Huerfano/Lily Lake Trailhead

Posted On: 6/9/2025 By: dakotasmama
Info: ROUGH 2WD DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON’T NEED HIGH CLEARANCE TO KEEP FROM DRAGGING YOUR CAR ROUGH 2WD DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON’T NEED HIGH CLEARANCE TO KEEP FROM DRAGGING YOUR CAR ROUGH 2WD DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON’T NEED HIGH CLEARANCE TO KEEP FROM DRAGGING YOUR CAR ROUGH 2WD DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON’T NEED HIGH CLEARANCE TO KEEP FROM DRAGGING YOUR CAR ROUGH 2WD DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON’T NEED HIGH CLEARANCE TO KEEP FROM DRAGGING YOUR CAR. The only part of these trailhead where “wheel drive” MIGHT be important is the last two miles. These trailheads need to be ranked on clearance requirement first and 2WD/4WD second.

Posted On: 5/22/2025 By: Jimmy Jay
Info: Road is clear to the TH as of Wednesday 5/21, one water crossing that might come up to a low car's doors. One section of snow on an uphill slope that might be tough for front-wheel drive cars, but will likely be melted out by the weekend.

Posted On: 5/18/2025 By: daway8
Info: Made it to within 0.37mi of the upper trailhead before being stopped by snowbanks. Found a pulloff just below at 10,486ft. Lots of pull offs before that too. But by my return later in the day, others had pushed as high as 10,577ft. Probably another week or two before people will be able to make it all the way to the upper trailhead at 10,691ft. These numbers are all from my GAIA app. Note that Google Maps gives up more than 4 miles short but there's no real need for the map after that point. You'll want decent clearance and 4WD doesn't hurt.

Posted On: 3/21/2025 By: jaquetcj
Info: Was able to drive to 37.66437, -105.45973

Road Transitioned to snow pretty quickly thereafter. (W some bare spots). Pm me for further details if interested

Posted On: 10/30/2024 By: bigfoot1
Info: wow ok this road sucks. easy 2wd until just past singing river ranch, then it gets rocky and sketchy 2wd. I parked on the side of the road at (37.664019, -105.460007) and would suggest anyone else in a regular passenger sedan go no further than here as well. Tree recently downed as of yesterdays snowstorm at (37.63636, -105.47232). I saw 3 large pickup trucks make it basically all the way to the downed tree. Tire tracks in old snow before the tree was downed went as far as (37.62562, -105.47156). There are 4 large notable puddles that go across the road that have not completely frozen over yet, and the road itself has ice under the snow now and is a bit slippery.

Posted On: 9/3/2024 By: jGunn
Info: Made it all the way in my 2012 Rav4... But... I have very chunky offroad tires and have experience taking it offroad on 4WD roads where it probably shouldn't be. There was one very deep puddle with a big drop-off. This should not be underestimated. On the way up I hit it faster to avoid getting stuck in the deep mud, bottomed out hard and put a small dent in my fuel tank. On the way out I went slower and my tires were the only thing that stopped me getting stuck, and still bottomed out again.

Posted On: 6/22/2024 By: swilson753
Info: Attempted to get up there in a 2WD Hyundai Tucson with Falken Wildpeaks. I got stuck in the mud at the steep section past the landslide area and had to back down the hill. It's really muddy going up that hill - AWD/4WD and good tires recommended. I wouldn't try going past this section with 2WD only until it dries out. Note that the bottom of the hill is on private property and has lots of no trespassing signs. Not sure if the ranch cares if hikers park there, but it's worth knowing.

Posted On: 6/14/2024 By: TheseThousandHills
Info: open

Posted On: 5/27/2024 By: zzcarp
Info: Attempted to get here Friday night. 20 miles in around the beginning of the steep part past the landslide area, there were two giant snow ridges on that slope. A high-clearance large pickup made it through the first one but high-centered on the second one up the slope blocking the road entirely. I couldn't give them help; hope someone was able to get them off the hill. That said, it's probably a couple weeks more before you can get past those obstacles. And there were private property signs everywhere before the hill. Not sure if I would have been okay to park/car camp on the side of the road or not, and I didn't want to risk it.

Posted On: 5/16/2024 By: ballardwf04
Info: The road is currently too snowy to continue at about 2.5 miles below TH. We crossed a few miles of snow to get that far (in a Honda Pilot), but it was melting on our way out. Snow was quite a bit deeper the farther along you were, and I'd estimate three warm weeks before it's all the way open. Needless to say, if you're going for any of the peaks accessed by this basin, bring snowshoes.

Posted On: 5/8/2024 By: jmeizis
Info: Brought my chainsaw and cleared some of the blowdown past the ranch. Got stopped by a deep berm of snow just a little ways from where it becomes FS. Lots of dry patches or thin snow to main trailhead for which we mostly carried skis. Another couple of weeks and it'll probably be doable by vehicles with clearance. Jeep with chains could potentially do it now.

Posted On: 9/6/2023 By: HikerGuy
Info: I made it easily to the trailhead in my Hyundai Santa Fe with all-terrain tires. This is my fifth time up the road and it was in the best condition I've seen it. The culvert pipe could be an issue for low clearance vehicles, but should be no problem for SUVs and above. There was a minivan at the trailhead though.

Posted On: 7/11/2023 By: samfarmer789
Info: The road is in great, summer conditions. A couple steep spots past the landslide, road is a lot longer than it seems - takes a while. There are some weird dips and humps that slowed us down. We took a stock subaru outback and it was fine. We got to the TH and my buddy had made it up in a 2WD low clearance kia .. we were shook. Said it took him 3 hours though.. Law enforcement truck actually came by Sunday afternoon.. probably to scare people lol - stay safe out there!

Posted On: 7/5/2023 By: Mountainqueen
Info: Made it to TH just fine in my 2018 Subaru Forester.

Posted On: 6/20/2023 By: Yossi
Info: Overall access to the trailhead is fine for a high clearance 4WD vehicle. I think Medium clearance could make it and whether it is 4wd or 2wd may not be as critical. We were in a stock 4Runner with no issues.

There are pools/large puddles of water covering the road and none of them were muddy or caused issue.

As others have mentioned, there is a culvert exposed which requires some navigating. It wasn't so difficult for the 4Runner but it definitely requires about 6 inches of clearance.