Longest Dirt Road in USA?

[dmc]

scott are you positive about that? i want to say the lincoln highway from near nephi utah all the way into nevada is longer than that. i KNOW for a fact the road from Ogden, UT out through Lucin and into Nevada toward Wells is longer than 150 miles, with no pavement crossed or linked to other roads. Unfortunately most of it is private right of way for the Union Pacific Railroad. Not that it has prevented me driving it a half dozen times.
dmc

 

[Albin]

Jarbidge-Owyhee country in NE Nevada along with the bordering SE Oregon area may be up there with some serious lengths of dirt road to explore. The shuttle drive to raft the Jarbidge river was at least 90 miles of dirt, thru a bombing range..

Same with the Utah/Neveda border area out of Ely...

+1. During one one of my annual summer desert trips to Nevada in the late '80's, I went almost 550 miles offroad, although I probably crossed a few paved areas. I had the now defunct Auxillary Fuels Systems 15 gallon aux fuel tank in my '85 Nissan pickup and filled both tanks when I refueled in Winnamuca, NV.

This is one reason my current '85 4runner has the 17 gallon OEM tank, a 26 gallon aux fuel tank (NOS Blazer diesel tank) and I carry at least one 5 gallon jerry can in addition.

This is about as remote as it gets in the lower 48:

04 - NW Nevada + Black Rock Desert area July 23-27

[Can someone post this pic; why can't I post anymore pics????]

Al

 

[151fab]

Great pics Albin. Great thread!!

 

[rusty_tlc]

I would love to go for a nice long drive through Nevada on dirt roads. There is something strangely beautiful about the desert.

We did that two weeks ago.
North of Area 51

dinner time

 

[rusty_tlc]

+1. During one one of my annual summer desert trips to Nevada in the late '80's, I went almost 550 miles offroad, although I probably crossed a few paved areas. I had the now defunct Auxillary Fuels Systems 15 gallon aux fuel tank in my '85 Nissan pickup and filled both tanks when I refueled in Winnamuca, NV.

This is one reason my current '85 4runner has the 17 gallon OEM tank, a 26 gallon aux fuel tank (NOS Blazer diesel tank) and I carry at least one 5 gallon jerry can in addition.

This is about as remote as it gets in the lower 48:

04 - NW Nevada + Black Rock Desert area July 23-27

[Can someone post this pic; why can't I post anymore pics????]

Al

Here ya go

 

[rusty_tlc]

A couple of my favorite dirt pictures. The first is north of Hawthorn heading to Rabbit Springs Road, classic which way do we go pic

This is on the Gabbs Line road north of Tonapah

 

[Albin]

Rusty,

My son and I are planning our 4 week desert trip right now. One week each at Death Valley/Saline Valley, Black Rock Desert and the Great Salt Lake Desert, with perhaps a one day stopover at Tonopah to revisit TTR, Faultless and perhaps Area 51.

I believe that in 2000, my son was the youngest person on the planet to see Area 51 with his own eyes, he was 6 then.

Since you live in Reno, you've been to ground zero for Shoal, correct?

Al

 

[Matt K]

Cool thread-- the Dalton rd sounds great- but the 5k miles to just get there from NC might get old. I guess I could put the rig on a ferry in Seattle and steam up to Anchorage and drive the rest which would cut 1,500 mi off the trip at least hmmmm........ something to plan for.

 

[Zoob]

Dirt Road Contest?

A local M/C forum out here in OR had a contest. Shortest distance from I-5 to the Coast on the most dirt roads. It was a factored distance. You added the dirt miles and double the paved miles to get a number.

Could do the same thing, like from Denver to the Pacific Coast on the most dirt. It had to be all public roads, no seasonal closures, climbing over gates, etc.

It cost $10 to enter your route, then the winner got $100 back. Good way to collect routes.

 

[george_tlc]

Seeing this thread makes me appreciate when I'm in Australia. In Western Australia we have plenty of tracks that are >1000 miles in length with no asphalt crossing and you are (many) 100's of miles from the nearest town or station. 260 litres of diesel =>1200+ miles touring range and that is marginal on some tracks...

cheers,
george.

 

[Entaran]

Put your truck on a boat and come to Oz You can drive Sydney to Perth without touching tarmac (which is literally right to left hand side of the country)

 

[stu050]

Seeing this thread makes me appreciate when I'm in Australia. In Western Australia we have plenty of tracks that are >1000 miles in length with no asphalt crossing and you are (many) 100's of miles from the nearest town or station. 260 litres of diesel =>1200+ miles touring range and that is marginal on some tracks...

cheers,
george.

Yup, The Canning Stock route comes to mind, then driving the Gunbarrel Hwy and some of Len Beadell's tracks from Giles.
Flying Doctor HF and satphone the only forms of communication that works. Bring it on!!!

.

 

[stu050]

Some Western Australian roadsigns

 

[CDN_Cruzer]

Not in America but still very long is the Trans-Labrador Highway that goes from Goose Bay to Northern Quebec. I think it is over 500 miles of gravel!! longest section without service is about 250kms pretty imrpessive!!

I am planning a trip along it this summer. something I really wanted to do as they are starting to pave it this summer.

few links

Crazy winter snow!
Photos of Snow On the Labrador Highway And we think we have a lot of snow

just some info

Travel Information

 

[Bogo]

I did this road some time ago, unfortunatly it was paved. 384k next gas station! 614k to the end of the road to the biggest underground dam ever built.

James Bay Road website - Virtual Tour

Try the Trans-Tiaga road. It's a no services at all 666km side road off the James Bay Road.

This is an extremely remote road, leading 666 km east - almost to Labrador - with no settlements or towns aside from Hydro Quebec's settlements for workers (not open to the public). At the far end you will be 745 km from the nearest town! This is the farthest you can get from a town on a road in North America! (Not counting the private Hydro Quebec towns that are not open to the public). Along this road is also the farthest north point you can travel on a road in eastern Canada.

That's 745km from Radisson by road. At the far east end you are actually much closer to some towns along the Trans-Labrador Highway. It is just that there is no reasonable route to make a through road. If you look at the topos for the area between it just looks nasty. It would take very careful planning to find a possible 4x4 route if there is one.

 

[eleblanc]

Try the Trans-Tiaga road. It's a no services at all 666km side road off the James Bay Road.
That's 745km from Radisson by road. At the far east end you are actually much closer to some towns along the Trans-Labrador Highway. It is just that there is no reasonable route to make a through road. If you look at the topos for the area between it just looks nasty. It would take very careful planning to find a possible 4x4 route if there is one.

My dream is to drive up to schefferville. The only way right now is 80km of rail road. I've talk to the boss of Tshiuetin rail road, owners of the railroad. And he doesnot want us to drive on the track, it would cause the balace to be thrown to the side, balace are the rock that hold the wood in place on which the rail are installed. He offered me the schedule train transportation. But the problem was the time frame, train goes up and down once a week, and it requires 3 days to load the our equipment, we couldn't afford a 6-7 days down time.

We had the land surveyed by a plane, we knew there used to be gravel road along the railroad that were used during the contruction, portion of the road could still be used today. Using topo i made a track and the plane flew right over it, they were suprised to how much road there used to be and how accurated my tracks were. Even if you can use those road, there is a section from Esker going 10-15km north without any road. So we need to drive on the rail road or find a way through the muskeg.


Maybe we will do a quick round tripp to Esker this summer if time allows, to go and see if the ground is mainly muskeg or rock. My guess is that there is alot of muskeg but nothing deep and lying on solid rock.


Here the pictures, photo 1 is from Ekser then to the menihek dam near schefferville.

L'album à Eric

 

[Bogo]

My dream is to drive up to schefferville. The only way right now is 80km of rail road.

Interesting. I remember some where they were thinking of linking the Trans Taiga road to Schefferville. Some people apparently do the route in the winter.

Looks like allot of tree trimming would need to be done to take that gravel road along the tracks.

 

[Isaacjohnstar]

The Dempster highway in Canada is 417 miles one way. Looks amazing!

Dempster Highway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[lostdb4]

Try Nevada State Route 49 (Jungo Road) From Gerlach to Winnemucca.

I really wanna do the El Camino Del Diablo. I like this thread and it has some good info on trails. Pretty good considering it was started 2 years ago. Anyways keep the ideas coming. I wanna know which unimproved road I will choose to drive next.

Also could you guys give some pointers as to some great mapping sites? Places where I can download and print QUALITY maps of main roads, back country roads and trails is what I need. Your help is appreciated! Had a difficult time actually finding a map for El Camino Del Diablo.

 

[Kofoed]

A couple of my favorite dirt pictures. The first is north of Hawthorn heading to Rabbit Springs Road, classic which way do we go pic

This is on the Gabbs Line road north of Tonapah

I was in Gabbs this year and went to Berlin and Manhattan. I was considering the Gabbs pole line road but a local said he didn't really know of the conditions (I have a 2wd pickup)