6/19/2025 Posted On: 6/20/2025 By: TechBison Info: Planned to drive the road in a 2018 4WD Honda CRV (6.8in clearance), but was forced to turn around ~1 Mile up. The vehicle was stuck at a switchback with the tires sliding on a steep, dusty patch. It may be possible to drive to the towers in this vehicle, but it requires a seriously high level of confidence in your off-road driving ability; I chose not to risk it. I ended up hiking the road and noted several vehicles with 9 or more inches of clearance parked at the towers around 11,000 feet. I've attached a picture of where my vehicle got stuck. The road worsens slightly from this point, with large potholes and bumps of about 12-16 inches deep further up. In better news, there is zero snow left on the road all the way to the trailhead. | 1 |
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6/11/2025 Posted On: 6/11/2025 By: Cuttlefishette Info: Road's totally dry, made it in a stock Outback Wilderness without too much trouble. Spun a little bit on those ruts at ~9800 on the way up, but got clear pretty quick and coming down was a breeze. Can confirm there are precious few pull-offs, so try to hit the 4wd road after everybody's come down for the night but before anybody summits in the morning. Same goes for parking spots up high. Campsites are small, rare, and the ground is far from level, so sleeping up there is tricky, but not impossible. You could probably drive to 11,800, if you make it as far as the radio towers, it only gets a little sketchier from there, but there's not a wealth of spots to park or turn around higher up. | ||||
5/27/2025 Posted On: 5/27/2025 By: WinterisClimbing Info: Posting this from my parking spot at the towers. Completely dry up to here. Arrived at 3:30am and I think I'm the only one here. Reading the reports I was expecting a lot worse than what it actually is. The crux was, as many mentioned, two ruts next to each other that are unavoidable. My 8.7in clearance AWD outback made it up fine with normal tires. No need for special tires or 4wd. Slightly nervous for the way down, hoping I don't run into anyone coming up. | 2 |
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5/26/2025 Posted On: 5/26/2025 By: paigemoney Info: Road is dry to the camping area near the radio towers. Past there, there are a few small/passable areas of snow within the next 0.4 miles. ~ 0.4 miles from the camping area, there’s a large snowfield blocking vehicles from going any further. There’s parking for 2-3 vehicles there. At around 9,770 feet, there is a spot that is difficult for some vehicles to pass. Essentially two deep potholes side by side with sand inside. Deep enough that I believe my rock guard rubbed. Good tires and 4WD needed. For anyone else going up the first time and camping: When you get almost to the radio towers, the road will go straight and you’ll see a sign on a tree that says “Warning Helicopter Operation Area.” Do not go straight. Instead, make the hairpin turn (left), then you’ll see a sign that says 322A. Camping spots are 0.25 miles from the split in the road. For as heavily trafficked as this trail is during the summer, I was shocked by the lack of pull-offs and parking. Really glad to have knocked this one out during a slower season. | ||||
4/29/2025 Posted On: 4/29/2025 By: BillMiddlebrook Info: OPEN and dry to the radio towers. Also made it the next 0.2 mile to the small camping pull-offs. There were a couple of snow patches just before that area but no problem getting past. Road is snow-covered beyond there. | 2 |
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1/30/2025 Posted On: 1/31/2025 By: JasonCrane Info: CR322 from BV is dry & free of snow to Mt. Princeton Road at 8,900 feet. Bathroom is in-service & parking area is plowed. Mt. Princeton Road has a lot of snow & evidence of vehicles turning around about 1/4 mile up. Road is packed down by snowcat tracks up to the Comm Towers. | ||||
9/6/2024 Posted On: 9/6/2024 By: bigfoot1 Info: 4 other cars in the lower lot at 8am on a Friday. Saw plenty of jeeps and a camper van make it to the higher trailhead. | ||||
8/17/2024 Posted On: 8/17/2024 By: MetricAssLoad Info: I drove my Subaru Outback to 11,800 and didnt scrape. Not bad with proper tires. Only parking for 3 cars or so. | ||||
8/8/2024 Posted On: 8/8/2024 By: nicktex Info: Made it in a full size 4WD truck to the radio towers - but terrifying if you are driving a new truck you don't want to ding up ! ;-) One nasty pothole section launched a pad out of my truck bed, at < 5 mph. Coming down in the rain would not be fun in the dirt / mud sections. Plan your descent before any rain. | ||||
8/2/2024 Posted On: 8/2/2024 By: coloradomojo Info: Drove our stock F-150 w/ Crew Cab and AT Overland topper to the upper trailhead today (Friday). No issues with the drive, but....I would never want to drive that road with a bigger vehicle such as this if we anticipated having pass a vehicle going the other direction (read weekend afternoon). Also, there were Subaru Outbacks and even a Rav4 as well as a small Mazda SUV at the upper trailhead for what's that worth. | ||||
6/28/2024 Posted On: 6/28/2024 By: pthomps17 Info: My wife and I spent tons of time researching whether or not we could take our 15 Rav4 up the road (7-ish ground clearance). As long as you have some rough 4wd road experience and are a confident driver, you should be just fine in any similar vehicle. It was easy enough to keep the tires on the high points and take them over any big rocks so as not to scrape. 1st 2 miles is bumpy but not too rocky, last mile has more large rocks. There was one obstacle about 1/2 way up to the towers where we saw a Subaru go up on three wheels (they made it out quickly)there are two large pits side by side. We made it through without issue by swinging to the outer edge of the road and only hitting one pit. We made it to the radio towers and could have made it another few hundred yards up. We did not have to pass any vehicles on a Friday but I can see how this would be more treacherous and frustrating on a busy weekend with lots of cars going up and down. | ||||
5/19/2024 Posted On: 5/19/2024 By: Wildernessjane Info: I was able to get a little bit past the radio towers to where there are three parking spots on the right side in a stock SUV. There were a few patches of snow just before the radio towers but these were not hard to navigate. The snow is pretty continuous after this point. | 3 |
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10/19/2023 Posted On: 10/20/2023 By: Jajohnson11 Info: Made it to where the trailhead meets the road at 11,800' in a stock tremor. No snow anywhere. We aired down as we always do but probably wasn't necessary. 3 point turns at 2 of the switchbacks. As far as parking up there, there are some "spots" near the trail, at MOST 3-4 vehicles. Definitely room for 2. You can drive past the trail junction and there's a big turn around spot about 1/2 way to the end of the rd. If it's a weekend I would probably just park at the towers and not risk having nowhere to park up there. At 2pm on a Wednesday we there was no else around. | 1 |
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10/7/2023 Posted On: 10/9/2023 By: raphaelroxas Info: As of Oct 7, the road to the towers and all the way up to where the trail leaves the 4WD road is dry. Made it up to the towers with a Nissan Rogue and probably could have made it up to the next hairpin. | ||||
9/19/2023 Posted On: 9/19/2023 By: howla Info: My Outback (lifted) should have made it up to the towers, and probably further just fine. You really need clearance more than 4wd; honestly I thought the road to Grays & Torreys trailhead was in worse condition. The worst part of the road is about 1.5 miles in, and if you decide not to risk it, you have to back down. HOWEVER, I drove up in the snow on the night of 15 September and nearly slid off multiple times. I did get stuck twice and had to reverse to take a different angle around the hairpins. I was the only person spending the night (shocker), I slept at the last hairpin before the towers due to trees down across the road. Absolutely would not recommend driving this road in the snow unless you are extremely confident in your car's abilities. | 2 |
