Parking at McCullough Gulch TH?

[ekalina]

My understanding is that it's not legal (ever) to park along the McCullough Gulch Road, and that when the Quandary shuttle is running (which starts next weekend), you cannot park at the McCullough Gulch TH, because the shuttle needs the small lot to turn around. However, before the shuttle starts up, the comments on the TH status page make me think it should be OK to park in that lot (https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/trailhea ... hparm=tm04).

That said, a sign at the start of the McCullough Gulch Road seems to imply no parking. When we were there yesterday morning at 4:30, we saw multiple cars coming back down the road (perhaps the lot was already full). We were hoping to climb Atlantis couloir from McCullough Gulch, but pivoted to Cristo when we encountered this uncertainty. Atlantis was already looking like a long shot anyway.

It's nearly moot given that the shuttle starts soon, but does anybody have a sense for whether you can still park at the TH during non-shuttle season?

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[Jim Davies]

There's a lower McCullough Gulch trailhead on CO 9 that you can use as an alternate. It's a 2.4 mile hike one-way to the end of the McCullough road. There are also some campsites on the side road that branches to the right off that road (852.1), it's completely confusing trying to figure out what's legal and what isn't there, but we saw a couple of vehicles up there when we hiked it two years ago. https://trails.colorado.gov/trailheads/ ... ity=hiking

[slawrence2011]

Jim, do you know if this alternate road / trail from that trailhead is easily bikeable? It looks like it is a different road than McCullough Gulch. Also, do you know if this TH stays open past the 6/14 restrictions this season? Thanks for your help!

[ekalina]

It looks like the lower McCullough Gulch TH and the main Quandary parking area are almost the same walking distance from the end of the McCullough Gulch Road, with the Quandary parking maybe 0.1 mi closer. Still good info to have once the reservation system starts at the Quandary parking, thanks Jim.

[MidsizeAl]

Not sure if this is helpful, but we did Pacific (E Ridge) and Atlantic last year from the N McCullough Trailhead and returned via McCullough Gulch Trail. This was during the reservation period, and we had no issues parking here. Lots of signs about no parking on the side of the road, but there are none beyond the bus stop here. The road was rough but we got up it just fine in our Outback. There aren't many spots, though. There are also a handful of (dispersed?) camping pulloffs beyond the gate but before this trailhead that I believe were first-come-first-serve. Either way, its a short walk to the trailhead.