6/8/2024 Posted On: 6/10/2024 By: FlipFlap55 Info: Road is in better shape than I remember last July with fewer speed limiting obstacles. Any 2WD crossover (>6in clearance) or greater can make it no problem. I'd assume the road quality will degrade as ATV season gets going. | ||||
6/6/2024 Posted On: 6/7/2024 By: Kiefer Info: Silver Creek/Grizzly is dry. No snow anywhere. Of the two restrooms, one is still locked and the other is in "rough" shape. BYOTP. Traffic on county road #30 is still light. Hinsdale County graded and graveled the lower portions of the road. I would say the first ~14 miles are now easy 2wd. Even the palisades section isn't as rough/potholed as I remember it being from last season. | 4 |
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5/18/2024 Posted On: 5/22/2024 By: HikerGuy Info: Gate still closed right past the trailhead, so no access to American Basin yet. (EDIT: Gate to be opened on May 22nd!) From "Sundog" it looked melted out higher up in the basin, but I don't think they open the gate until plowing is finished. Bathrooms had closed for maintenance signs on them, one was locked, but the other was open. Road has been improved lower down, above that bumpy but should be no problem for 2wds. | ||||
5/6/2024 Posted On: 5/6/2024 By: AlpineSplit Info: Road is open and easily passable for any 2WD vehicle all the way to the trailhead | 2 |
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11/27/2023 Posted On: 11/28/2023 By: Eagle Eye Info: The gate may have closed this day; when I went up about 4 am it was open but SURPRISE when I came down the gate was closed! Luckily just a wire held the two gates closed so I could get out! Several plowing type machinery had also moved out during the day, from high up on the road to just below the closed gate. The road was tracked but not plowed when I went up but was plowed & icy when I came down. | 2 |
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9/30/2023 Posted On: 10/7/2023 By: ltlFish99 Info: Road is in better shape than when i was there in June. No snow at all on the road, and very little water. | ||||
9/28/2023 Posted On: 9/28/2023 By: RWSchaffer Info: Notwithstanding excellent ongoing construction, this is still a very rough road, not substantially different from the last time I drove it in 2020. My 2WD hatchback with a lift for 7+ inches clearance made it to the trailhead and back with one scrape (on the descent, my front bumper cover tasted the trench mentioned in the 9/17/2023 report, 1.5 miles below the trailhead) and one wheel spin (on the descent while pulling onto a steep inside embankment to allow an oncoming vehicle to pass). The last 3.2 miles before the trailhead were done entirely in first gear and took about 25 minutes each way. | ||||
9/21/2023 Posted On: 9/22/2023 By: PedroCO Info: Road to TH is dry and solid. They have also been doing some work in the last month to even out some of the rougher spots, so it's even easier than it was earlier this season. I would almost encourage regular 2WD to go for it. | ||||
9/17/2023 Posted On: 9/17/2023 By: maurer_kg Info: A bit of encouragement for all those feeling intimidated by this road. I am a pretty anxious driver but was able to drive my Subaru Forester from Lake City to the trailhead in about 50 minutes. It's true that this road is worse than when I drove it in 2017, but it's still very doable in an SUV with decent clearance. Also, a woman made it up in a Honda Accord (though I wouldn't recommend this!). One thing to watch for: about 3/4 of the way up (after the worst of the shelf road) there is a gravelly area with a trench (washout? gully?) cutting across it that's quite deep and a little hard to see until you're on top of it. This is the only place I scraped my Forester. Look for it and stay right (on the way up) to avoid the worst of it. | 1 |
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9/10/2023 Posted On: 9/11/2023 By: HikerGuy Info: I drove from Silverton to Lake City over Cinnamon Pass in my Hyundai Santa Fe with all-terrain tires. I spent one night in Animas Forks and another night at SC/GG. No trouble with critters at either site. The road up to SC/GG from Lake City is in the worst condition I've seen it. It's still pretty easy in an AWD with good clearance, but I'd would not want to take a 2wd vehicle up the road or a vehicle with questionable tires. I did notice that they were sifting/staging material, so maybe they are getting ready to fix it up a bit. | 1 |
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8/23/2023 Posted On: 8/23/2023 By: GuiGirard Info: CR 30 until the split with CR35 (just past Mill ck CG) is excellent, after which it is very rough and requires 4WD or AWD or high clearance of some sort. Fine with Subaru Outback with X-mode, technically. The note of caution is that uphill right of way appears to be a vague concept in Lake City, and more than once driving up on Monday afternoon I had to back up and ended up in very bad lines (uphill has right of way for many reasons, guys!). I even ran into a downhill-bound 4-runner who was struggling to get less than 6 ft from the edge and was trying to force me to back up in a gnarly line so they could come down... until I got creative and passed them on the wrong side of the road getting 3 ft from the edge. I won't mention the state this vehicle was registered in b/c it is embarrassing. A nightmare driving up at 4PM with tourist rush hour traffic. I can't think of what it must be on a weekend. I drove it down this morning with some traffic coming up, it's a piece of cake to spot uphill traffic and find a pullout to give them way. There is a washout in the making at the end of the shelf section that concerns me. | 2 |
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8/20/2023 Posted On: 8/21/2023 By: HighOnRockies Info: Okay, there are two things to keep in mind when driving last 4 miles of CR 30 (after the juncture with CR 35): drive slow and have at least an SUV (i.e., something more than just a standard sedan height). The road is actually okay, with very little path searching (I stressed so much about this road, putting it off the past 2 hiking seasons). Lots of little pulloffs along the way. Drivers I encountered were friendly when it came to passing. I followed a Ford Fusion sedan the whole way in my lifted Forester. At the parking lot, they guy mentioned he scraped the bottom of his girlfriend's car a few times. Personally, I would advise against a sedan, but, it's your car. Really, driving slow is the biggest factor in these last 4 miles just because of the quality of the road itself. From the juncture of CR 30 with CO 149, it took me about an hour to reach the trailhead. | ||||
8/19/2023 Posted On: 8/20/2023 By: shwilsh Info: Road to Grizzly Gulch is much rougher than the stated 2WD starting around mile marker 10 - you need a normal-clearance 4WD at least. This continues to be the case all the way until the first stream crossing past the junction for Cinnamon Pass, at which point you will definitely need a high clearance 4WD to make it the remaining ~0.75 to the American Basin TH. | ||||
8/5/2023 Posted On: 8/7/2023 By: Split_the_FR Info: No issues getting up in an Outback. Would reccomend coming/leaving outside of peak hours to avoid to dealing with passing on that short section with the dropoff. Even if you have to it isnt the end of the world though - plenty of space to work it out. | ||||
7/24/2023 Posted On: 8/7/2023 By: dwoodward13 Info: Would recommend no less than a SUV type vehicle if you care about your car. There was what looked like a beater minivan in the parking lot, but they surely scraped multiple times. Each time I drive this road I'm continually surprised how much it has degraded (driven in '17 and '19 in sedan and '22 and '23 in Subaru). Hard to imagine it will ever be a comfortable/easy drive for a sedan again. |
