Quartz Lake Forestry Roads

ATV Trails

Distance: At least 10 miles round trip.  This system is actively expanding

Considerations: None

Although this road system can be driven with a 4wd vehicle, exploring the area would probably be a lot more fun on a 4-wheeler or dirt bike.  The roads contour the heavily forested hillsides, with occasional limited views out over the Tanana, and offer about 10 miles of riding, with a couple major forks, though they’ve been extended in recent years.

Just before Quartz Lake is an obvious gravel side road, which is the beginning of this trail system.  The first two miles or so has been improved with geotextile and gravel, but the rest of the road system has a silt surface, and becomes very dusty in dry weather, and very muddy when it’s wet.  At about 4 miles, the road intersects a fairly major trail.  

Heading left, the trail drops a little over a mile to the shore of Quartz Lake, though the lower part of this trail is extremely boggy and not recommended for summer use.  Heading to the right, the trail drops off the ridge and again into extremely boggy country, this time heading for Thompson Lake, which it reaches in a little over 2 miles.  The main road forks shortly after the 4 mile mark, with the left fork continuing another couple miles uphill through some nice upland forest, and the right fork contouring for another two or three miles as well before ending abruptly.