Mt. Princeton Road Trailhead

Posted On: 9/20/2026 By: mvmn206
Info: If you have any 4wd experience and a modestly capable vehicle you'll be fine. The only real risk comes from how infrequent turnoffs (and areas for passing) are. Therefore I'd highly recommend you leave early and come back in the afternoon if you want to start this hike closer to 11,000' (which I would recommend since you're not really cutting off good scenery - just typical mountain road walking).

We arrived at the lower TH at 5am and made it to the 11,000' turnoff just past the radio towers (turn left at the towers and continue another ~0.2 miles) in about 25 minutes. We started the hike at 5:30am sharp. We returned at 2:30pm - we were definitely the slowest group on the mountain that day - and started the drive back down. Never encountered another vehicle going in the opposite direction. Just in case you do, make a mental note every time you pass a turnoff.

Posted On: 8/16/2026 By: klein1826
Info: First time 4WD road driver. In hindsight, the road isn’t too bad, but it was scary. We drove up at about 4:30am and luckily didn’t run into another car. If you do, good luck- you’ll be arguing who will be in reverse for a mile or two. Steep drops, no turnarounds or places to allow anyone to get around. You are fully committed to the 3 mile drive unless you have a lot of experience with a 20pt turn on a cliff.


Once to the towers, you can go a little further to reach a larger parking area. I would recommend it if you made it all the way there. I picked someone up who was hiking and he helped ease my nerves. He was pissed he didn’t bring up his Subaru. There were Subarus up there and a Honda Pilot but I assume you need some good tires and experience driving these roads to bring them. I made it up “easily” in a Dodge Ram.

Posted On: 7/30/2026 By: Browndw22
Info: Was worried all the rain might have washed out some of the road but it wasn’t bad at all. No issues driving up in my 4 door bronco, has around 10 inches of clearance but didn’t come close to hitting at any point. As others have said, the trail to the radio towers is very narrow. Started the drive from the 2wd trailhead around 5am and drove back down around 9:45am and didn’t come across any other cars on the trail either way. Definitely recommend heading up early to avoid cars coming in the opposite direction. Plenty of open spots as you continue to the left past the radio towers.

Posted On: 7/20/2026 By: dstonebass
Info: I tried driving up the road from the lower to the upper trailhead on 7/7 in my Subaru Forester; did the drive in the afternoon to see if I could make it in the early morning darkness the next day. I'm glad I did - there were some pretty big potholes maybe 1 mile up that I got my car stuck in. Fortunately 2 young guys were coming down in a jeep right then and helped push me out of the potholes and turn around. Unless you really know what you're doing (which I don't) I'd say be careful driving up in anything less than a jeep or something similar.

Posted On: 7/19/2026 By: bengessel
Info: Drove up and parked at the towers around 4am in my 4 door Jeep Wrangler - no problem. There were a couple challenging spots, but nothing a high clearance vehicle with 4wd can't handle. Walked the rest of the way up the road per the route directions on here. Coming back down there were vehicles parked all the way up the road. Glad we parked where we did as we can say we completed the entire route. :-)

Posted On: 7/13/2026 By: cdbrown8x
Info: I highly recommend you don't drive up the 4WD road. It's possible with a short-wheelbase Jeep or ATV (daylight only), but there's a high likelihood of getting stuck in a 4WD truck. There is almost nowhere to turn around until the 4WD trailhead. If you encounter a vehicle going the other way, you're going to have a big problem-- it's one vehicle wide with steep faces on either side. Our Toyota Tundra TRD Off-Road was challenged and bottomed out in cross-road erosion ruts at one point... we had to back down the slope (with the passenger ground-guiding for a half-mile) until we could turn around at the Colorado Trail intersection.

Posted On: 7/2/2026 By: KlausThompson
Info: Got to the towers in my 2024 Subaru crosstrek sport. There was only one other car parked at the towers, which was a Rivian SUV. The road isn’t too bad if you’re comfortable with 4WD roads, EXCEPT the obstacle halfway up the road. That obstacle is sandy and was tough to navigate going up. There was a Kia Sportage that was unable to make it up the road and had to reverse down.
In hindsight, walking the additional 3 miles from the lower TH doesn’t seem so bad, especially if you’re not comfortable on 4WD roads.

Posted On: 7/9/2026 By: bryanf
Info: I drove to the 2WD trailhead and started hiked from there about 6am. It was surprisingly difficult to find the 2WD trailhead. I figured I would be able to turn off for "Mt. Princeton Hot Springs" and there would be an obvious sign for "Mt. Princeton Trailhead" when I needed to turn off... Not the case and I drove past it about 4 miles before I pulled over and checked a map. In hindsight, it wasn't much more obvious. You just have to know which road to pull off on. It's shortly after the country store on the right hand side.

I had already decided that I did not want to drive up to the radio towers, in expectation that I would run into traffic and have a bad time, despite driving a Tacoma. The road was a bit worse than I expected from photos, but there was definitely less traffic than I was expecting on the mountain.

Pull off locations are really not plentiful. There's a serious chance you have to reverse for a half mile over some bad terrain if you run into another driver.

Here's what I saw.
Hiking up: At 6 am there were 3 vehicles (including mine) at 2WD trailhead. Saw 1 vehicle coming down around 6:30am. 2 passed me going up. 1 vehicle parked right at the radio towers. Maybe 2 more parked a 1/4 mile past that. There was a surprising amount of parking here, but not exactly at the radio towers. Probably room for 15 from radio towers onward. Saw 1 more vehicle parked just before the turn off of the service road onto the trail proper. Interestingly, I never saw one of the passing vehicles again. I guess they just kept going.

Hiking down: Left summit at 15 til noon. I saw 2 new vehicles at the radio towers. 1 vehicle passed me on my way down.

Terrain: The terrain is worst between mile 1 and mile 2.5. Not that it matters because this is a full commitment thing. If you start up to radio towers, you must continue, there is no parking before them. There are a couple of quality pull off locations about 0.5 miles from 2WD. Most hairpins are wide enough to allow passing and there are 3 or so of those. After a really technical section, there are a couple of wider places where you can potentially pass a vehicle.

Posted On: 6/23/2026 By: JasonCrane
Info: Reached the summit from the 2WD trailhead by foot. I hiked, so I didn't attempt to drive the road in my rental. It's 3 miles to the Comm Towers from the base of Mt. Princeton Road with one very notable rough section about half way up that looked like an egg crate. The upper road deteriorates significantly with one section at a switchback that literally had a 2-3 foot shelf. I saw 2 vehicles parked at the highest 4WD trailhead at the point where the trail leaves the road at the cairn and stone steps. A Jeep Wrangler had a yellow vehicle tow strap tied to a tree to keep it rolling off the side of the mountain.

Posted On: 6/20/2026 By: Bmcgowne
Info: Same status as the others. Steep, rocky and rough. My stock Nissan Frontier did just fine. Didn’t have to pass anyone up or down which is good as numerous vehicles parked in the pull off sections on my drive down.

Posted On: 6/3/2026 By: erdi9596
Info: Hiked Princeton on 6/2/26. In stock 2016 subaru crosstrek I made it to parking above the radio towers. There was only one crux section of the drive that I had to get out and pick my line. IYKYK, that car does not have the greatest engine for climbing but it does have 8.7 clearance. Nothing was too steep for the subie. Just the one spot of line choice to get through deep potholes.

Posted On: 5/30/2026 By: wallabally
Info: Personally was not brave enough to make it up the 4WD road in our Subaru Forester. Turned around when it got really gnarly about halfway up. Had to back down about a quarter mile to a pull-off. I think you could do it if you have more experience off-roading.

Posted On: 5/26/2026 By: Okottke
Info: The road is rough and narrow with one major obstacle around half way up. Two incredible young women proved to me that when there’s a will there’s a way by bringing their outback all the way up. I was shaking in my boots in a Bronco sport and needed some emotional support from kind strangers in order to make it past a couple spots where I got stuck. There are no turn outs and it is pretty bumpy so if you are like my and off roading scares you, you should probably park at the bottom lot. Also there is additional parking a short ways up from the radio towers I would shoot for that lot first.

Posted On: 5/16/2026 By: Cruiser
Info: Mt Princeton road was in good condition today. We didn't encounter any snow or mud before the radio towers. There's was a switchback before the place where the hiking trail leaves the road that was still holding enough snow that I wouldn't have tried to drive past it but things are melting very quickly and I'm sure you'll be able to drive to the end of the road really soon. There were multiple spots not very far above the radio towers that could have accommodated 2-4 cars. Road as far as the towers seemed subaruable to me if you're careful and take it slowly.

Posted On: 3/12/2026 By: Skimo95
Info: 4wd friendly to radio towers. Possible past that but I wouldn’t advise it