Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

About the Paul Bunyan State Forest of Minnesota:

105,000 acres, covering 164 sq. miles, making up part of northern Minnesota’s north woods. Created in 1935, it started small in the early 1900s primarily for the millions of board feet of timber. The logging days lasted 20 years, with its peak creat-ing 8-10 major logging camps and 4-5,000 men on the payroll. The central hub of all the lumber processing was on Eleventh Crow-Wing Lake and the City of Akeley.

 Motor vehicle usage in Minnesota State Forests are classified:

Paul Bunyan State Forest is classified as “Limited” for motor vehicle usage, meaning:

• Highway licensed vehicles MAY OPERATE on signed forest roads.>
• Off-highway vehicles, [OHV’s] defined as ATV’s, [ATVs or UTVs] off highway motorcycles [OHMs], and off-road Vehi-cles [ORVs] MAY OPERATE on signed roads and on trails that are designated and signed for their specific use. No off- trail travel is allowed, except noted in hunting regulations.
• Reminders of such are posted at many of the forest en-trances.
• Please enjoy! ...be tolerant and be respectful to all.

DEFINITIONS:

The Term, Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV), includes All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s & UTV’s), Off-Highway Motorcycles (OHM’s) and Off-Road Vehicles (ORV’s).

For complete details of Off-Highway Vehicle regulations please ref-erence: www.mndnr.gov/ohv

This site is the MASTER to all things OHV in MN.

• Finding OHV trails: A-Z list of trails, Maps, Trail/Road closures & GPS Garmin data.
• Safety & Regulations: ATV Safety Education, Trail Ambassador Program, Youth Rider Information, Rules & Regulations, fees, and Non-resident Trail Pass information.

Some local Highlights of that information: 

Class 1 ATV: has a total width of 50 inches or less from outside of tire rims. 

Class 2 ATV: has total width of greater than 50 inches but not more than 65 inches from outside of tire rims. 

All the Paul Bunyan State Forest Trails are rated for both Class 1 & Class 2 Registration: