Paw Hole Road - NM1079

This is as an excellent fun. The road has deeper sand most of the way, but aired down and in 4H no problem at all. Just great fun. And that on fairly bold tires. There are sections of rocks, which require quick changes of speed and good suspension. The rock portions are much heavier right at the eastern side of the road than the rest of the road going to the White Pocket or anywhere else, so it is slightly more technical and slower there, but honestly no problem at all. We drove it after it had just rained (not too crazy, but it filled the puddles in the road) and it was the same experience as coming in dry. Would drive this road for fun any day. We drove it East to West which seems to be BLM’s recommendation, and it is going downhill at the western end, but I don’t believe it would be any different for us to go in the opposite direction. Complication could be to try to let anyone pass, should the occasion arise, so keep that in mind.

Just a lot of narrow sandy trail with some rocky sections thrown in for good measure. If this is rating 3 and then it turns to 4 closer to white pocket, I noticed no difference in difficulty, it's all the same. If you have 4wd, high clearance and air down your tires you should be good to go.

Deep sand , single lane. Not much room for crossing. 25psi, KO3, on a stock 25 Ford Ranger. Easy peasy. Crossed just one other vehicle.

Great trail but some heavy sand. Keep in mind this is listed on the BLM sign as one way - meaning West to East. Likely due to the depth of the sand and going downhill versus uphill.

We ran the trail from east to west. There is a posted sign at paw hole suggesting that this trail is one way west bound. Sandy, but nothing unmanageable.

We ran this trail east to west coming from White Pockets towing a trailer. The sand is deep as reported. We spent most of the time in 2nd gear occasionally dropping to 1st to keep momentum up. Along the trail are numerous rock patches that require you to slow to a crawl to navigate.

Trail is blocked by a permanent fence (no gate) 1/4 mile due west of the intersection with BLM 1082. This is the location on the map where it turns into BLM 1079 Paw Hole Road. The trail is overgrown double track (brush along the middle) and obviously little used. The fence is NOT visible when traveling from the east, there is a rock ledge blocking the view. The property owner should post back at the intersection that the road is closed!

BLM1079 has been posted as "One Way" running east to west between Paw Hole Trailhead and the intersection with Sandhill Loop BLM1084.