14ers.com • Trailhead Info and Status (East Dallas Creek Trailhead)

East Dallas Creek Trailhead

Location

San Juan Mountains

Road Difficulty

2 (0=Paved, 6=Very Difficult 4WD)
2WD Dirt to the TH.

Driving Directions

Take CO-62 from Ridgway (there's only one direction: west) and follow it for a few miles up a steep gain and around a bend. You descend a gentle hill where there is a brown recreation sign that says "National Forest Access East Dallas Creek" with an arrow pointing to the left (south). Take this turn and follow the road for approx. 9. There are a number of turnoffs/driveways for various ranches, but just stay on the well-marked, main road. The trailhead is easily accessible for two-wheel drive, and there is plentiful camping in one of the finest car-accessible campsites in Colorado. The trailhead itself is about a quarter mile further up the road from the open meadow where the first campsites are located. It gets a bit more rough on this final stretch, but it's still an easy road and a 2wd shouldn't have any trouble making it.

Winter Access

Usually closed at least 4 miles below the TH.

Status Updates
2020-11-19 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Yesterday, 11 18 2020 there was quite a bit of snow/ice on ouray county road 7, especially the last 2 miles before you get to the blue lakes trailhead. Coming back, later in the afternoon it had all turned to slush and mud. If they get more snow up there, I’ll probably be parking before the trailhead.		2
2020-11-06 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Ouray county road 7 is clear to the trailhead with very little snow or mud. Only in the last mile of the the road is actually wet.
2020-10-24 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Ouray county road 7 is dry to the trailhead. Restroom is still open, no tp.		1
2020-09-16 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Road is clear and dry all the way to the blue lakes trailhead. Restroom still open, no tp.
2020-06-29 Posted By: Askgeeves Info: Road is washboarded on the gravel section. A car can make it though. went up over the weekend in a sedan no issues. Trail to Sneffels was clear of snow majority of the way.
2020-06-05 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Clear and dry to the trailhead. Restroom open with tp.
2020-05-28 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Clear and dry to trailhead. Restroom unlocked, no TP.
2020-05-21 Posted By: Wentzl Info: Clear and Dry to the Blue Lakes Trailhead		1
2019-12-03 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Yesterday, Dec.2nd I drove ouray cr7 to about 4.7 miles where I parked after almost getting stuck in the snow. I then just snowshoed the road to the trailhead where there was 18 inches of snow in the parking lot that was almost dry a couple of weeks ago.		2
2019-11-10 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: Yesterday, November 8th the last mile of Ouray county road 7 had quite a bit of snow. I have an AWD Durango and it worked well. I hope to still have access until the end of the month or longer, but if we get another 6-12 inches of snow I might be parking before I reach the trailhead.
2019-10-27 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: On Friday 10/25/2019 road to trailhead was in good shape. A little snow last .5 mile which was a little less then last year at this time.		2
2019-06-15 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: I went to the Blue lakes trailhead today. Ouray county road 7 is dry all the way to the trailhead. Trail to Lower blue lake is dry for 1.25 miles then patchy snow for .25 miles. Solid snow after that. A little beyond the last stream crossing is a large amount of avalanche debris and most likely more at the slide path just prior to the lake.
2019-05-21 Posted By: ltlFish99 Info: On Saturday, April 13th I had to park .25 mile before mile marker 5 on county road 7 due to snow. I snowshoed to the trailhead where there was 3 plus feet of snow on top of the restroom. I will report what I find on my next adventure there in the near future.
2018-03-30 Posted By: Wentzl Info: Snow on the road just past National Forest boundary makes further travel impractical. This is roughly mile 7 from the highway, about 2 miles from trailhead.		2
2011-05-29 Posted By: Chicago Transplant Info: You can drive to within 20‘ of the trailhead parking lot, there was one last snow drift that hadn‘t been broken trough but a guy in a lifted Wrangler busted it on Sunday afternoon, just needs a few days for his ruts to melt out enough and everyone else should be able to drive those last 20‘, but what‘s an extra 20‘ of walking, essentially this trailhead is open for the season. A few lower snow drifts are leaving parts of the road wet and a little muddy, and there is a log that had fallen that is cut through but only wide enough for "single lane" traffic at that point. Some rocky parts and potholes may be a little rough on lower clearance vehicles, but we saw a Saturn Ion sedan at the trailhead, so it can‘t be that bad.
2010-05-11 Posted By: PKR Info: Open to with in .5 mi. of Blue Lakes TH.
2009-05-11 Posted By: jbchalk Info: Road open to Blaine Basin/Blue Lakes TH.
2008-06-15 Posted By: Andy Info: Clear all the way to Blue Lake Trailhead.
2008-05-19 Posted By: jbchalk Info: Road clear to 8.4 miles off CO 62 (0.6 miles below TH).
2005-09-09 Posted By: MickeyT Info: 9-3-05 Same as above.Kinda rough the last 4-5 miles but easily passable. Trailhead was good,looked like brand new signs.
2005-05-30 Posted By: Nathan Hale Info: Drove up to camp near this trailhead on Friday, 5/27, and it was completely clear of snow and easily passable. There were some bumps on the road, especially near the end, but no worse than last year. Pretty much anything could get up there.