Mt. Princeton Road Trailhead

Posted On: 9/6/2024 By: bigfoot1
Info: 4 other cars in the lower lot at 8am on a Friday. Saw plenty of jeeps and a camper van make it to the higher trailhead.

Posted On: 8/17/2024 By: MetricAssLoad
Info: I drove my Subaru Outback to 11,800 and didnt scrape. Not bad with proper tires. Only parking for 3 cars or so.

Posted On: 8/8/2024 By: nicktex
Info: Made it in a full size 4WD truck to the radio towers - but terrifying if you are driving a new truck you don't want to ding up ! ;-) One nasty pothole section launched a pad out of my truck bed, at < 5 mph. Coming down in the rain would not be fun in the dirt / mud sections. Plan your descent before any rain.

Posted On: 8/2/2024 By: coloradomojo
Info: Drove our stock F-150 w/ Crew Cab and AT Overland topper to the upper trailhead today (Friday). No issues with the drive, but....I would never want to drive that road with a bigger vehicle such as this if we anticipated having pass a vehicle going the other direction (read weekend afternoon).

Also, there were Subaru Outbacks and even a Rav4 as well as a small Mazda SUV at the upper trailhead for what's that worth.

Posted On: 6/28/2024 By: pthomps17
Info: My wife and I spent tons of time researching whether or not we could take our 15 Rav4 up the road (7-ish ground clearance). As long as you have some rough 4wd road experience and are a confident driver, you should be just fine in any similar vehicle. It was easy enough to keep the tires on the high points and take them over any big rocks so as not to scrape. 1st 2 miles is bumpy but not too rocky, last mile has more large rocks. There was one obstacle about 1/2 way up to the towers where we saw a Subaru go up on three wheels (they made it out quickly)there are two large pits side by side. We made it through without issue by swinging to the outer edge of the road and only hitting one pit. We made it to the radio towers and could have made it another few hundred yards up. We did not have to pass any vehicles on a Friday but I can see how this would be more treacherous and frustrating on a busy weekend with lots of cars going up and down.

Posted On: 5/19/2024 By: Wildernessjane
Info: I was able to get a little bit past the radio towers to where there are three parking spots on the right side in a stock SUV. There were a few patches of snow just before the radio towers but these were not hard to navigate. The snow is pretty continuous after this point.

Posted On: 10/20/2023 By: Jajohnson11
Info: Made it to where the trailhead meets the road at 11,800' in a stock tremor. No snow anywhere. We aired down as we always do but probably wasn't necessary. 3 point turns at 2 of the switchbacks. As far as parking up there, there are some "spots" near the trail, at MOST 3-4 vehicles. Definitely room for 2. You can drive past the trail junction and there's a big turn around spot about 1/2 way to the end of the rd. If it's a weekend I would probably just park at the towers and not risk having nowhere to park up there. At 2pm on a Wednesday we there was no else around.

Posted On: 10/9/2023 By: raphaelroxas
Info: As of Oct 7, the road to the towers and all the way up to where the trail leaves the 4WD road is dry. Made it up to the towers with a Nissan Rogue and probably could have made it up to the next hairpin.

Posted On: 9/19/2023 By: howla
Info: My Outback (lifted) should have made it up to the towers, and probably further just fine. You really need clearance more than 4wd; honestly I thought the road to Grays & Torreys trailhead was in worse condition. The worst part of the road is about 1.5 miles in, and if you decide not to risk it, you have to back down. HOWEVER, I drove up in the snow on the night of 15 September and nearly slid off multiple times. I did get stuck twice and had to reverse to take a different angle around the hairpins. I was the only person spending the night (shocker), I slept at the last hairpin before the towers due to trees down across the road. Absolutely would not recommend driving this road in the snow unless you are extremely confident in your car's abilities.

Posted On: 9/3/2023 By: davebelin
Info: Drove this road in my stock Subaru Outback with summer tires without much tread. There was one rough spot where I had to back up and give it some more gas to get through. We parked at the switchback where the radio towers are, at about 10,800'. There were cars parked about half a mile further up, and also at other switchbacks higher up. As others have noted, it's a very narrow road with severely limited passing opportunities. Fortunately, we didn't come across anyone on the way up at 7am. We started the descent from the radio towers at 12 noon and encountered only one vehicle coming up. We were able to squeeze by but it was very tight. The drive up saved us 2,000 vertical feet and 4+ miles round trip

Posted On: 8/29/2023 By: GuiGirard
Info: I made it fine to the radio towers (and I could have made it just as fine to the campsites slightly further up) with an Outback, but there are a few rocky obstacles about half way up that take some nerves. The impossibility to turn around was decisive in my will to make it through these. The width of the road is nerve wrecking, however. I don't know how I managed to make it to go by three descending vehicles on my way up. There is partial visibility of upcoming traffic when driving down but it's not great and there's some exposure at places too.

Posted On: 7/16/2023 By: burnhamc
Info: Radio lot was fairly full but you could have probably squeezed another car or two in, around 8:30am. A number of more places above. Couple of F-150s stuffed in a switchback.

Road wasnt too difficult, rocky and bumpy. A Suburban had made it to the top.

Posted On: 7/16/2023 By: burnhamc
Info: Radio lot was fairly full but you could have probably squeezed another car or two in, around 8:30am. A number of more places above. Couple of F-150s stuffed in a switchback.

Road wasnt too difficult, rocky and bumpy. A Suburban had made it to the top.

Posted On: 7/8/2023 By: V1per41
Info: Not too bad of a drive to the towers. Towers parking was full at 7:00am on a Saturday, but the next parking area has a few available and there might have been another 5 or so beyond that.

Pictures are of the two hardest features beyond most of the parking if someone's wants to try and make it further. Nothing most of the road from 2WD lot to towers was pretty straight forward, just narrow with very few pull-offs. We didn't run into anyone trying to drive up when we came down around noon.

Posted On: 6/25/2023 By: Mitsugi
Info: This road is pretty easy. There is 1 spot where our Toyota Highlander had to back up and get some speed to get over the section but otherwise, barely class 3 road.

A comment.

I dunno what is it with the gatekeeping on this website but that radio tower has parking for like 30 cars, not a "couple" cars. I counted at least 15 cars at the tower and more above and below on the road. And there is parking at every switchback turn. Highest car was a Honda CRV well above the radio towers. Also, those towers are nowhere close to the hike start. It's easily a 30 minute walk to the trail entrance.