South Colony Lakes Trailhead

Location

RangeSangre de Cristo

Elevation9,950'

Lat/Lon37.97611, -105.50651

14ersHumboldt Peak, Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak

Road Difficulty

4 Moderate 4WD, good clearance

Easy 2WD dirt to the lowest trailhead. 4WD (high-clearance required) dirt to the upper trailhead.

Driving Directions

Take Colorado 69 south from Westcliffe. Drive 4.5 miles and turn right on Colfax Lane. Drive 5.5 miles to the end of Colfax. Turn right and drive 1 mile on a dirt road to a junction. Continue straight up the 120 Road for 0.3 mile to the Lower 2WD Trailhead at 8,800'. To reach the Upper 4WD Trailhead, continue 2.7 miles to parking/camp spots before a river crossing, near 9,950'. Note that in 2009, the South Colony Lakes road was permanently closed at this point (with a gate), and the official trailhead was established here. The trail begins next to the trailhead kiosk located in the main parking area.

On-Site Info

Parking~20 vehicles at the lower, 2WD trailhead. No parking along the first 1+ miles of the 4WD road due to private property. Some pull-offs before the upper trailhead. Upper, 4WD trailhead has room for ~25 vehicles.

CampingNo camping at the 2WD trailhead. Not much camping along the 4WD road but there are a few spots. Some established camp sites near the 4WD trailhead.

Restrooms?No

Fees?No

Photos

Winter Access

Usually closed near the lower TH at the bottom of the road.

Trailhead added by BillMiddlebrook

Status Updates
Map


10/16/2011 Posted On: 10/16/2011 By: Dave B Info: Road to upper trail head pretty much free of snow except for a couple of small patches, should be good to go until the next snow storm comes through.
10/8/2011 Posted On: 10/8/2011 By: thatstite Info: About a mile after the lower south colony t.h. the snow starts. As you gain elevation it becomes deeper and deeper. But there are some places to pull over. I would say after this weekend, it would take some pretty sweet moves to get all the way home to the upper T.H. god speed.
9/25/2011 Posted On: 9/26/2011 By: JDip Info: The road right past the lower 2wd parking lot for some tenths of a mile is really washed down and that‘s slow going, but the rest of the road is snow-free. A 4x4 can make it no problem. There were two subaru hatchbacks at the upper 4wd parking!! Hopefully the road stays clear another two or three weeks..
9/7/2011 Posted On: 9/7/2011 By: mrschaible Info: With all the recent rain, the road to south colony lakes past the 2wd parking lot is definitely 4wd only. There are some serious wash outs and mud everywhere.
8/29/2011 Posted On: 8/29/2011 By: Boomerang Info: Drove up to upper portion of the dirt road in a Ford Escape, wheels never slipped to engage vehicles AWD system. 2wd‘s?? Spotted a Chevy Malibu (6.1" ground clearance, fwd) that remarkably made it up around 2 miles and parked up on an embankment off the roadside! So yes, I‘d say nearly any 2wd, preferably shorter wheel based, with some clearance (at least that 6.1"), can manage this road in dry summer conditions. 5.4 miles is a lot to consider walking if you have a competent vehicle and a skilled wheel.
8/14/2011 Posted On: 8/16/2011 By: rob runkle Info: Upper trailhead not accessible to most 2WD due to difficult traction conditions on steep sections.
8/5/2011 Posted On: 8/5/2011 By: JeffR Info: Easily done in a 2WD with moderate clearance. Just a matter of knowing how to drive, I suppose.
8/5/2011 Posted On: 8/8/2011 By: seeker Info: 2wd can probably do it so long as the conditions are dry...MUST BE HIGH CLEARANCE.
8/1/2011 Posted On: 8/5/2011 By: dssantilli Info: It describes the road to the trail-head as a rough 2 wheel-drive, but I actually had my truck in 4 wheel low at one point, so there are a few tough areas
7/27/2011 Posted On: 7/27/2011 By: mrschaible Info: Clear and dry to the upper trailhead. I would not drive a 2wd vehicle to the trailhead unless it had a very high clearance. We found our 4wd in use quite often.
6/4/2011 Posted On: 6/5/2011 By: Yalegirl09 Info: Dry and open to the TH
6/4/2011 Posted On: 6/6/2011 By: tmathews Info: Just a side-note about the road condition from the new upper TH to the old upper TH: At about 1.9 mile, there is a pretty deep crossing of a portion of a runoff stream feeding into South Colony Creek. I could not find a way around this. There are some rocks to the hiker‘s right that you can step on, but they are submerged. Not far from there (almost immediately afterward), a tributary of South Colony Creek is flowing directly into the road before rejoining the creek proper. This crossing is swift, deep, and in the dark it‘s difficult to tell where the road continues. Immediately to the hiker‘s left, there is a log that you can walk across to get to the other side, but you have to walk on snow to get to it. I don‘t know how many of you have walked across smooth wood with wet boots, but I have and it wasn‘t pretty. A little further upstream I found some more logs that were closer to the ground that I used to get across. I was able to walk over the first log on my way down as my boots were pretty dry at that time.
5/27/2011 Posted On: 5/29/2011 By: MountainHiker Info:
5/21/2011 Posted On: 5/21/2011 By: tmathews Info: 4WD vehicles can make it to the upper trailhead at the time of this update. Whether or not it will remain that way remains to be seen. There were three there this morning (including mine).
4/30/2011 Posted On: 5/1/2011 By: tmathews Info: Snow from last week has limited how far folks are able to get up the road. We were anly able to drive 1.2 mile.

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