Offroad and Backroad Books for Northern California

This is the first post in a series which will discuss offroad and backroad books that cover the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. Since it’s the first, I’ll go over the ground rules before getting to the first book, Backcountry Adventures: Southern California, in my next installment. (Yes, I know it says Southern California… I’ll get to that.)

One of the challenges for offroaders in the Bay Area is the lack off offroading opportunities. If you ride dirt bikes or ATVs, you have some additional options, but if you’re in a 4×4, things are scarce around here. Within 90 minutes of where I live here in San Jose, we have a few short dirt roads, two offroad parks, and another park that has only a new, tiny 4×4 “playground” in one corner. Really, that’s it, so far as I know. Not surprisingly – even with this limited selection – few are listed in any offroad guidebook.

I need to drive close to those 90 minutes, or more, before the trail books start becoming useful, but once you start to get outside of the Bay Area you’re going to want them. In this series I hope to cover all of the “Norcal” trail books I own and know of.

I also plan to include books on the local backroads, historical, offbeat and other interesting drives, even if they’re on the pavement… It beats hanging out at a shopping mall any day! And of course, I don’t have to drive anywhere near as far to get to many interesting backroads and locations.
One obvious question is why you need several books, or more? The answer is that no book will cover every trail and opportunity. Sure, there will be overlap, but sometimes the trail is only listed in one book, and you just know it’s going to be the one you don’t have. Also, the books often disagree with how long a trail or road is, or how difficult it is. You’ll often pick up more details (say, an interesting spot along the way, or permit or seasonal issues) by checking all of the books rather than just a single source.

Here is the list of books I plan to cover. I’ll link to the reviews as they become available, and those are shown in italics. Otherwise they link to the book on Amazon.

• Backcountry Adventures: Southern California, and Backcountry Adventures: Northern California
• California Coastal Byways, Sierra Nevada Byways, and California Desert Byways
• Guide to Northern California Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails, and Guide to Southern California Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails
• Backroads of Northern California
• Ghost Towns of Northern California
• Offbeat Overnights: California
• Northern California Off the Beaten Path
• Ghost Towns of the Santa Cruz Mountains
• 4 Wheeler’s Guide: Trails of the Tahoe National Forest
• California Ghost Town Trails
• Day Trips: Roaming the Backroads of Northern California
• Northern California History Weekends
• Discover Historic California
• Weird California
• High Sierra SUV Trails Vol. I and II (added 12/31/07)
• And more…

Wish me luck.