by Jesse Wasil, Founder & CEO, Summit 4×4 Company
You feel it in the truck first, the surface going from smooth to alive under the tires, and then you hear it behind you. The kids stop asking how much longer. They lean toward the windows. The road got interesting. Nobody had to take the screens away. The dirt did it for me.
I grew up in a family rig, and raised my own daughters in a few different ones. There is a grandbaby now, with two more on the way. One more generation getting ready to discover that the world gets bigger past the end of the pavement.
Start with Thumb Butte
Thumb Butte Loop is a little bit of a trail, not just a dirt road. There are some short rocky stretches that bump you around, so you want moderate clearance under you, but nothing technical and nothing that should rattle a first-timer with kids aboard.
Payoff: the view of the whole valley and the Bradshaws. The trailhead sits about 3 miles out from the courthouse on Thumb Butte Road.
Chase some water on the way to Goat Peak
When ready for a little more, the run from Cherry toward Mingus on the Goat Peak trail is about 15 miles of real backcountry through the pines. The part your kids will talk about is the water crossings. This one earns its keep with high clearance, four-wheel drive actually engaged.
Use Senator Highway roads as your gateway
If you want to ease into the dirt before committing to a full day, the forest roads climbing up toward Senator Highway and into the gentler Bradshaws are the place. Graded but friendly to a first-timer. They connect the whole backcountry network, so are a good way to teach kids how to read a trail and a map.
Read the sky for afternoon storms rolling in from late June into September.
Camp at Lynx; let the day settle
Make Lynx Lake your basecamp. Run a trail during the day, then roll into Lynx Campground for the night. The sites have picnic tables and fire rings, there are real restrooms, and water runs in the warmer months. It books through Recreation.gov and fills up spring through fall.
The one they grow into
Crown King is the goal to build toward. The lower gravel road is manageable, but past town it narrows, gets rough and demands real high clearance. Giving a kid something to work up to is its own kind of gift.
What they take home
The trail is not really about the trail. It is about who your kids become when you put them somewhere that asks for their attention and then rewards it. They learn to read terrain and weather. They learn the best days are earned, not streamed.