Posted By: Ricebowll Info: Made it up to summer trailhead with no issues in my 4runner w/ AT tires. Saw a suburu make it up that didn’t have a lot of clearance but I don’t know if I personally would have taken that risk. If you have a high clearance vehicle w/ 4WD its smooth sailing. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: Thevirtualsherpa Info: Very easy to get to GG split, after that - a good driver with snow tires, good clearance AWD/4x4, cold conditions could get to and down upper TH too. Snow is at most, 4/5 inches deep with solid tracks in between. Biggest issue would be straying from that path where several vehicles have spun out and made mess in snow. Crazy though to say its very doable to reach upper TH in January. Dont block the road, saw many residents of area up there on Friday. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: Mlee1076 Info: Made it 4/5 of the way in a VW Tiguan before aborting due to deep loose snow on the road. | ||||
Posted By: bfaulkne Info: Saw a 4Runner and a Silverado make it to the summer trailhead today. I did not particularly care to try in my Crosstrek, but your mileage may vary. | ||||
Posted By: maverick_manley Info: Same as the Nov update below with regards to ice, now underneath continuous 2-3" deep snow cover all the way up from I70. There are occasional deeper drifts. Lots of sharks made the skin difficult along the road and all the way up the creek bed. Totally your call but please avoid driving up that road December to early March if at all possible. I head up that road a half dozen times each winter and have come across a stuck vehicle 5/6 times. Its also dicey for XC-ers / skiers to descend refrozen tire tracks. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: aholle88 Info: The snow is turning into ice flows. Id be more concerned about this in the coming week or two than snow based on the forecast. One person in front of me heading down lost it and spun around on one of the steep ice patches. I slid the whole way down that section and got very lucky. Both of us were in 4Runners with off road/snow rated tires, ice dont care what you drive. Use caution, or chains, or just avoid the road altogether for now because the ice wont be getting better. | ||||
Posted By: jcsimp1 Info: Visited the trailhead on 11/12. Still accessible with 4wd/AWD but there is packed snow/ice from the interstate. My crosstrek sport made it up without any problems. A bit slippery on the way down so go slow. Might become impassable with the next snow though | ||||
Posted By: daway8 Info: 2WD lot just off the interstate is partly dry, partly snow/ice. 4WD road is hard packed snow right from the beginning. Come with a capable vehicle or plan to walk from the 2WD lot. Note: did not go up the road, just paused to inspect en route to other goals. | ||||
Posted By: tdearborn Info: Got to trailhead at 7:20 AM today (Wed). There were about 10+ spots left when I got there. (Please note that this is in the middle of the week though.) Road was rough but easily doable by a 4WD with normal clearance. The road was better than when I did it 8 years ago. | ||||
Posted By: poseidon Info: Got to the trailhead at around 4 a.m., and luckily my car was narrow enough to snatch one of the last spots in the parking lot. There were at least three dozen cars parked along the road, mostly by the trailhead but some halfway down, none of them had tickets when I went back down at around 11 p.m. Access wise, the road to the trailhead was dry and my ’23 Prius with just 6" ground clearance made it up and down without damage to the underbody, even though I could hear kicked up rocks occassionaly hitting the bottom of the car. There was a Tesla Model X and an Audi sedan at the top, so it’s definitely doable with a sedan, just make sure to take it slow if you decide to attempt and give way to faster-moving more terrain-capable cars! | ||||
Posted By: Carl Info: Seems the weekday crowds have subsided. Arrived this morning (Tuesday Aug. 29) at 7:15 a.m. still some spots left at the TH. Got back around 10 a.m. and no one had to park along the road. Weekends still filling up early, there was a line of cars 1/2 mile back parked on the road last Sunday Aug. 27 at 6:30 a.m. | ||||
Posted By: Steelernation Info: Road is in bad shape with tons of rocks sticking up. Near the upper parking lot there is a huge rut with some big rocks although it looks avoidable. My RAV4 hybrid was undamaged, but it felt very sketchy and I would not drive it again with this many rocks and potholes. Saw a Honda Accord parked at mile 2 and another sedan coming up when I was going down but those were the only low clearance vehicles I saw. If you have a truck/jeep/4Runner type vehicle it looked pretty easy but smaller SUVs require careful, slow driving and navigating around some obstacles. | ||||
Posted By: bmoney Info: Road up was dry and in better shape than I thought it would be. But then again its been roughly 15 years since I was last up there. My biggest concern was how our 170 Sprinter van would do. As I only see reports of whether or not small little cars can make it or not. The van did just fine up and down. There were one or two spots that we had to pay a bit of attention to but really just went slow and no issues. I could see where those couple of spots could get worse if a bad storm went through. The van is a 170 2023 AWD with all terrain tires but stock otherwise. It has decent ground clearance just a really long wheel base. | ||||
Posted By: Lordofthegnar Info: See others for more detail on the conditions. We went up this morning in my 4Runner TRD Off-Road and of course that was fine. We saw one dude go up in a Prius. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend that but it is possible. You will probably scrape a low clearance car here and there. More important thing to note is that the lot fills up EARLY on the weekends. We left Denver just after 330am and arrived at around 450am and not only was the lot full but cars were already lining up .2 miles away from it. Came back and no one had any tickets though. Total shitshow however; wouldn’t be surprised if this moves to a permit system next year or thereafter. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: Stikrig Info: Roads aren’t great. I was given unfortunate advice that I would be fine in my sedan. Made it up okay but going down was super sketchy and I scraped the bottom of my car on a few rocks. By the end of the road, I could smell burning breaks and rubber. I’d recommend parking in the lower lot if your car is low to the ground. Trailhead was really amazing, the lots are even enough, landscaping is incredible, and the trail is extremely well maintained. Parking on Thursdays seems to be very solid but you’ll probably want to get up there before 6am. | 2 |
|||
Posted By: Ed_Groves Info: The road to the Grays Peak Trailhead seemed to me to match the rating on this site of easy 4wd today. It was bumpy with rocks sticking up three to five inches in places, but most could be dodged with the right line and there was nothing that catastrophic. There were a few holes but I didn’t think they were extremely deep either. I drove a 4wd Tacoma. I saw vans, AWD SUVs, and 4wd Pickups at the parking lot but I didn’t give it a thorough view to see what else was there since I arrived in the dark at 4:40 AM. Approximately 15 parking spaces were still open when I arrived. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: WildernessNerd Info: Arrived at around 05:30AM on Thursday Aug 3 and got one of the last spots. The road is very rough, and while I don’t know that 4x4/AWD is required if you know what you’re doing, I would definitely recommend something with clearance. I did not observe any sedans/cars up there, only vans/trucks/suvs. | ||||
Posted By: Rfox88 Info: on weekends the upper lot will fill by 7 pm and the lower before 9. There will be no spaces available for the early morning arrivals. Parking isnt permitted on the road leading up to the trailhead and parking above the outhouses is limited to hard surfaces. only. | ||||
Posted By: MrJohnnySpot Info: Road specific update: This is the worst I’ve seen it in a few years. The area right above the AirBnB is about as normally bad as we’ve seen the past few years, but there are a lot more really exposed rocky sections with some decent size holes. Fortunately, most of the rocks aren’t sharp, but there are enough to where if you’re not an experienced driver it’s causing some major slow downs both ways. Finally, I’m sure there are plenty of 2WD car owners that won’t care what happens to their car, but I’d recommend medium-clearance and higher AWD and 4WD make the trip all the way up. Subies and 4WD seemed to be good enough, but I can’t imagine trying to go up in a regular sedan without bottoming out a fair amount. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: DSchager Info: Would definitely recommend using a vehicle with high clearance and/or 4WD to get up to the trailhead. I was able to make it up in my 2WD Ford Escape just fine, it’s a judgement call if you feel confident enough. If you are using a 2WD vehicle, remember to use momentum to your advantage when ascending. I arrived at the trailhead at 8pm on a Thursday to car camp overnight and the upper lot was already half full with other people camping. If you’re able to car camp, I would highly recommend doing that to guarantee a good spot. Also you’re able to sleep in a bit more since you don’t have to worry about driving at 3am. Woke up at 5am to begin hiking at 5:30. | ||||
Posted By: Gibson135 Info: This morning at the Grays Peak trailhead was quite an experience. I pulled in to camp yesterday afternoon (Friday) and it was pretty quiet. Around 7pm last night, the cars started pouring in and Im pretty sure the actual main lot was full when I crashed at 8pm. This morning when I got up at 3:15 am that area was rockin with cars and peeps. It felt like there might as well be a DJ there spinning some EDM beats to just bring the party up a notch. There was already a conga line on the trail when I started at about 3:50am. Coming back, I chatted with a CFI steward I met there the day before (forgot his name) and heard some crazy stories about that morning. One was about a three-way traffic jam of many cars coming from the full lot, cars that started going past but couldn’t make it further and cars just coming in stuck at the turn for the full lot. They were all stuck trying to figure out a way to get out.. at a little past 4am - craziness! Oh yeah.. I was blown away by the scores of cars parked along the road taking off. Just wow.. Im just surprised they didnt have the $88 tickets (or whatever it was). | 1 |
|||
Posted By: salmanalsaif Info: Got to the summer TH around 5:45 am and parked behind the line of cars, slightly ahead of a "no parking" sign posted on a tree, approximately 0.2 miles from the TH actual (according to Google directions). There was a large contingent of CFI people at the TH, may have contributed to extra traffic. | 1 |
|||
Posted By: jbferree Info: The road to the trailhead was very bumpy. I was driving a Ford Edge which has 8" clearance and AWD which did fine, you just want to take it slow so you don’t bottom out on any bumps. I arrived at 4:45am on a Sunday and the parking lot was completely full, I ended up driving up the road a bit further and was able to grab one of a few spots up there that was off the road. This short portion of the road was the worst part but again just take it slow. There were a few ruts and some good sized rocks. I read parking on the side of the road wasn’t allowed but still plenty did it and I assume got away with it. | ||||
Posted By: d0shrest Info: We were there on 07/21/2023 Friday. Left home at 3 ( northern Denver suburbs) and was at the trailhead at 4:40 AM. All parking spots were full. Most folks looked they camped over night. Parked on the side of the lot ( in front of the restrooms). Took our chances . No tickets. | ||||
Posted By: ggaapp7 Info: Road seems to be fine, maybe one or two spots that would cause scraping but saw a civic pretty high. Arrived at the winter trailhead at 3:30 AM and cars were already coming back down. Managed to get a pull off spot really close to the upper trail head. | 1 |