I grew up in Illinois and live in Iowa. The problem with the Midwest is all the farmland. ATV riders have to compete with trails provided for hikers and bicylists. Public ground if mostly for hunting and the DNR's and county conservation boards don't want ATV's scrambling through the woods. Then there are the horse ranchers.

I notice that in Illinois that most of the ATV parks are concentrated in the mid to southwest part of the state and up close to the DeKalb area. In Iowa, there are only four state run parks spread far out across the state and one private area. So, most ATV riders have to travel many hours to go riding in other states. Iowa has a lot of catch-up to do. As a matter of fact, there are over 800 miles of abandoned railroad beds that have been taken over by the Iowa Heritage Foundation to covert to hiking and bycicle trails in order to preserve the pristine nature of the surrounding land. The key is that hikers and byciclist have a well-organized backing of political clout and money, something that the ATV crowd is going to have to aspire to. Recently, Iowa got an ATV political lobbyist. It's a start.

I like the Wisconsin concept where they try to link long trails between small rural towns. It's a good boost for their economies. Wisconsin is generally ATV friendly as well as Missouri which has a lot of wide open ground. Iowa is **** retentive and needs a good laxitive if it wants to retain its young people. Trying to create well-paid and attractive jobs is one thing, but people need a wide variety of leisure activities. Beats being a couch potato.

 

Are you talking about Little Egypt off Road (LEOR) ?
Ive been there before and I thought it was a pretty decent place.
Trails were clear and wide and it had some NICE and TALL rolling hills through the trees that were pretty cool.