Web Resources

One of the best (and worst) things about the World Wide Web is the amount of data that is at your fingertips. Getting into a new hobby has never been easier, but at the same time can be a bit overwhelming. For the overlanding/off-road world, these are some of the resources that really helped me meet people as well as increase my knowledge base.

Expedition Portal

Expedition Portal is a great general resource for the overlanding crowd. Not only do they have great articles, but their forums have a bunch of information from overlanders around the world. Founded by Overland International in 2005, they also pull some articles from Overland Journal and have the Overland Journal Podcast that has some great interviews that are educational. Website

TrailsOffroad

Founded by Todd Taylor in 2013, TrailsOffroad has turned into a great resource on off-road trails throughout the US. Each trail has detailed information on the difficulty, how to get there, trail turn by turn direction, camping, and much more. Not only that, by members also post reviews of trails that sometimes gives you the most recent trail conditions as well as how accurate is the difficulty rating.

Trail Open/Closure is overall pretty accurate, but sometimes it doesn’t catch all closures. There are also some trails where qualified members have run (labeled Scout Routes) that eventually get upgraded to full trail guides once officially confirmed. If you have Gaia for navigation, you could also import the trail straight into your Gaia account, which is my favorite feature, though you need to be an All-Access member for this feature).

All-Access membership costs is $25 a year. You still get access to some trails for free, but overall I think this membership is worth it for finding new trails. Website

OverlandBound

If you have been researching overloading, you have probably ended up here at one point or another. Overlandbound is a large forum that has some really good information, especially when you are starting off in the world. Created by Michael in 2010, The group has exploded in popularity with member badges and many meetups being organized through here. With a premium membership ($39.99 a year), they even have their own mapping program (I haven’t tested it out myself so can’t comment on how good it is). Although not as active, the Youtube channel also has some pretty good content as well. Website

Overland Trail Guides

OverlandTrailGuides is similar to TrailsOffroad where they give guidance on routes, but in my opinion they focus more on the more expedition style routes that are multiple days/weeks. Founded in 2019, the team at OverlandTrailGuides has done a ton of research and their guides are extremely detailed. For most of the guides, you have to be a paid member, but they do have some free guides in there. I usually use this site as an inspiration on what route I potentially want to do in the future. Website