Cougar Buttes is a great play...
Cougar Buttes is a great play area for rock crawl junkies and features a slew of established BLM-recognized trails. The area also host rock crawl competitions and is popular with trials motorcycle riders.
The Hi Desert Round-up is an annual fund raising event for the California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs, Inc. (CA4WDC — aka Cal 4 Wheel). It’s been one of our favorite events to attend for a lot of years and this year Cal 4 Wheel provided a new twist by re-locating the event to the Johnson Valley OHV area.
All of the Cal 4 Wheel events are run completely by volunteers, with all proceeds going back to the Association. The events include the Winter Fun Festival in January, the CA4WDC Convention in February, the Molina Ghost Town Run and the Hi Desert Round-Up in May, Sierra Trek in August, High Sierra Poker Run in September, Operation Desert Fun in October, and Panamint Valley Days in November. These are all great family events open to all levels of driver and vehicle ability.
Always a welcome sign. The...
Always a welcome sign. The editorial staff of 4Wheel Drive Magazine have been recreating in Johnson Valley OHV since the ’60s (Phil) and ’70s (Christian and Kevin).
As we mentioned, in previous years the Hi Desert Round-Up has been held up the road at the Stoddard Valley OHV area near Barstow, California. This year, however, it moved to Anderson Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley OHV area to show support for this popular ’wheeling destination, which is facing partial closure due to a planned expansion of the nearby U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. Over 180,000 acres of BLM land in Johnson Valley will be stolen to increase the Marines live-fire training (the center currently encompasses 598,000 acres). Some environmentalist groups applaud this land grab saying it will “restore” the natural desert environment. We are not sure how repeated bombings will have less impact than a set of tires across an established BLM OHV trail, but apparently there are some who think this is the case.
Anderson Dry Lake played host...
Anderson Dry Lake played host to the annual event and was a sea of RVs and tent campers.
Cal 4 Wheel, along with other pro-access groups, is fighting to keep Johnson Valley OHV complete. You can help this battle by contacting your local lawmakers and stating your support for Johnson Valley OHV. More information on this important topic can be found on the Cal 4 Wheel web site at
www.cal4wheel.com. For those interested in adding their voice to keeping public lands open to motorized use the Blue Ribbon Coalition (sharetrails.org) is a great information source, offering updates on land access issues nationwide and tips on how to contact your local politicians.
The 2012 Cal 4 Wheel Hi Desert Round-Up will take place Memorial Day weekend, May 25-28, 2012. The event will again be held at Anderson Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley OHV area. For more information, check out www.cal4wheel.com.
Each year, Cal 4 Wheel builds a sweepstakes vehicle to raffle off at its annual convention. This year’s rig is a 2011 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Dubbed Mango Tango, the Wrangler is outfitted with a Currie Enterprises 4-inch lift, Reid Racing knuckles, BFGoodrich KM2 tires, Raceline Renegade Wheels, Olympic 4X4 front and rear bumpers and roof rack system, a Warn winch, and many other great products.
4West in Colton, California, completed the installations. The second prize is an Atlas II transfer case from Advance Adapters, third prize is a Warn winch, and the fourth prize is an ARB Fridge Freeze. Tickets are available for purchase at
www.cal4wheel.com.
The Desert Tortoise is a federally...
The Desert Tortoise is a federally protected species with which we share Johnson Valley OHV. It is advised that you do not touch them, however, in Christian Lee’s 40 years of camping and recreating in Johnson Valley OHV he has still not spotted one. We can’t prove this theory but we believe that the Desert Tortoise moved to Johnson Valley after getting bombed out of the Marine training center next door. We heard through the tortoise grapevine that their next move is to Washington DC to ask their lawmakers what the heck they are thinking. Again, just theory that we can’t prove. But if a tortoise can do it…just imagine the possibilities if we ALL got involved.
We visit Johnson Valley OHV...
We visit Johnson Valley OHV frequently, but we hadn’t explored the Anderson Dry Lake section in some time. Our ’99 Grand Cherokee is nearly stock but it easily handled the rutted trails over the rolling hills surrounding the dry lake bed.
Rock-crawling opportunities...
Rock-crawling opportunities are abound in Johnson Valley OHV. From Cougar Buttes to the Hammer Trails there is plenty of action for all levels of vehicle and driver ability.
The Johnson Valley OHV is...
The Johnson Valley OHV is replete with opportunities to explore and get away from the grind of city traffic and congestion. Losing any portion of this wonderful ’wheeling Mecca will be absolutely devastating to the surrounding and OHV communities.
There are two established...
There are two established off-road racecourses that run through Johnson Valley OHV. Both are used widely for sanctioned racing events, including the popular King of the Hammers competition.
The Anderson Dry Lake section...
The Anderson Dry Lake section of Johnson Valley proved to be as amazing and fun to explore as we remembered from our previous trips. From Anderson Dry Lake you can easily travel to such great OHV destinations as historic Pioneer Town, Big Bear, Barstow and Stoddard Valley OHV, the Slash X café, historic Calico Ghost Town, the famed Hammer Trails, Soggy Dry Lake, Means Dry Lake, and many more great OHV destinations — all accessible by a network of OHV accessible trails. If the Marine base expansion goes forward most of this will be lost.