San Bernardino National Forest has officially opened the new Miller Canyon Staging Area on Wed., Sept. 5, 2018. The staging area is a quarter mile east of the user-created staging area on Forest Road 2N37 (Miller Canyon Rd.), east of Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area off Highway 138.
Nestled within a shady, pine-oak forest, the new staging area provides direct access to 21 miles of OHV green sticker routes along 2N37, 2N36, 2N33, 2N17X and 2N34, as well as OHV Trail 3W14, which is for vehicles 50 inches or less. The new facility is open year-round and provides developed parking, picnic tables, toilet facilities, signs and trash containers. An Adventure Pass or the Interagency Pass is required to support the operation and maintenance of the site.
The current user-created trailering site will be permanently closed for restoration based on a public planning process completed in Sept. 2013. That site, located with a Riparian Conservation Area along a fork of the Mojave River, will be restored to improve watershed health, water quality and natural resource damage.
The new staging area, which is smaller than the user-created one, was developed to continue access to the popular Miller Canyon/Pilot Rock OHV route system. Visitors can also access this system via the Pinnacles OHV Staging Area (50 inches or less), which is north of Lake Arrowhead, and via the state park parking lot (during park hours) at the west end of Pilot Rock OHV Road (2N33), which is on the north side of Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area. Other OHV route systems with staging areas in the vicinity are Summit and Baldy Mesa. And more routes can be found to the east of the Pinnacles Staging Area.
The new staging area was constructed using California State Off-Highway Motorized Vehicle Recreation and U.S. Forest Service Legacy funds to provide a long-term sustainable facility with access to the Miller Canyon/Pilot Rock OHV route system.