Best place in the US for this type of ATV trip?
 

I am 38, and for my 40th birthday I would like to plan a big ATV excursion. I would like to get something with trails, epic scenery (mountains, rivers, pine trees ect.) and some good places I could stop and camp overnight along the trails with some friends and family.

My thoughts are somewhere out west. I want to stay in the US. I live in Indiana and we do have ATV parks nearby but not so much for the big mountains and awesome scenery. The Appalation Mountains are okay, but I want to go big and would prefer more the size of the Rocky Mountians.

Anyone have any suggestions? Pictures or stories are greatly welcomed!

Go West, young man, go West. From what I've seen on here, Paiute Trail in Utah would be a great place to go.

Thank you for your input sir! I will look into that.

I think the thing that may be hard to find is a place that will let you camp along the trail and not necessarily be at a camp ground.

Call911, there are areas along the Paiute Trail you can camp. The idea is simply to look for places along the trail that look suitable. It's primitive camping. If you see a fire ring it's probably fine to use that area. is a great map for the trip. There are a lot of Forest Service roads and trails along the main trail that are fun to explore. We went out there from Massachusetts in 2013 and 2016 and still haven't covered all the main trail, never mind the side trails.

Forum member, Specta got us hooked. His pics are here: https://atvconnection.com/forums/fam...rail-utah.html May be a few pictures that don't show up as photo hosting sites change around a lot.

Pics from our 2016 trip: https://atvconnection.com/forums/fam...rail-trip.html

Can't find any of the pics from 2013. Don't know what I did with that thread.

Almost all the towns have food, gas, and lodging available. The Paiute is also hooked up with the Arapeen Trails to the north and the trails in the Bryce Canyon area to the south. We were going to camp out near Bryce but got stopped by a bad rainstorm.

A lot of the trail systems in the West have National Forest Service roads and trails that are part of the overall system. For instance, 20% of the Paiute Trail are size limited to either 60" or under, or 50" or under. The locals have no say in the size of trails and roads.

Man, that sounds cool! Thank you so much for the input and pics!

Any other places anyone else reccomend? Or is this the golden ticket I have been looking for?

Hatfield McCoy System would be a great destination. Maybe I'll go there someday.

I know I'm not going riding out of state but would be more likely to go there than anyplace out west. It's almost an 8 hour drive but that's still a lot better than driving 25 hours to Paiute Trails which would require 2 separate nights in hotels if I drove about 8 hours a day. 6 days driving round trip versus 2 days doesn't sound like much fun to me, plus I get tired of driving after just a few hours and it could take longer.

I've only went to the closest ride parks in the last 2 years or so. I have 4 within a 100 mile radius of me, I have visited 3 of the 4. Land Between the Lakes down in Kentucky is about a 3 hour drive away and the last time I went there was 9 years ago. I think that is probably about the farthest I will ever travel to go riding again. It is a great place and you could easily spend several days there and have a great time. They had primitive camping along with some cabins you could rent nearby, they may have better accomodations now since its been so long.

I didn't even leave the state but the farthest trail I ever started a ride on was in Iron River, over 450 miles from home, but only about 250 miles from where I was staying. It was about a 4:25 hour drive instead of 7:20 hours from my house. I made it half the length of the trail and turned around because I was soaking wet and it was cold out. I would have been better off not riding that trail at all. I can ride other places a fraction of that distance away.