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State Overviews Texas Regional Overviews Big Bend Country Panhandle Plains Hill Country Prairies and Lakes Piney Woods Gulf Coast South Texas Plains Topical Overviews Biking Birding Boating Camping Fishing Golfing Hiking National Parks Off-Road Driving Scenic Drives Additional Info Festivals and Events Texas Almanac 
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Off-Roading in Texas
The most excitement that the Big Bend Country of Texas may seem to have for the off-roader is sand and dunes, dunes and sand. One of these sand playgrounds is set right up against El Paso. West Texas is also mountains, though, so dunes are only part of the story. Big Bend National Park, for example, has some off-roading trails to primitive campsites, although they may be more perfunctionary than romping.
The Panhandle is full of surprises and a Panhandling off-roader will cross their wheels through sand and climb some serious hills, wheel along desolate cliffs, wheel up rocks. For those who like mud on their wheel treads, the off river-bottom will often leave some of itself with you after you cross its bed. Some of these are, naturally, near the delightfully diverse Amarillo.
The Hill Country is home to some serious hills and at least in the case of Katemcy Rocks, they aren't always gentle and green and rolling. This park is pure granite, 800 acres of it. Austin is always race friendly and has plenty of trails to ride them on. Emma Long Metro Park, that rough park beloved of bikers, is also beloved of off-roaders.
There's only one area in Texas where you can hope for more mud than you'll find here and the technical changes in terrain make for a real challenge. What mountain bikers might miss out in the area around Dallas, the off-roaders gain. Rocky climbs and dips make for exciting climbs and descents. Plus, the off-road parks tend to be nothing short of massive. Eisenhower State Park, in the Dallas vicinity, is the only Texas state park to allow off-roading.
Piney Woods is wooded, green, and creeky and it can all run to mud after a good rain. The Mud Creek Offroad Park is home to such events as "Mud Fest" and "Mud Nationals" and it (and its events) gleefully lives up to its name. Shilo Ridge is another mud-friendly off-road area. Even Sam Houston National Forest has offroading trails, but national forests tend to be a little more leery of vehicles leaving with layers of soil stuck to their treads. Expect the trails to be closed post-rain.
It's the coast and the bayou. Trails often run through creek bottoms and even those that don't can turn into soup after a quick rain. It's easy to get both scenery and mud on these long, scutty trails around Houston, which is also close enough to the Piney Woods to share some of their trails. Spring Creek is one of its own (which are many) and it's a nice, sticky mass of sand and mud. For a more beachy experience, the Padre Island National Seashore, off Corpus Christi is only accessible by four-wheel-drive for 55 miles of its length.
Buffalo Valley, in San Antonio is proof that the mud doesn't leave once you start crossing into the South Plains and who doesn't love a park with jumps? Buffalo Valley itself is remarkably family-friendly, but not all San Antonio trails will be quite as gentle on the jump-landings. Laredo, however, is not a land of mud, but a land of rock. Rough Canyon is lined with trails and they're all rugged and rough in the most extreme sense of the word. In general, in those desert plains near the Mexican border, rockcrawling versus mud-crawling is the real sport. |
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