Leave No Trace Off-Road: How Treading Lightly Improves Your 4x4 Adventures
Why is Leaving No Trace So Important?
Exploring backcountry trails in your 4x4 is one of the best ways to explore and experience the great outdoors. However, while exploring these areas, leaving no trace is crucial to keeping trails open. Politicans and anti-access groups constantly scrutinize our hobby of four-wheeling and are always looking for excuses to close areas down—we shouldn't give them any ammo to restrict access to our public lands. Leaving no trace isn't just important for off-roaders; it's also essential for backpackers, bikers, campers, hikers, hunters, and anyone who enjoys recreating on our beautiful land.
"Take only photos, leave only footprints."
Or in our case, only tire tracks. Leaving no trace isnt just something we just do to keep trails open, it also benefits us off-roaders to have a convienent, safe and clean off-road adventure with friends and family! With this guide my goal is to give tips and gear recommendations that enhance your outdoor adventures, while helping to safeguard our trails for future generations of 4-wheelers.
Gear Guide
Leaving no trace comes down to minimizing your impact—take everything you bring back with you and leave the landscape as you found it. Here’s a curated list of gear to help you tread lightly on the trails while enhancing convenience, comfort, and capability on your adventures.
Equipping your rig with an off-road garbage storage bag, such as the Trasharoo, provides a reliable way to carry trash bags. Mounted to a spare tire or truck tailgate, these bags keep smelly garbage out of your vehicle’s interior and free up space in your truck bed. One of the main reasons litter happens is because there just simply isn't anywhere to throw away your garbage, an Off-road Garbage storage bag solves this problem, and looks good while doing it!
You might be thinking, "I've been digging a cat hole for 20 years—I don’t need no toilet." And I get it—it’s a tried-and-true method for answering nature’s call in the woods. However, there are times when you're camping in rocky terrain or areas full of tree roots, making it nearly impossible to dig a hole. The Dometic Portable Toilet offers the comfort and convenience of a home bathroom, making it a great option for those with kids, a spouse, or anyone just tired of digging holes. I made the switch to a Dometic Portable Toliet and I'm never going back, I just chuck this in the back of my truck before heading off-road and call it a day and as bonus my wife is very happy I bought one! This Portable Toliet helps you reduce your impact and honestly, makes going to the bathroom outdoors not suck. I recommend pairing it with a privacy tent!
Directly attaching your winch line to a tree to use as an anchor point damages both the tree and your winch line. A tree saver recovery strap allows you to safely use a tree as a recovery point without damaging your winch line! This is an invaluable piece of kit to bring along to give you additional recovery capability with your winch while also helping to leave no trace out on the trail!
Deflating your tires off-road has a huge range of benefits for both you and the trail. Airing down enhances comfort on the trail by providing a softer cushion between your vehicle and the rocks. Additionally, airing down widens and lengthens your tires, giving you are greater contact patch the trail which enhances capability. By airing your tires down you are also minimizing the impact your vehicle has on the trail! Aired down tires dig into the trail less, preventing errosion and rutting of the trail. Be sure to pick up an air compressor to air back up before hitting the pavement!
When exploring off-road, skid plates are vital for protecting your underbody components such as the engine oil pan, transmission pan, transfer case and more! Equipping your rig with a set of skid plates not only protects your vehicle from costly damage, it also helps protect the trails from contamination. Damaging your underbody components off-road can lead to oil and fluid leaks, this can potentionally contaminate the trails soil and water. There have been documented cases where oil/fluid contamination has closed off-road trails, so equipping skid plates to protect your vehicle and the trail is essential for continued trail access! Heavy-duty differential covers also help protect your axles and prevent oil leaks on the trail!
When off-roading, camping or overlanding a fire extinguisher is a great tool to have with you. Risks such as a campfire that gets out of hand or a vehicle fire can both be extremely dangerous situations that can be stopped by a fire extinguisher. By carrying a fire extinguisher you are protecting not only yourself but also your loved ones and the wilderness surrounding the trails from a fire that gets out of hand!
Tips for Leaving No Trace on the Trail
With a few key tips and techniques outlined below, you can better prepare for your off-road adventures while also helping to preserve trails for future generations. Responsible driving and proper trail etiquette helps to ensure that trails remain accessible and enjoyable for years to come.
Plan Your Route
Knowing where you're going is crucial when off-roading—you don’t want to accidentally trespass on private land or drive in areas restricted to 4x4 use. I use the onX Off-Road app to plan my routes and navigate while exploring. The app provides accurate trail mapping and land ownership details, including private property, national forests, and Bureau of Land Management areas, helping me stay on legal 4x4 routes and avoid restricted areas. It also does an excellent job at helping me discover new trails and plan out my campsites!
Stay On the Trail
Staying on designated trails is one of the simplest ways to minimize impact and help keep them open. Driving off-trail damages the environment and catches the attention of the forest service, which can lead to restricted or revoked access. If you need to drive off trail to bypass an obstacle, your vehicle may not be capable to handle the rest of the trail's difficulty. Instead of creating bypasses, consider turning back, upgrading your rig, and returning when you're better prepared to tackle the challenge. Theres no shame in admitting defeat to a tough obstacle and turning around!
Pack It In Pack It Out
This means that whatever you bring with you off-road, you bring back with you. Whether it be food packaging, soda cans, food scraps, car parts and more. Theres no worse feeling than pulling up to your favorite campsite only to see it completely trashed. While not necessary, I like to pick up garbage I find along the trail whenever possible to leave the trail better than I found it.
Wash your Vehicle
While it may be tempting to leave on a fresh layer of mud and dust on your 4x4, washing your vehicle after you off-road is actually an important step to leave no trace. Hitting the trail with a dirty, mud-covered 4x4 from previous adventures can unintentionally spread invasive plant species, harming the environment you're exploring. Keeping your 4x4 clean also helps protect the paint and keeps vital components such as the suspension & drivetrain functioning properly!
Want to Do More To Keep Trails open?
Keeping off-road trails open can feel like a constant battle, but several organizations work to protect access and push back against efforts to shut them down. These groups give off-roaders a stronger voice in the fight against trail closures. Below are a few organizations I personally feel do a great job representing and protecting our hobby.
The BlueRibbon Coalition was founded to give off-roaders a strong voice against trail closures. As a respected national recreation group, BRC advocates for responsible use of both public and private lands while promoting individual environmental stewardship. Through administrative, legislative, and legal efforts, BRC continues to fight for access to public lands. They also make it easy to get involved by enabling you to send comments directly to the Bureau of Land Management on specific land use issues, ensuring your voice is heard by those managing our lands.
Tread Lightly! is a non-profit organization that leads a national initiative to promote the responsible use of motorized vehicles when recreating outdoors. Providing education, communication outreach, trail projects and more, Tread Lightly! is a great organization that helps keep our trails open for future generations!
It may be surprising, but the Rubicon Trail, the namesake of Jeep's Rubicon models, once faced closure. In 2000, The Rubicon Trail was rarley cleaned and was threatened with possible closure on the Tahoe side. A group of 200 volunteers mobilized to keep the trail open, today it has grown into a federally recognized, non-profit organization dedicated to the future health of the Rubicon Trail. The Rubicon Trail is one of the original "Jeep Trails" first being regularly used by Jeeps soon after World War II, it would be hard to imagine Jeep as a brand without this iconic trail.
United Four Wheel Drive Associations
Formed in 1976, United Four Wheel Drive Associations it the only international organization that represents 4x4 ethusiasts. United4wd provides a united, strong voice against anti-access groups who seek to lock us out of our public land. They also provide a huge list of public land advocacy groups on their website, these groups advocate for your access to public lands but often lack resources to keep up the fight.
The Red Rock 4-Wheelers is dedicated to protecting the Jeep Safari Trails and allocates funds to proactive efforts to keep trails open. Their Multiple Use Defense Fund plays a crucial role in preserving access, especially in Moab, where they are based. Unfortunately, Moab has often been targeted for widespread trail closures, with many already taking effect.
Looking Ahead
Keeping our trails open is incredibly important. After all, what good are our 4x4s if we have nowhere to drive them? Luckily, doing your part to tread lightly and leave no trace is simple and can even enhance your trip's convenience, comfort, and safety. Our hobby of off-roading, camping, and overlanding is worth advocating for and protecting. To ensure our trails remain open for future generations of off-roaders, we must be good stewards of the land and show the powers that be that off-roading is a legitimate and sustainable use of our public land.
