline looks pretty straight forward, because there are at least two powerlines and some pipelines that go that way. Anybody want to give that a try???

What about the Bradshaw trail that runs from (I think??) Indio out to the Colorado River???? Anybody up for that???

 

We will most likely plan a trip for sometime in January, since Barstow to Stateline has been done, we may try that first. Any and all are welcome; the more the merrier (and safer). On our next trip to the River we'll watch for power line roads off the 40. I will get the BLM maps, thanks Recon! I'll keep ya'll posted on our progress and when we get set to go.

The River is better for us as my family has a house on the AZ side, so we won't have to worry about parking the quads. We can also stay and play the rest of the weekend!

 

If you can figure a way to get to Afton Canyon, you could take the Mojave trail all the way to the river just south of Laughlin, 130 miles of trail to the river.

 

This sounds like so much fun! Where would you refuel?