Pahrump off road trails. The dirt starts where the pavement quits.

Nevada Trail Finder maps the Pahrump OHV Routes as a network of about 1,000 miles of dirt in Nye and Clark counties, from Pahrump to Sandy Valley. There are no fees. Riders get on from trailheads on the north and west sides of the network.

The Bureau of Land Management has not finished travel planning here. The roads on the map are informational, and the rule is to stay on existing roads and trails. Some routes run close to the Mount Charleston and Rainbow Mountain wildernesses. Inside a wilderness boundary, only hikers and horses are allowed.

Southside Trailhead

The town lists a Southside Trailhead at 9301 S. Homestead Road, on the south end of Pahrump. The town’s trail map marks it with trailer parking.

Want sand instead? Big Dune is a little over an hour northwest. For Nellis Dunes, Logandale and Dumont Dunes, see Las Vegas dirt bike trails. Beatty has its own 150-mile network; see dirt riding around Beatty. Drive times are from a routing service, rounded.

The town’s 2026 off-road trail map, made with the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation, names five suggested routes and marks which vehicles each one suits. Routes are not always marked on the ground.

• Carpenter Canyon: Jeeps, side-by-sides, ATVs and dirt bikes. A backcountry 4x4 trail on the west side of the Spring Mountains that starts in high desert and ends in conifer forest. On a clear day the top looks from Charleston Peak to Telescope Peak in Death Valley, about 70 miles west. Expect wild horses, burros and deer, and snow and ice up high in winter. From Highway 160, it is about 5 miles northeast on Carpenter Canyon Road.
• Elk Meadows: side-by-sides and dirt bikes. One of the longer trail systems in the Pahrump BLM riding area: fast, winding trail through a Joshua tree forest, mostly 50 inches wide. Loose rock, gravel, some rock slab and some loose, steep climbs.
• Wheeler Pass: Jeeps, side-by-sides, ATVs and dirt bikes. Wide gravel at the bottom, a 50-inch trail near the summit, and the old charcoal kilns. The whole story is on our Wheeler Pass Road page.
• Lovell Summit: Jeeps, side-by-sides, ATVs and dirt bikes. A busy connector between Lovell Canyon and Trout Canyon. It is paved from Highway 160, about a 30-minute drive, and dirt from the Trout Canyon side.
• Battle Born Route: Jeeps, side-by-sides, ATVs and dirt bikes. Connected dirt back roads from Pahrump to Virginia City in northern Nevada. It is not maintained. The full route downloads from the Battle Born Trail site for offline use.

The Pahrump Off-Highway Vehicle Park sits on the future Pahrump/Nye County Fairgrounds, about 427 acres near Dandelion Street and Highway 160. The address is 3310 Ironwood Avenue. From Highway 160, take Dandelion Street, turn right on Ironwood Avenue and follow it to the end.

Pahrump dirt bike track: what runs now

Today the park is a youth track, and it opens on organized ride days. The April 19, 2026, ride day ran 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for kids on small bikes, electric bikes and quads under 125 cc. Helmets were required, and so was a Nevada OHV sticker. Staff helped with a one-time hall pass.

In February 2026 the park’s advisory committee voted to hold only watered and groomed ride days. It scheduled ride days for May 16 and 17, 2026, skipped June and put off July. In August, the next date was waiting on the big water truck. The committee meets the first Thursday of the month and sets ride days there.

The track that is coming

A second, general-use track for every kind of off-highway vehicle is planned. In August 2026 the committee voted to spend $88,000 building 8 to 10 more acres of track with volunteers and a track-building consultant. The park’s well is due by November.

Nye County is an OHV-friendly county. Off-highway vehicles can ride its county roads, so in Pahrump you can often ride straight from where you are staying to the dirt. State and federal highways are the exception: through Pahrump, that means Highway 160 and Highway 372. Cross them; don’t ride along them.

Off the highway, Nevada sets no driver’s license or minimum age for OHVs. A plated, street-legal bike needs no OHV decal.

The county’s OHV chapter has no permit of its own. It adopts Nevada’s OHV law, NRS 490, and that law calls for a Nevada OHV registration decal.

• Cost: $20 a year, plus $10 if you renew late.
• New machines: register within 30 days of buying. An OHV bought on or after July 1, 2012, also needs a Nevada OHV title.
• Where it goes: on the left side or the rear, where it can be seen.
• Riding unregistered: a $100 fine.
• No decal needed: a vehicle registered in another state and in Nevada 15 days or less; a plated, street-legal vehicle; 70 cc or smaller; built before 1976; ridden only in a sanctioned race or permitted event.

Our rental bikes are plated dual sports, so that part is handled. More visitor rules are on our dirt bike riding around Las Vegas page.

BLM, Southern Nevada District

All year: no fireworks, no exploding targets, no tracer or steel-core ammunition, and every engine needs a working spark arrester. Stage 1 fire restrictions ended October 1, 2026.

Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

The Forest Service rules: ride only on roads and trails designated open to OHVs, run a state-approved muffler or spark arrester, and ride in and out of developed campgrounds, not around them. The Forest Service counts e-bikes as motorized. Feeding wild horses and burros is illegal on the mountain.

Best in the Desert’s published schedule has no Pahrump race. The Nevada races on it:

• Laughlin Desert Classic: Laughlin, October 15–19, 2026.
• The Mint 400: Primm, March 3–7, 2027.
• Silver State 300: Tonopah, April 21–25, 2027.

In town, the organized riding is the youth ride days at the OHV park. A vehicle ridden only in a sanctioned race does not need the Nevada OHV decal.

Long-term averages from the Pahrump weather station:

• January: highs around 58°F, lows around 27°F.
• July: highs around 101°F, lows around 67°F.
• All year: about 5 inches of rain.

Fall through spring is riding season. Ours runs September until it gets too hot.