Title & Reg for a desert day trip?

Yes you will need a s/a. Also, they will run your reg if you get stopped. If it’s not up to date and taken care of, expect to be busted. They could still bust you for not having your sticker even if it is taken care of in the system.

Just remember Ocotillo was one of those places that was ticketing people for not having CA approved gas cans.

Oh yes, I remember them checking gas can and your good points changed my mind. Guess I should have registered in advance but I forgot it’s a lot stricter out there than 30 years ago. Thanks for the info brother!

Honestly as long as you don't do anything stupid, like really stupid, the rangers will not bother you. And I have never seen a ranger check for a spark arrestor there. ( Other places yes but not there, maybe they know there's nothing to burn) would say go to poleline, head out 1/2 mile or so, park off to the right somewhere and the rangers will be a non issue. Will it be crowded ? Yep ! And there will be plenty of idiots to keep the rangers busy, there not going to come hassle you "Unless"

Watch out for razors, there everywhere and 90% of them are clueless as fuck. And don't think because your in a narrow slot canyon you'll be safe from them. Last weekend we came across one that was stuck and plugging up the trail like a 2,000lb butt plug. Have fun be safe !

That place is so over ran with blm it’s not even fun anymore. My sons bike is registered but I don’t have the sticker on it and no spark arrestor. Every time we stopped there was a blm checking someone or somthing. We would just leave before they came but it’s almost not fun. Depending if your south sd you have a lot more freedom in the high dez

Honestly not even worth the risk. You'll probably only get stopped 1 out of every 10 trips... But you don't want this to be the one trip. Just get it registered and spark arrested.

Edit: Actually, a lot higher chance of being stopped this week due to the holiday. Going during holidays generally sucks anyway. Too many idiots.

I got checked for a spark arrestor recently up in the Tahoe Forest. USFS cop rolls up to my campsite. My bike was in my truck with front wheel off.
He says "mind if I check for a spark arrestor?"
I say: "Sure, it has one. But I'm not riding it right now" (Knowing I have no registration or sticker)
He checks the pipe, then says, with some exasperation "Do you have registration?"
Me: "I don't. I only ride it down on the mx tracks. That's why it has a number on it. I'm here to mountain bike."

He looks at me for a second. "Okay, I'm just informing you that you need to registration to ride up here."
In general, he was pretty cool. He could have not bought my story! (I actually wasn't riding it on this trip, but have other times).

I'm with Sumdood. I've been riding non-spark arrested 2-stroke MX bikes in Ocotillo Wells for decades. Never once had a problem with the rangers. I've ridden right past them many times without a single bike in my group displaying a green sticker, and they don't care. Then again, I don't ride like an idiot around campsites or ride drunk AF with no helmet, either.
Don't go to the main camping area near Blowsand hill and you will likely not have any problems at all. X2 on Pole Line Road, or at least out in the eastern portion of the park. Park somewhere away from a main road and any other campsites and you'll be golden.

BTW, technically Ocotillo Wells is "closed" due to Covid right now. You cannot camp overnight in any state park, including OHV areas. Some friends recently went out and did just that, however. They stopped a ranger and asked when they were required to leave at night and the rangers said, "We're not enforcing that rule in this park." (Paraphrasing) Just an indication of how cool/reasonable the rangers are out there.

Just got back from 2 days/1 night Ocotillo trip. Weather was perfect- no wind. Lots of campers out there, but trails were uncrowded. We camped 3 miles out Cahullia trail. Never saw a Park Ranger except on the highway. Enjoy!

Xeno, where are those cairns? I'd like to take my kids out there next time. (Or did you just stack those rocks yourself at your camp?)

We camped for 2 nights last weekend. Didn’t see one ranger. Our Saturday ride turned into a rescue mission when my buddies Husky turned into a low rider and then wouldn’t start. Luckily my son was camped out there in his truck so we didn’t have to tow it ten miles 😂

Have you guys been to the fire hydrant ?

This is the trail where we came across the SxS stuck I mentioned in my other post. (This is from 2012 so the trails gotten a little wider since then). He got wedged and his 2 right tires went into the ditch at the 46 second mark in this video. He said he was waiting for friend to return with a wench. The SxS'x are going to be the death of that place.

sumdood wrote:

We camped for 2 nights last weekend. Didn’t see one ranger. Our Saturday ride turned into a rescue mission when my buddies Husky turned into a low rider and then wouldn’t start. Luckily my son was camped out there in his truck so we didn’t have to tow it ten miles 😂

Gonna need a lil backstory on this. How the hell did he pull that off!?

Falcon wrote:

Xeno, where are those cairns? I'd like to take my kids out there next time. (Or did you just stack those rocks yourself at your camp?)

We call that place “Gnome Garden”. It’s on the west side of the OHV area, near San Felipe wash. I know that’s not very descriptive but I just ride there from memory lol

sumdood wrote:

Have you guys been to the fire hydrant ?

That looks like “Gas Dome” area, no?
I haven’t seen a fire hydrant out in the desert lol

sumdood wrote:

Have you guys been to the fire hydrant ?

Xeno wrote:

That looks like “Gas Dome” area, no?
I haven’t seen a fire hydrant out in the desert lol

I've been to it twice with one of the guys who put it there , (paging Scott SoCal 18) but have never found it again on my own. It's not the hills right behind the gas domes, it's more west, not much help I know. Have you heard of Geocaching ? You get gps coordinates and try to navigate to whatever cache ? your looking for. I'm pretty sure it's called the Hydrocache at ocotillo Wells.
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCM686_hydro-cache

There supposed to be hard to find, and it is , you're not just going to stumble across it . There's no "Easy way" to the top of the hill it's on, it's ridges or forget it, good stuff.


The story with the Husky was for whatever reason the shock bolt backed out, when it collapsed it broke the subframe and yanked the wires out of the cdi harness. And it got stuck like that, I guess the broken part was holding the swingarm up, or something, lol. It happened on the flats right near the Artesian well which was cool because we were on some ridges 5 minutes before it happened. From what I understand those composite subframes aren't much of a deal But no one got hurt so all good !

Here's a better picture

sumdood wrote:

Here's a better picture

That’s awesome. I’m going to check it out next time. Thanks for sharing that!

sumdood wrote:

This is the trail where we came across the SxS stuck I mentioned in my other post. (This is from 2012 so the trails gotten a little wider since then). He got wedged and his 2 right tires went into the ditch at the 46 second mark in this video. He said he was waiting for friend to return with a wench. The SxS'x are going to be the death of that place.

Was that out by Pumpkin Patch? That used to be such a fun technical trail till it got blown out by quads and sxs. I've never been asked or checked for spark arrestors, but have for registration fwiw.

Falcon wrote:

Xeno, where are those cairns? I'd like to take my kids out there next time. (Or did you just stack those rocks yourself at your camp?)

Xeno wrote:

We call that place “Gnome Garden”. It’s on the west side of the OHV area, near San Felipe wash. I know that’s not very descriptive but I just ride there from memory lol

Need a license plate to ride there? (I'm guessing the official answer is "yes.")

Northwest of Blow Sand?

Falcon wrote:

Need a license plate to ride there? (I'm guessing the official answer is "yes.")

Northwest of Blow Sand?

No, you don't need a license plate. It's in the OHV area, not the state park.
This should be the Gnome Garden: 33.202880, -116.081818

sumdood wrote:

This is the trail where we came across the SxS stuck I mentioned in my other post. (This is from 2012 so the trails gotten a little wider since then). He got wedged and his 2 right tires went into the ditch at the 46 second mark in this video. He said he was waiting for friend to return with a wench. The SxS'x are going to be the death of that place.

Mr. Ted wrote:

Was that out by Pumpkin Patch? That used to be such a fun technical trail till it got blown out by quads and sxs. I've never been asked or checked for spark arrestors, but have for registration fwiw.

That one is what's now called "Pooch canyon" it has a little sign. If you're at the Artesian well, go east towards the Salton sea and it's back in those hills. Here's a more recent go pro of it and the general area. This was a day ride the very first day of the Covid shutdown, We had no idea what we were in for except we were "supposed to stay home", we said yeah fuck that, they can't do that. Little did we know our world was going to change that day.
They shut it down shortly after this.