New Mexico and Arizona Backcountry Discovery Routes

velo47

Adventurist
May of this year, I had planned on doing the AZ BDR on my way to and from Overland Expo in Flagstaff. When the Expo didn't happen, I was lucky enough to connect with some other like-minded folk and did the Arizona BDR anyway, with a Jeep and 2 dual-sport moto riders. Later, in June, I did New Mexico BDR with another Sprinter van. We had a great time. Instead of copying the writeups, I'll link to the writeups here:

AZ BDR
https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/az-bdr.31996/

NM BDR
https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/forums/f17/new-mexico-backcountry-discovery-route-26423.html

Even though these routes were developed for dual-sport motos, they were totally doable for 4x4s, and were a really fun way to see new places. Next year, we're thinking about the Colorado or Utah BDR, maybe Nevada or Idaho. Or maybe I'll tackle the Continental Divide Trail....
 
Most of the UTBDR could be done in a Sprinter with the exception of Lockhart Basin and just east of Moab on the Kokopelli Trail. Your ZR2 on the other hand would be fun!
 
Most of the UTBDR could be done in a Sprinter with the exception of Lockhart Basin and just east of Moab on the Kokopelli Trail. Your ZR2 on the other hand would be fun!

That section of the Kokopelli Trail from Dewy Bridge down around Rose Garden Hill to Onion Creek is LEGIT some of the hardest wheeling I've ever done. Especially solo.
 
The folks that do the BDR maps and trails do SUCH great work. Always wanted to run some of these in a 4 wheel vehicle. Great writeups.
 
Thanks! When I go I was planning on skipping Lockhart, but wasn't sure about Kokopelli Trail. Now I know...

Yeah, I'd say everything north of Moab and most of everything south of Moab is fine. The touchy spots will be the La Sal pass and stuff like that. And yeah, skip Lockhart Basin and the Kokopelli part around Moab.
 

Two other great resources I'll point you to are TrailDamage.com and the Latitute40 maps. Both cover Colorado and Utah. Trail Damage is like a wiki of trails for both states and has difficulties, GPX files, photos, videos, and trail reports. The Lat40 maps also have trail information on them but give you a lot more detail of Moab (they have two maps for east/west Moab) beyond the skinny swaths that the Butler BDR maps give you.

We just started selling Lat 40 maps at BROG and all I did yesterday was stare at the CO ones for a few hours. Already had Moab E/W in my collection, but the CO maps are just as beautiful.
 
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