Trail Guides

Onboarding

Welcome, We’re Glad You’re Here.

Your adventure with the onX Offroad Trail Guides has begun! Like any journey, it can be tempting to dive in headfirst, but a little bit of planning can go a long way.

Before you begin, please read each section below to understand our expectations and requirements, learn about your new perks and tools, and receive the critical tips and guides that will help you submit top-quality “Guided Trails”.

If you still have questions after reading through this page, don’t worry, we’re here to help! Find out contact info at the bottom of this page.

At onX, we want to awaken the adventurer in everyone. Whether by four-wheel drives, bikes, motorcycles, or our own two feet, we live to experience the wild places our planet has to offer—and it’s our goal to empower others to do the same. That’s why we’re constantly working to not only enhance our apps, but preserve the lands they help us explore. 

The Trail Guide team brings trails to life by adding the photos and key information customers need to off-road responsibly. We call these “Guided Trails”. In doing this, we inspire enthusiasts to explore an ever growing number of new places, while equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to stay on track even when they are off-grid.

This disperses the impact on well-known trails we love while simultaneously helping people to discover and advocate for lesser-known trails, thus limiting closures from both overuse and underuse through responsible recreation.

Our Expectations of You

We back ethical off-roading, and expect our Trail Guides to follow legal routes outlined by landowners and management groups while always adhering to Tread Lightly principles. All Trail Guides should complete the Tread Lightly 101 course, and we encourage you to learn even more through their expanded curriculum. Any Trail Guide shown to be breaking these principles will be required to go through additional training, or barred from the program based on the severity of the incident.

We strive for equal access for all people and all interests, balancing the need to preserve motorized use, with the critical conservation of wilderness areas for future generations. Only by working together can we truly protect and share in our public lands.

Plan well. Play hard. Make it last.

Because it’s important that our trail guides are active and responsible members in the off-road community, we ask that they meet a few requirements to maintain status in the program.

  1. Submit your first trail within three months of approval as a Trail Guide.
  2. Submit at least one approved trail per year to retain your free membership.
  3. Complete your Tread Lightly 101 (or higher) course online.
  4. Practice safe, responsible, and ethical off-roading.
  5. Always conduct yourself professionally while on the trail or wearing onX branding.
Tread Lightly! 101

How To Record + Submit Trails

Off-roading is fun, and our number one priority is to keep it that way.
The following simple steps will help you map a great trail while enjoying the journey along the way.

1 – Scout

Look at the map for areas to record a trail! You can record tracks on any tan base trail, dotted/dashed gray lines, or map something completely new as long as it’s legal. We do not accept submissions over an existing Guided Trail that already has photos and descriptions.

2 – Capture

In the field, use the Go & Track function to record your track along the way. Capture a minimum of five quality photos during your drive or ride. Make sure your track and photos meet the minimum guidelines outlined further down below.

3 – Submit

When you get home, open the web map on your desktop. Click the Contributor Portal tab on the left side of the screen and follow the prompts to submit your 50+ word description, 5 photos, and track file.

Off-roading vehicle on an OHV trail

How To Write Submissions

Guided trails should be special, exciting, and inspirational. They are tracks you would be stoked to share with your friends, and worthy of making a plan to go run on a weekend. They are not a bumpy dead-end track through a field, a short dirt road to a pull-out, or a dead end to a campsite.

  • The Basics of a Great Submission
    • When writing your trail description, try to think about both the trail itself and its surroundings.
    • You should be able to describe what the trail surface is like, sandy, rocky, muddy, graded, etc. What makes it difficult? Is there a boulder field, deep sand, loose climbs, off-camber, tight trees, or water crossings? Is there a shelf road on the side of a cliff?
    • Look around! Does the trail go through beautiful valleys or over mountains? Does it pass through any historical sites, or have historical significance itself? What sorts of plants and animals may you see? Is there cell service along the way, camping, bathrooms? How about a swimming hole, or perhaps a great ice cream shop in town.
    • Be sure to check for what vehicle types are allowed if possible. Just because a vehicle could fit somewhere, doesn’t always mean its legal.
    • If any permits are required for the trail, be sure to include them.
    • Please either use a plugin like Grammarly to check your writing, or paste into Chat GPT or similar to ensure proper spelling and grammar.
  • Naming Requirements
    • When naming a trail, use the following methods in prioritized order as appropriate
    • If a trail is well known in the offroading community, use the common name Examples: Rubicon Trail, Black Bear Pass, Chicken Corners, Smiley Rock.
    • Provide the factual name of the trail (Forest Service (FS) #, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) #, or actual name like Dry Creek Road.
    • If neither of those are available, use a name relating to the trail experience or landmark. Examples: Newton Cabin Trail, Milltown Mine Loop or experiential names like Differential Destroyer, Creekside Cruise etc. Remember to avoid curse words or anything offensive.
    • We will not accept Location to Location names like Cemetery to Pineville trail or any extremely long names.
  • Trail Length Requirements
    • If you are submitting a short trail, ensure the following:
    • It has intense difficulty or challenges. These trails can often be shorter by nature.
    • The trail leads to unique points of interest like historical sites, waterfalls, etc
    • It’s a documented and well-known short trail
    • If any of the above are true, please provide a comment to the onX staff in “Notes to Team” section when submitting the trail explaining the reasoning
  • Trails vs Trail Networks + Routes (Shown Left)
    • Our goal is to create organized networks of trails on the map that don’t overlap and are easy to navigate.
    • If there’s an established off-road trail network (like there is in Moab) the existing network should always be adhered to when making or updating submissions.
    • If no network currently exists as is the case in many National Forests, our goal should be to create one.
    • This requires laying a solid foundation to build a trail network, which means viewing each road or trail as an individual building block. If everyone submits routes instead of individual trails, the overlap will quickly become confusing. 
    • Mapping each trail individually will allow you and other trail guides to fill in the blanks one piece at a time in an organized fashion, and allows our users to combine trails into the route that best serves their needs.
    • Such an example is shown on the left, where a single weekend ride was submitted in several pieces.
    • Additionally, be sure to avoid submitting overlapping content with existing Guided Trails unless you think it needs to be updated. If that’s the case, reach out to our team!
  • Pavement
    • We will not accept trails with over 10% of the trail being pavement.
    • Pavement at the beginning or end of the trail should be trimmed off before submission. Do not submit a trail running entirely to town.
    • If pavement is unavoidable to complete the trail, and it exceeds 10%, please provide a comment to the onX staff indicating the existence of the paved portion and why it has been included.

Photo Requirements

What we want

Well-framed pictures that show effort and care were taken to capture the scene. Content should be of the trail, difficult obstacles, good views, points of interest, and anything users should be aware of, like a water crossing. We want photos that define the experience and show some variety. We encourage Trail Guides to include a shot or two of their vehicle on the trail to give scale to the trail itself and the obstacles.

What we don’t want

Photos that depict little effort was expended, ie, pictures taken from inside the vehicle, behind the windshield, with a piece of the hood or the mirror in them etc. Shaky, out-of-focus, and duplicate images won’t be accepted. While we want pictures of the vehicle on the trail, we don’t want pictures of only the vehicle where you can’t see the trail. Also, please limit pictures of your vehicle to 1-2 photos per submission, and avoid selfies.

We love trails, and whether they’re on public land or private off-road parks makes no difference to us! That being said, there are some additional requirements to abide by if you plan to map in these privately held parcels.

  1. You must notify us of your intention to map the park ahead of time.
  2. If we haven’t already spoken with the park owners, we will contact them with you to get permission to map the off-road park.
  3. If permission is granted, we will negotiate to have the fee waived or pay the park access fee on your behalf.
  4. Parks that have not been fully approved by our team with permission granted by the owners should not be mapped.

Incentives + Perks

Every Offroad user is part of the onX family, but we want to do something special to say thank you to our Trail Guides. To reward your efforts, we’ve put together the following tiered incentive program.

Give Family, Friends, and Trail Acquaintances 30% Off onX Offroad!

Trail Guides can give their friends and family 30% off with the code trailguide30 at checkout.

Exclusive Trail Guide Store

After you submit your first trail, Trail Guides get access to swag and gear we make just for this team. To keep this protected, we host the store behind a hidden link and login. You can buy swag from here with a 60% discount, but you will also get store credit for free gear on your first and fifth trail submissions.

To visit the store click here.

1 Trail Submission

Congratulations, you’re officially a Trail Guide! We will send over some onX stickers and swag credit for free gear in the store to welcome you to the program. We will also extend you with a year of onX Offroad Elite, including access to our Elite Pro Deals.

5 Trail Submissions

We will extend invitations to join us at onX Trail Guide events and gatherings. We will give you access to an expanded list of industry discounts with our partners on off-road gear, vehicle parts, driver training, recovery training, and camp equipment. We will also enroll you in the Outdoor Prolink program where you can get 30%- 50% off hundreds of brands. Additionally, you’ll receive more swag credit to apply towards any gear in the onX Store.

15 Trail Submissions

The Trail Guides willing to put in this level of work will have the option of becoming an Expert Trail Guide. In addition to some special gear, Expert Trail Guides will receive invites to hang out with our team at specific industry events throughout the year. You may also apply to get paid to map trails!

How To Videos for Trail Guide Tools

We equip our Trail Guides with more than just swag and a free membership. We also give them access to exclusive tools for trail planning and editing, as well as early access to all sorts of new features. To learn how to use these tools, simply click the button below.

Watch The Videos

We love to hear all the good and bad things you might have to say about the Trail Guide program and the onX Offroad App. We also find that many of the best feature ideas come from our customers, so let your voice be heard by filling in the following form!

Feedback Form

How long until my trail is approved?

  • It typically takes the curation team 1 week to get your trail curated and published in app. If your trail requires additional GIS work then it could take up to 2-3 weeks before your trail is published.
  • Does this affect my change of receiving the giveaway?
    • No, as long as your trail(s) is/are submitted in the timeframe required for the giveaway you will qualify.

Can I go back and edit a trail I already submitted?

  • You cannot go back and edit a trail you already submitted. You can, however, email trailguides@onxmaps.com with small edits or ask us to reject the trail and you can submit the new trail with your edits.

How can I fix my line?

  • Follow the video tutorials linked above in “How To Videos for Trail Guide Tools” to learn how to edit your tracks.

Who should I contact if I have a Trail Guide Program question?

My app isnt working, who can help?

Where should I submit feedback?

  • Your thoughts really count, and we can’t wait to use them to improve. Whether it’s suggesting new layers or content, requesting features you’re itching for, or sharing your thoughts on our guide program, we’re all ears! Click the link to submit your feedback in the Feedback + Feature Ideas section above.

My published trail doesnt match the track I submitted, what happened?

  • All trails go through a snapping process before it reaches us to align with our base data sets. Sometimes this can result in unintended changes. The best way to resolve this is to export your track as a GPX file, label it the trail name, and email it to trailguidesupport@onxmaps.com
  • How do I export a GPX file?
    • Visit the How To Page which describes how to import and export content.

How do I know if I can submit this trail?

  • If a trail on the map has a color associated with it (green, blue, red, black) then it is already a guided trail and shouldn’t be submitted unless you feel the trail is out of date or inaccurate. If so, let us know! Otherwise, if a trail is tan-colored, or no color at all, it is ready to be mapped and submitted!

What if an existing submission is inaccurate?

  • If an existing submission is inaccurate and you are able to map it, please submit it and write in the “notes to team” section that you are updating the existing trail and WHY you are updating the trail. If you are unable to map and submit the new Guided Trail then please submit an error report.
  • How do I submit an error report?
    • Tap the trail, and a card will appear. Towards the bottom you will see options including Route to Here, Add Waypoint etc.
    • Slide that bar to the left to view additional options until you see “Report an Error”

Is there a discount code I can give to people looking to try onX?

  • Give friends, family, and new friends you meet 30% off onX Offroad by using the code trailguide30 at checkout.

What if my submission has pavement in it?

  • If your submission has pavement in it be sure it is a critical access point and is less than 10% of the trail. If your trail has more pavement than that but you believe it should be published in-app, reach out to trailguidesupport@onxmaps.com beforehand to chat about the trail.

Where can I order Trail Guide gear?

  • Click here to access the Trail Guide Store. This store is for Trail Guides only, so it is password protected. We set your account up for you after you submit your first trail and are a confirmed Trail Guide. If you have troubles accessing the Trail Guide Store, reach out to trailguidesupport@onxmaps.com.

You can reach us by emailing trailguidesupport@onxmaps.com.