The desert looks durable. It’s not. Desert soils are some of the most fragile ecosystems on earth — biological soil crust, cryptobiotic crust, forms over decades and can be destroyed by a single tire track or footstep. Recovery time for damaged desert soil is measured in years to decades. The openness of the terrain makes it feel like impact is invisible. It isn’t — it just spreads out over a larger area than you notice.
Stay on Designated Roads and Trails
Stick to routes that are already open and mapped. Check the current BLM travel management plan or your OnX/Gaia layers before heading out — route status changes, and a road that was open last season may be closed now, especially after last year’s West Mojave route closures. Never create a new track around an obstacle, a washout, or another vehicle stopped ahead of you; going around is how a single-track road becomes a 40-foot-wide scar, and it’s the single most common reason routes get flagged for closure. If the designated route runs through a wash, stay in the wash bottom instead of climbing the banks. On rocky sections, drive over the line other vehicles have already used rather than widening it onto untouched ground next to it.
Tread Lightly’s Travel Responsibly principle boils down to one rule: leave the trail exactly as wide as you found it. For the etiquette side of sharing that same route with other users, see our guide to overlanding etiquette.
Dispersed Camping: The Rules That Matter
Most BLM land in the Mojave corridor allows dispersed camping — meaning you can camp anywhere that isn’t explicitly posted closed, as long as you follow a few rules. Camp at least 200 feet from water sources (springs, streams, tanks) and at least 200 feet from the road. Use existing fire rings when they exist rather than building new ones. If you build a fire ring, dismantle it and scatter the rocks before you leave. Pack out everything you pack in — BLM dispersed campsites have no trash service, no dump station, nothing. What you carry in comes back out with you.
Pro Tip
Fire in the Desert
Fire restrictions in the Mojave corridor are dynamic and season-dependent. Stage 1 restrictions prohibit campfires in non-developed areas. Stage 2 restrictions prohibit all open flames. Check the current restriction level at InciWeb or with the relevant BLM field office before every trip — restrictions can change week to week during dry conditions, and the fine for a violation is not trivial. The fire danger in desert terrain is real; invasive cheatgrass has established across much of the Mojave corridor and creates continuous fuels that carry fire in ways the native vegetation didn’t.
When fires are permitted: use existing rings, keep fires small, never leave a fire unattended, drown it completely with water (not just dirt) before sleeping or leaving camp. A fire that feels out to the touch can still have enough heat underground to reignite hours later in dry conditions.
The Access Argument
Public land access for OHV use in the American West is not guaranteed. It’s managed and it can be revoked. Wilderness designations, Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designations, and outright closures have removed millions of acres from OHV access over the past 30 years — often in response to documented resource damage by vehicle users. The argument that “I’m just one person” doesn’t account for the cumulative effect of every person making the same calculation.
Note
The access we have now exists because enough people before us treated the land well enough that it stayed open. That’s the actual standard.
