Offroad: Hollister Hills OHV
Hollister Hills, California
If you’re in the San Francisco / Bay Area there’s a great spot about an hour and half south to test out the capabilities of your 4x4 Sprinter. It’s called Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area and it’s just outside the town of Hollister, CA.
Hollister Hills is California State Parks’ first SVRA (whoa… we had no idea!). It’s located in the Gabilan Mountains, between San Jose and Monterey, CA. It’s just an hour’s drive south from San Jose and has plenty or gas and restaurants nearby. This unique SVRA features over 6,800 acres of scenic and varied terrain. And yes, it can get hot in the summer time. Bring water as many of the toilet, though clean and well kept don’t have the water running. California is in a drought after all. The area is all about oak woodlands and rolling hills with dusty canyons, and seasonal creeks. Elevations range from 660 feet at the base to 2,425 feet up at the summit.
It’s really well set up. There’s a section for motos and ATVs and a section just for Jeeps and off-roading. There’s also designated hiking, bicycling, and equestrian trails but really the park is dived up into two main sections.
Upper Ranch and Lower Ranch - Hollister Hills
Upper Ranch & Hudner Ranch are the off-roading areas and where we too the Sprinter Van for some testing. This area is about 800-acres of trails to explore, offering 24 miles of trails for offroading.
They have the trails marked much like a ski hill. Green for easiest, Blue for intermediate and Black Diamond for very challenging. Not to mention there are three specialized areas (McCrayZ, 4x4 Obstacle Course, and Adventure Track) that are set up for hard core off-roading. No, the sprinter will not make it through these courses.
Sycamore Camp, Hollister Hills
There are also options to camp out in Upper Ranch. Two campgrounds, Sycamore and Obstacle Course allow for some multi day family fun.
Sycamore Campground where we’re at here, has free showers, flushing toilets and fire pits. These shelters are nice to keep the sun off you. They have a picnic table to use and really makes staging here a nice and central option.
Obstacle Course Camp
Obstacle Course Campground has some decent flushing toilets but NO showers. There’s a very technical course set up there with a easy dirt road (green) that switch backs through the course. Worth checking out for sure. It’s just not that great to camp compared to Sycamore Camp (above). But can be a great place to watch all the rock crawlers.
😱DO NOT TAKE YOUR VAN on this crazy course. 😱
Dog friendly
Yes, dog are welcome. They have the typical leash policy of most places. But bring water and shade for your furry friends. It get hot. Oh, watch out for the fox tails in the dry summer months. We had to pull one out of our dog’s ears. It’s not fun for them.
Foothill Road
Typical road conditions are dusty but easy to access with a Sprinter Van. No 4x4 was needed on this section.
Tire choice: Today we were using the ubiquitous BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 All-Terrain Radial Tire - LT265/75R16 123E on our Black Rhino Armory Wheels
We came it with the front at 58psi and rears at 70psi. These are super high pressure for highway as they’re 10ply and E load rated. This was fine for the simple dirt roads to get to camp. But once we started to try the blue trails out we aired down to 18psi all the way around.
Leaving Upper Ranch - Hollister Hills. Nice wooded winding road out to the gate where the old school is. You might need the combination to the lock to get in and out.
