Cross Bar Ranch Off-road Park — Attraction in Davis

Great place to go offroad. I've only been in full size trucks and there is room on quite a bit of the trail for that. At times you will reach a point in trucks where the trail ends because you're simply too wide or can't physically make a turn, and there aren't any good bypasses/turnarounds. I ran into that in several places, but a jeep or short wheelbase vehicle could probably "fit" into a lot more of the trail than I could with a long bed F250.

That being said, it's a blast. I'd recommend that you don't go alone and that you have some sort of standalone gps or app that can download maps for detailed use offline. The map you'll get at the gate is very basic and the trail markings are even more basic/non-existent. There is NO cell service for much of the trail. You'll need to peak hills to be able to get anything, and you really don't want to be lost out there. There are night rides, and I've been out when I only saw one other person on the trail when I was out for 6 hours after dark with my group. Once we decided to go a different way back to the camp than we came, expecting it to be about 2 hours back. 6 hours later we made it back in, not that we were lost lost, but we couldn't get back to the main trail and every attempt sent us the wrong direction. There are a ton of little side trails that aren't marked on the map and they go out and end in a turnaround or kind of just dead end. I had Gaia GPS with all layers downloaded for max zoom and since there is so much tree cover, you can't really tell where some of the smaller non-main trails are by looking at GPS. If you've got a CB and/or a ham radio, you should be able to get someone if you are truly lost or in need of help.

Another warning, there is a ton of traffic by side by sides with portal axles. They really leave some deep ruts in areas like Soggy Bottom and a creek crossing near the main camp area. I sort of hate this because it cuts off portions of the trail to me in a regular truck or SxS, there's just no way to go around these areas and enjoy what's on the other side.

Definitely bring plenty of water! It's a big park and you'll spend more time out than you plan!

The campgrounds are great, but as of last time I went there (~4/20) there were no showers for tent campers. This kind of sucks since it gets good and hot out on the trail and a shower sounds like heaven. Luckily I knew a guy staying there in his camper so I used that shower. I think I read on their FB page that they may be putting some in at some point. The toilets are all the hole in the ground type and it's hot in there. I'd recommend bringing your own some way if you can. You'll be much more...

Word of warning. This park is NOT for midsize trucks like Tacomas, Rangers, or Colorados. There are a lot of trails that are simply to tight. Found out the hard way that the trail system is not marked in any meaningful way. The map provided is completely inadequate, as confirmed by EVERYONE we talked to there trying to figure out how to get out. We got lost a few times and even when asking the people that say they've been there a bunch, they had no clue. Back to the trails are tight. We ended up on a trail that was winding and wooded on both sides that was just wide enough to fit our ZR2 down, but the trail ( in the easy section per the map) got narrower and steeper to the point where it was impossible to back out due to the tree growth. So the only way out was to press on forward. We ended up doing things that even the ATV people said were tricky and sketchy in an purpose built ATV rig. We now have a truck with every body panel scratched to "H-E-double hockey sticks" and are hoping a good buffing will take them out. The scenery is great, and everyone with ATVs was having a good time, but to re-iterate, DON'T GO IN A TRUCK!!! We called ahead to ask specifically if this system was ok for Trucks and Jeeps and were told it was. IT IS NOT. On one trail I had to backup about a little under a quarter mile UPHILL around tight corners on lose gravel and large lose rocks, dodging larger rocks and trees, as at the bottom of the tightly winding trail was a bend that we simply could not go around. I don't think a 4 door jeep would have made it either. We will probably come back if we get a purpose built ATV. But until then, I will not bring a road vehicle here, and I suggest neither should you unless it's a trail only rig and you don't mind scrapes, dings, gouged mirrors, etc. I understand that offroading is going to cause some damage at some point, but on "easy" rated trails, it shouldn't be this technical for any type of vehicle.

Make better maps and LABEL...

This was my first time there and it was a blast. I checked in with a very nice young man who told me more about the park and some of the better trails for my full sized rig, which is a RAM TRX on 37s and a lift. The TRX has been offroad a bunch but mainly in the Ouachitas which are beautiful and we love going there.

Davis Oklahoma and the Arbuckle Mountains are not nearly as scenic as the Ouachitas but this was a day trip and only 2 hours from Fort Worth. It was a Wednesday when I went and I only saw one other vehicle the entire day.

My goal was to stay on the Prarie but of course, once I saw the Roller Coaster, all bets were off and I tried about everything I could find. Somewhere around the Lookout and Deadmans Slide, I got into the real stuff. I had never had the truck on rock gardens like I was doing on this section. All in all the truck impressed me, if I could find the line, it could crawl it.

By the end of the day, I was getting tired and inadvertently got on some very narrow trails, mind you, the TRX is 14" wider than a Wrangler, and I got really scratched up and was having a little trouble getting back out.

I had read about poor signage but that wasn't the case. The trails are marked better than I am used to but the issue is that the trail names are not really on the GPS maps. I tried using the Polaris map but I am really used to ONX offroad and it was only partially marked. If someone would load the Polaris raw file into ONX , it would be a game changer since users would have the ability to update and define the trails.

All in all, this was a fun trail that seems to be ran very well. As for me, some of the scratches came out of my truck and a couple of weeks later, we purchased a Wrangler. This country boy knows how to...