How to plan a trip

[kb5xg]

As a real jeep newbie, how do you plan a trip in some of the senic places in Colorado, or New Mexico? How do you pick trails you can navigate if you have never wheeled before? If your rig is stock and you have no driving experience and no local clubs? Waiting for advice and maybe help for a summer vacation trip.
Thanks

[treeofliberty]

There are some great books out there for the trails. Here's an example for Colorado:

www.4x4books.com/co.htm

I highly recommend the Charles Wells series. He has them for a number of states. I have the Colorado and Arizona books. Get the latest edition for Colorado, because it will have GPS coordinates for the trails.

If you have a GPS, then I can also heartily recommend getting a good set of topo maps. You can draw a route on the map and upload it into your GPS. That takes the guesswork out of following a complex trail.

I also like to see the lay of the land, especially if you are talking about camping. For this, I go to Terra Server:

www.terraserver.microsoft.com/

Drill down with the topo maps, and then switch to the images. The topo and image maps are registered, so they show the same piece of ground.

We are very fond of the San Juans, in southwestern Colorado. There are more Jeep trails than you can run in a two week stay, with jaw-dropping views. You'll want to plan your trip for the end of July or later, based on snowfall. We went in July this year and some trails were still closed from snow. If this is the area you are interested in, the Forest Service guys were very helpful:

www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/index.shtml

You could also join the Colorado 4x4 Forum, and get some valuable intel there:

www.colorado4x4.org

There are also some good trails in northern New Mexico, but I've not run any of them yet.

You have the right idea. Planning the trip is the key. And bring lots of clothes. We experienced temps in July between the 30's and 80's, depending upon altitude. Three years prior, we got snowed on at 8000 feet.

And as you plan your trip, here's a web site to keep you drooling:

ouraycam.com/

You're going to have so much fun. Nearly all the trails in the San Juans can be run in a stock Jeep, except PoughKeepsie Gulch.