Will my car make it? How to check the road before you go

A few checks before you leave the pavement can save you a tow, a long walk, or a wasted day.

Published October 2026

On a December day in 1976, Kitty O’Neil drove a rocket car across the Alvord Desert in Oregon. She averaged 512 miles an hour. It set the land speed record for women.

The Alvord is a dry lake bed, flat and hard and six miles wide. On a dry day you can drive almost anywhere on it.

Then a little rain falls. The ground is fine clay, and damp clay is slick. A patch that looks like a harmless puddle turns into thick, sticky mud. It can trap a truck with almost no warning. Out there, a tow costs a great deal.

Same ground. Same truck. The weather is the only thing that changed.

Most free campsites sit at the end of a dirt road. Here is how to check that road before you drive it.

1. Find out what the road is kept for

Start with the label. The road to a free campsite usually gets one of three. Any car. High clearance. Four-wheel drive.

Any car means an ordinary car, driven with care. On Forest Service land, the roads at their third level and up are kept fit for that. Expect gravel, one lane, and pull-outs for passing. Expect to go slowly.

High clearance means the road has rocks, ruts and a hump down the middle that a low car will scrape or catch on. The Forest Service keeps its second-level roads for vehicles that sit high. Ordinary cars aren’t part of the plan.

Four-wheel drive means there are stretches where two driving wheels would just spin. Sand, mud, or a loose climb.

Each campsite page here shows a warning where a road nearby is rough. Rough is common. At 197 of the 238 campsites that have road records, at least one road nearby isn’t kept up for an ordinary car.

2. Match the road to your vehicle

Now look at what you’re driving. Crouch down beside it and look underneath. A family sedan has very little room under it. A pickup or most SUVs sit a good deal higher. That gap is what “clearance” means.

High clearance and four-wheel drive are easy to mix up. High clearance gets you over things. Four-wheel drive gets you through things.

The Black Hills Back Country Byway in Arizona is 21 miles of rough dirt and gravel. A two-wheel drive with high clearance will still get down it. The side roads off it are steep, rocky and unmaintained, and those need four-wheel drive.

Sand asks for both. Near Kanab, Utah, the track past the Peek-A-Boo parking lot is deep sand. It takes a vehicle that sits high and drives all four wheels. Even those get stuck.

Check your length too. On the Black Hills byway, nothing over 20 feet should try it. That includes travel trailers and motorhomes. There’s parking at each end for the big rigs.

3. Look at the weather for the last few days

Every road label describes a dry road. Rain changes the answer, and rain yesterday counts.

Birch Hollow is a canyon near the east entrance to Zion. The unpaved part of the road up to it is clay. When it’s wet, even a four-wheel drive can’t get through.

Up in the mountains of Idaho, the road to Little Bayhorse Lake is narrow and winding, and it turns dangerous in the wet. At Hurricane Cliffs in Utah, the local roads become impassable in wet weather.

If it has rained, pick a campsite with a paved road in, or wait a day.

4. Ask how the road is right now

A label tells you what a road is kept for. It can’t tell you about the washout last week or the grader that came through yesterday.

The ranger station or field office for the area knows. Send them an email, or ask at the front desk on your way through town.

5. Know what the last mile is like

On a lot of these roads, the worst stretch comes at the end. By then you’ve driven too far to want to give up.

Little Bayhorse Lake is like that. The road up is about eight miles, with few places to pull over. The last mile is rocky, and there is nowhere to turn around. Bring a pickup or a jeep, and leave the trailer at home.

If a campsite page mentions the last stretch, read that line twice.

6. Pack for the road

• Fill the tank at the last real town.
• Check your spare tire. In the remote corners of Arizona, carry two.
• Download offline maps before you lose signal. Most of these roads have none.
• Tell somebody where you’re going and when you’ll be back.

On the road: when to turn around

Turn around while there’s still room to do it. On a narrow road, the spot where you decide to quit may have no space to turn. Backing a long way down a mountain road is miserable.

If a bad patch is coming up, stop and walk it first. Five minutes on foot will show you more than the view through the windshield.

If the ground goes soft and your tires start to dig in, stop. Spinning the wheels only digs you deeper. Back out gently the way you came.

The rule they give at Hurricane Cliffs is a good one to carry everywhere. If your tires are leaving a visible rut, turn back.

If you get stuck, help is a long walk away, and a tow from somewhere remote is expensive. Turning back costs you an afternoon.

Where the road facts come from

The road warning on each campsite page comes from the people who run the land. For Forest Service roads, it’s the level the road is kept at. For Bureau of Land Management roads, it’s the kind of vehicle the route is recorded for.

A page only warns you when a road nearby is rough. It never promises a road is fine for your car. A good road at the edge of an area doesn’t mean it reaches the spot you want.

Important: road conditions change with weather, season and repairs. The people who manage the land are the only ones who can tell you how a road is today.