Huerfano/Lily Lake Trailhead

Posted On: 5/24/2026 By: ryansappleid
Info: Completely dry & subaru-able! Lots of spots at trailhead to park & camp.

Posted On: 3/27/2026 By: eastcoasthiker
Info: DON'T USE GOOGLE MAPS! Follow instructions from this website or use coordinates. If your 4x4 can drive one tire over a somewhat skinny fallen conifer that is partially blocking the road, you can likely make it to the upper trailhead. Otherwise v easy for Land Cruiser.

Posted On: 3/19/2026 By: supranihilest
Info: Drivable to the landslide. Some downed trees prior to the landslide make for narrow navigation but still doable. Snow and large ice flows blocking the road continue in spurts all the way to the summer trailhead. I expect a few weeks before it's possible to drive much past the landslide.

Posted On: 3/14/2026 By: the_hare
Info: Road is blocked at the end of the meadow at the foot of the landslide beneath Montez Reservoir by loaded snow shaded by the forest. This will take a while to melt out, and then there are several large downed trees just past this. There's a few drifts that have been rutted thru & might require 8in or so of clearance & a couple large puddles & muddy spots but otherwise all clear

Posted On: 3/9/2026 By: oliverrobinson1224
Info: Made it up to landslide area (10050 ft), after that got stuck in too deep of snow and .3 miles after, there is a slew of fallen trees that completely block the road. Pretty easy to get to this point with some clearance and continuous snow from after the ranches, and did it with a stock f150 with all seasons. May be able to bypass with a snowmobile, higher above the road in the woods, but there are multiple fallen tree sections as the road gets to the summer trailhead, and the road is completely blocked after the landslide area.

Posted On: 2/9/2026 By: Jimmy Jay
Info: Trail is impassable after the avalanche area ( 37°39'2.1671" N 105°28'2.5752" W ) unless you have a snowmobile.
Recommend high clearance 4wd right now due to some deep mud spots and snow along the road up to this point.

Created a snowshoe trench up Zapata to the ridgeline heading for California Peak, but turned around due to the wind and my slow pace due to the deep snow. Might try again Friday or Saturday.

NOTE: There were fresh mountain lion tracks padding along on some older snowshoe tracks on the road between the avy area and the Zapata TH.

Posted On: 1/4/2026 By: daniel_a34
Info: Managed to ram through the snow to about half a mile from the Huerfano trailhead in a mostly stock Tacoma. Tree across the road stopped us there.

Posted On: 10/3/2025 By: Summitwise
Info: Dry all the way to the 4WD TH. We have a 80 series Landcruiser that's lifted with 35's and nearly 12" of clearance. Aired down to 14psi and had no issues. Did not have to drop into 4WL.

These updates are always biased based on experience so know that we spend tremendous amounts of time in the back-country driving 4WD roads. I would rate this road as it stood yesterday as easier than the Huron, Wetterhorn, and Uncompaghre approach roads.

Posted On: 9/26/2025 By: Da Legit Master
Info: There are only two flatish spots at the trailhead. If you plan to sleep in your vehicle, I recommend parking at one of the many nice flat secluded spots just before the trailhead. 

Posted On: 9/9/2025 By: shapovalovm
Info: Made it to within ~0.7 miles from the trailhead in a Honda Accord for a price of lightly scraping the bottom a couple times. Any car with 6+ inches of clearance should be able to make it slowly. Any car with 7+ inches of clearance should be able to *easily* make it.

By section:
- Start and until the last ranch, so first 16.7 miles, the road is drivable in a Lamborghini (I wish I had one to test).
- From here and until the road enters Forest Service land the road is the worst: very rocky with some large rocks sticking out in the middle. I had to maneuver around them, no way they would've fit underneath Accord clearance.
- Forest Service land section all the way to the trailhead. Mostly not bad, other than some steep rolling bars that I ended up scraping my bottom on. The last 0.5 miles seem to be the worst. That said, there's a chance I would've made it in an Accord all the way, but by that point I was close enough to the trailhead and driving was so slow and unnerving that walking was mentally easier.

Lot's of pull offs on Forest Service land section. There are some past the last ranch as well, but I am not sure you can park there.

Posted On: 9/1/2025 By: R7777777
Info: Any car can make it for the first 17 miles or so, up to just before the last ranch. After that, the road gets pretty choppy. An SUV with AWD can reach the trailhead if you take it slow and pick good lines. The final 2 miles are rough, though, and having decent clearance definitely helps.

Posted On: 8/10/2025 By: Shane_R
Info: If driving in at night, the landslide area described around mile 20 isn't really visible. I guessed at where to park (low clearance AWD car) and turned out to be ok - daylight showed I was just past the landslide area. My trip odometer read 20.4 mi at the No Trespassing sign at the edge of the trees. I hiked 2.1mi from there to the trailhead.

Posted On: 8/11/2025 By: WinterisClimbing
Info: Drove this road same time last year, and that must've been after a storm or something. Water everywhere, puddles the size of stream crossings. This year however, the road was bone dry the entire way and quite easy to drive if you've done things like Huron, Princeton, Handies, G+T, etc. seriously watch the weather the day before on this one. Outback was able to make it both times, but if there's significant rain the day before, consider letting it dry a day or two before going.

Posted On: 8/4/2025 By: sehessler92
Info: Definitely a rough road especially the last mile or so. Saw a Corolla about 1/4 a mile from the main trailhead which surprised me. It’s a slow going 10 or so miles to the trailhead and google maps will tell you you’re at the TH about 3 miles too early. Did hear something brushing around my car at 1:45am but looked under my car and didn’t see an animal ( or boogeyman) so unsure what it was.

Posted On: 8/4/2025 By: rmlee29
Info: Plan for an additional 20-30 min: Although the coordinates are correct (on 14ers.com and Google Maps), Google Maps itself doesn't has the road stopping at what appears to be the winter closure. All 4 cars in our group had the same experience. The road up to that closure is a very smooth unpaved road. After that, it goes on quite a bit further (it can take you another 20-30 min to get to the trailhead (which has 2 small parking lots). You'll want 4WD for sure, but it's nothing any standard SUV ground clearance can't handle (I drove a Subaru Forester no problem). Numerous car camping spots exist along the way.