Rubicon Trail

The Rubicon Trail is the most celebrated 4WD and off-highway vehicle route in North America: a 22-mile rocky granite obstacle course that traverses the El Dorado National Forest and El Dorado County land from Loon Lake (elevation 6,378 feet) near Georgetown to the Lake Tahoe Basin at Tahoma, crossing the granite spine of the Sierra Nevada through terrain that has been proving and destroying four-wheel-drive vehicles since the 1950s. The trail gained its reputation from the 1953 Jeep Jamboree organized by Mark Smith, a tradition that continues today as the oldest organized 4WD run in existence, and the Rubicon is to serious 4x4 enthusiasts what the Appalachian Trail is to backpackers: the defining pilgrimage that calibrates every other experience in the discipline. The granite character of the Sierra Nevada is the trail's defining feature: the glacially polished and fractured granite of the Tahoe-area Sierra produces a trail surface unlike any other in the country: massive boulders, ledge drops, water crossings in glacial lakes and streams, and the smooth-but-tilted granite slabs that separate prepared rock crawlers from unprepared enthusiasts. The trail is rated most difficult in its entirety; full armor, lockers, and significant lift are standard preparation for the main obstacles. The Loon Lake to Buck Island Lake section constitutes the trail's hardest core. Full-size 4x4 trucks, Jeeps, and purpose-built rock crawlers are the dominant machine class; narrower ATVs and UTVs can run portions of the trail but not all obstacles. El Dorado County Parks (530-621-5885) and the El Dorado NF share management of the corridor. Annual Jeep Jamborees book out a year in advance.