Also.....to complicate things........the atv riders in South Dakota are fighting a bill in the S.D. legislation that would remove the licencing of atv's (now putting them in your shoes) for street legal status. The funny part of it is, the legislators what to allow golf carts to be street legal...........figure that out. An atv that runs at minimum of 50mpg on streets verus a golf cart that may run 25mpg, now which is more a hazard to motorist????/
Last I heard on this issue was that for now the atv riders had gott'en the bill stopped for now......but who knows for how long.

 

well i live in iowa and we have to licens them and we go to south dakota or the black hills to ride every year as long as we have the sticker on and our registration they tell us we are ok and i know we all have ours ins to. Yes in iowa we can not ride them on roads we could at one time and they keep changing it every couple of years seems like but we still have to pay $17 a year to have them in our yard i guess. we have never been bothered or told dif in black hills we have been asked were our plate is we just tell them we have a sticker and they look and drive away and always very good about giving us info on were we can ride and not ride.

 

also we have always tried to keep on trails that we have asked if it is ok to ride the area and always got a map so we now were the priv property is so we dont go on any ones land the loging roads are good trails as well there is some that are old and can take you in some areas that are just great view. we have tried getting info out there but no one will tell us any info at all only info we got is people that we can pay to be our gide.

 

Like I said, if you are licenced in any state, you are legal to ride on S.D. and Wyo. roads, including forest service or county roads. And really, even if you aren't licenced you will probably get by on forest service roads cause nobody in S.D. knows what the hell is going on there. You will need a Wyoming trails sticker if you cross the state line into Wyoming, and sometimes that is hard to know whne you are in Wy or S.D.

Don't know what map you are using......only good and legal map at the present is an official Forest Service map. You can pick them up at any F.S. office for around 10 bucks. There is no other map showing atv trails......if someone gives you one, it more than likely a snowmobile map and that is not legal for atv's. However you are more than happy to ride any F.S. road that is open (doesn't have a swing gate).

Just been trying to worn everybody about the big misconception.

The F.S. travel management plan that was in the 45 day comment period, just got put off for another 45 day period because the F.S. didn't publish the previous comments on line. So now the final decision is delayed probably another 30 days. My best guess is that the atv trails and designated areas ain't gonna happen this year either.

 

well i am in the sd side now and having a great time found some good areas that are atv trails and not closed lot of rain but seem to dry out fast since its a lot of rock and realy no mud. We have found 3 areas that are atv trail areas and it has kept us biusy since sunday wen we arived and havent even seen much of any thing twice we are just respecting the closed trails and stayn on trails and not trail blazing.

 

Good deal, glad you are having a great time.

We really appreciate the respect you are showing.....this is how we keep our riding opportunities open.

Come back any time.

 

Where is a good stage area or trail head for easy to intermediate trails for starters in the Black Hills. Length of trail doesn't really matter as long as its at least a 1/4 - 1/2 day ride or even longer? Thanks, Al

 

well ive been going to south dakota for four years now and they tell us as long as its registerd in our state well as long as our sticker we use in iowa is on and up to date they have left us alone and they tell us that is all they need to see. And yes i live in iowa even when we could ride on the roads we only had stickers and some counties still alow people to ride on the roads so as long as i pay $17 a year im going to ride my atv on the roads if it is alowed and the group i go with always has reg with them and full ins and cards to show we have ins as well.

 

we road a lot of trails around nemo south dakota there is a trail sistem marked there it is called trail 89 we ride that and ride the trails branching in all ways off of that and we rode it for 2 days worth. the only down fall is if they dont have gas by the little burger place a couple miles from trails there is no place real close by to get it so take extra gas with you or make sure you know how long you can go with out getn any. if you do get hungry the burger place is realy good place to eat and people that run it are very nice people i beleave its called the suger shack i think

 

Just want to give any and all who ride in the Black Hills and update. The USDA Forest Service "Travel Management Plan" has been approved and will take effect on the 24th of September.
Several Atv clubs will be out on the 18th helping the forest service put-up trails signage, mark trails and helping with gate closers and gate openings and installing 50" and less gates.
Maps will be avalible at any forest service office for trails. If you are a street legal, licenced atv you will still be allowed to ride main F.S. roads as well as 50" or less trails. There are a few UTv trails (over 50") but your routes will be mainly F.S. roads.
Also along with this plan, dispersed camping will only be allowed within 100 feet of a road and game retrival is also limited to 300 feet off a road with an atv.