Driving UTVs In The Arizona Desert Will Absolutely Take Your Breath Away

Exploring the gorgeous trails in the Sonoran Desert will make you fall in love with our public lands.

Photo by: Can-Am

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Jun 12, at 7:04am ET

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CAVE CREEK, ARIZONA. You know when you're in the middle of something that's blowing your mind wide open? I'm sure you've experienced it once or twice before. Maybe you had some small inkling of what you were getting yourself into when you got out of bed that morning. Maybe you didn't. But either way, life happened, and what you saw surprised and maybe even changed you.

The town of Cave Creek, Arizona, is a popular place from which to launch many an outdoor excursion. It's not at all difficult to understand why, once you visit.

Even if you've spent time in other deserts, the more individual deserts you visit, the more quickly you realize how varied and fascinating the landscape can be. It's no surprise that the Sonoran Desert inspires a thriving arts scene; no matter what you like to do, even if it's drawing stick figures on restaurant napkins, you'll easily find inspiration here.

Our mission that day was simple: Roll up to a side-by-side touring company called Extreme Arizona, part of BRP Experiences, where we'd be briefed on the day's ride, safety items, the route, and so on. From there, we'd have a tour guide showing us some gorgeous trails, along with plenty of stops to take photos, hydrate, have snacks, and so on. Midway through, there'd be a lunch stop, followed by even more riding. Sounds simple enough, right? Yes, even in the intense Arizona heat—we all had sunscreen, neck gaiters, and hats at the ready for when we weren't wearing our helmets. We were as prepared as we could be, right?

Wrong.

I couldn't possibly have known it that morning, but this trip would get me thinking about the vastness and specialness of our (yes, yours and mine and everyone's) public lands in ways I hadn't previously done before. All because I'd had the opportunity to experience and appreciate it with not just my own two eyes, but all my senses.

Extreme Arizona Cave Creek - BRP Experiences

That's me in the middle, because of course it is.

Photo by: Can-Am

Getting Acquainted

The day started out simply enough. The route overview before we geared up and rolled out was detailed and precise, and we also downloaded specific Rever tracks that the tour company had charted out for us, so we could have a better view of where we were (and weren't) going.

Why Rever, in particular? When I asked our tour guide about that one, he told me that while they love similar software like onX and Gaia for some things, they find Rever's route-limiting features especially helpful when it comes to not overwhelming their guests with too much information. It's true that experienced overlanders might relish having more information to go on at once. But for those who are just dipping a toe in the water (or the sand) for the first time, the ability to give them a set route to follow and not overcomplicating matters makes a massive difference.

I'd driven a Can-Am side-by-side before, but not this specific one, which was a 2026 Maverick X3 Max RS Turbo RR. It uses a Rotax 900cc liquid-cooled, turbocharged triple-cylinder engine that makes a claimed 200 horsepower, has a Smart-Lok front differential, a Showa HPG suspension, 16 inches of ground clearance, and a belt monitoring system, which we didn't need that day [spoilers], but is still nice to have.

Quarter doors are good for keeping cool, not for keeping stuff inside.

Photo by: Janaki Jitchotvisut

While carrying a bunch of stuff with you is very easy to do with the ample space inside, if you're not carrying passengers, you'll definitely want to buckle things in place. Otherwise, they could slip out a quarter door when you hit a bump, or find yourself powering up a steep and rocky incline.

Did I maybe go a little bit overboard, looping the seat belt through the straps of my camera bag multiple times? I mean, by the end of the day, I didn't lose anything, so clearly not. Right? Right. That's getting ahead of myself, though.

We had plenty of snacks, electrolyte packets (the ones you just tip into your water bottle as needed), and coolers full of ice-cold water and Gatorade strapped to the backs of our rigs. Thus fortified, we had to hit some local roads first in order to reach the trails. Arizona is a place where that's perfectly legal, but I'll tell you that if you're not used to driving a side-by-side like this on the road, it will probably feel very strange at first. You have mirrors, but no turn signals, and while you definitely have plenty of torque and low-end power for trail riding, it's very much not the quickest thing you'll ever drive off the line on asphalt.

Still, it's a delicious experience, made all the more piquant because it's probably not a thing that most of us do every day.

Views for days.

Photo by: Can-Am

Trails Await

Arizona, as a state, is blessed with an abundance of public land. How much, you might wonder? According to the mountaineering website summitpost.org, AZ ranks sixth in the nation for sheer vastness of public land available. The only five states that have more public land (out of all 50) are, in order: Alaska (95.8%), Nevada (87.8%), Utah (75.2%), Idaho (70.4%), and Oregon (60.4%).

The percentage of public land in Arizona, in case you wondered, is 56.8%, so still over half the state. Contrast that with Texas, which I also recently rode side-by-sides in, and which is mostly privately owned. Just a paltry 4.2% of that state is public land. That still puts it above my home state of Illinois (4.1% public land), but just barely. Only five states rank below Texas for public land available, and just four below Illinois. I mean, Rhode Island (1.5%) is so tiny by area, it almost seems unfair that it's in last place, but it is.

The cool thing about having oodles of public land right outside your door is that, as long as you have the proper OHV permit, you can go out and hit the trails. Off we went to explore the Tonto National Forest!

One small piece of advice I have for you, if you do something similar, is to hoist your neck gaiter up over your nose and mouth if the dust is strong where you are. Just trust me and the pound or so of dirt I breathed in and swallowed before I was smart enough to properly pull it up under my goggles, and learn from the filthy snot I blew out of my nose for at least a day afterward!

You caught me!

Photo by: Can-Am

A Mind-Altering Experience

Remember when I said that every desert is different? While that's very much true, there's also a ton of variety to be experienced within what's nominally the same desert, as well. The trails we rode over the course of the day were, in fact, selected to show us exactly this. While the morning trails only had scrubby, occasional vegetation, undulating flat areas, and plenty of dust, the afternoon was full of greenery, including bursts of wildflowers, technical but flowy hills and berms to traverse, and even a cool little overlook with some mule deer to spot from where we'd stopped.

All this was mine to see for the day, and because it's public land, you can, too. That's it; that's the whole point of public land. It belongs to all of us, and I'm so grateful to the generations that came before us who've fought to maintain that access.

Now, it's up to us to continue the fight, so people can continue to enjoy it in perpetuity.

Photos are great, but they'll never truly do a place like this justice.

Photo by: Can-Am

While the morning's ride was quite bouncy and culminated in a steep and exhilarating rocky hillclimb that let us rip in 4WD, the route after a much-needed lunch break was completely different. Our tour guide, Quentin, described it as being "technical, but not," which made total sense once we were doing it. The flow of the trail pretty much guided you through it; the corresponding flow state it put your brain into as you drove it was even better.

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And the views simply couldn't be beat, both all around us as we drove, and whenever we pulled over and stopped to have a moment to take it all in. I'm not independently wealthy, but this? This is collective wealth, and it's positively flabbergasting to see for yourself. If you want to get lost for words, this is the place. (It's not something I experience often, so the novelty is pretty cool, not gonna lie.)

What's that, you don't have a side-by-side of your own to go hit the trails with? That's exactly what a tour company like Extreme Arizona is for. They take care of all the hard stuff (vehicle maintenance, route planning, and so on), so all you have to do is keep some basic safety stuff in mind and go have fun. Sunscreen, hydration, snacks, appropriate clothing, and you're bound to have an absolutely unforgettable time.