How to off-road like a pro in Colorado

Be smart: I recommend taking a class from OnTrail Training with 4x4 certified instructor Matt Balazs about trail driving or recovery when you get in trouble.

• My wife and I learned the limits of our 1998 Toyota 4Runner — lovingly named "Lucille" — on the Slaughterhouse Gulch trail outside Bailey.

Of note: The classes get booked fast. "Folks are catching up with the idea that actually learning something about this stuff is a good thing," Balazs says.

What to know: The most important element of off-road driving, he adds, is knowing your limitations — and the limitations of your vehicle.

• "I guided Jeep and Hummer tours around Vail for 13 years … and ran into a lot of folks that were really struggling to get through a pretty basic obstacle, where if they just knew a little bit about wheel placement and momentum," then they wouldn't get stuck, he says.

The intrigue: Balazs even coaches people who like to drive their Subarus and other all-wheel drive cars off-road. "It's a little different technique, and a little less extreme terrain, but still the same rules apply," he said.