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Medano Lake Trailhead

  
8/24/2024
Posted On: 8/24/2024 By: greenschist
Info: I think the 4/6 rating is accurate. I drove to the pass in an Xterra without too much trouble. The first several miles are easy but run through private property. Just before the National Forest boundary the road gets rockier. There's an open gate at the boundary with some erosion under it. If not for this erosion I think a low-clearance sedan could get to public land without much issue. Just past the gate is an open area with room for multiple groups to car camp or pitch a tent. I saw a low-clearance sedan made it here, but personally I wouldn't have risked it. I would park anything less capable than a Subaru here. The trouble starts at the first set of switchbacks. It's washed out and rutted, but with 4Lo wasn't too hard. There's a pull-out near the top of these switchbacks, and I recommend stopping there if you had trouble getting up them. From here to the next switchbacks is more of the same: short steep sections, ruts, and occasional exposed bedrock. Just after the last switchback before the pass is probably the hardest obstacle. The road will open up and split two ways. To the left is some exposed bedrock, to the right is a short umapped road. Both ways will get you to the pass, but I actually think crawling over the bedrock is easier. The other way just had deeper ruts and looser cobbles and sand. Choose your line carefully over the bedrock; I stayed left near the small tree trunk. If you take the other road, you'll have to turn left when you reach another road that goes north from the pass. This northbound road has additional campsites. Whichever way you take, the pass is just ahead. If you can make it to the pass you can probably make it to the TH. The road drops steeply on the west side, and some stretches are washed out on one side. All 3 designated campsites on the National Preserve side were taken Friday night. There was a decent amount of traffic on the road, mostly going East to West. Mostly trucks, Jeeps, and another Xterra. No Subarus, but with good tires and careful lines you could probably get further than you might expect. Overall the road seemed a bit worse than the last report suggests, I definitely appreciated the clearance I have.
3
6/24/2024
Posted On: 6/26/2024 By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: I got my Subaru Forester to the pass and absolutely could have gotten it to the trailhead (sure wish I had too, that 400 feet of regain at the very end of the day sucked!). There is a problem spot at the second switchback that it took me a few attempts to get up, but that was the hardest spot in my opinion. Anyone with 4Lo will have no problem at all. Clearance is never an issue, just the steepness and a few rocky washout spots. Overheated my transmission on the way up which is never surprising on roads this steep.
3
 
7/22/2023
Posted On: 7/25/2023 By: CarpeDM
Info: Caveat 1: As of this writing Caveat 2: When the road is dry Caveat 3: Getting up to the pass only (not the west side portion to the actual trailhead) Caveat 4: I do tend to drive my Forester on some rough 4wd roads Ninety percent of this road is very easy for a Subaru Forester or similar (AWD with clearance) vehicle. There were a couple of places where my Forester struggled and one place that stopped me before the pass. The place that stopped me was about 0.1 mile east of the pass. I did get the Forester up on top of this bump, but in the dark, getting down the backside of it looked even steeper, a little sandy, and maybe slightly technical. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get back over it coming out, so decided not to try. Other than that spot, there were two other steep, sandy, kinda rutted places where the Forester struggled (the traction warning light came on), but the rest is very doable (for probably any AWD vehicle that has some clearance, at least). And, yes, I do wonder if I could've made it over that last obstacle, but I thought about the possibility of it being wet on the way back down and that solidified the decision not to try it, and I don't regret it. I can imagine that if the road had been wet, it would've been a whole different ballgame. The west side to the trailhead was doable in a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.
 
9/16/2022
Posted On: 9/18/2022 By: desertdog
Info: We drove in from the east side and parked at the top of the pass. We hiked to the TH from there. The first 7 miles were easy. You dont really need 4WD. I was surprised how dry the road was. After that there are two three spots where 4WD is mandatory. I have a 4Runner and it handled it no problem. On the west side of the pass to the TH the road is much rougher. It only took us 20 minutes to walk from the top of the pass to the TH. Several standard 4wds had driven to the TH though.
 
7/11/2021
Posted On: 7/13/2021 By: eskermo
Info: 2nd generation 4Runner (all stock except for a little larger tires) made it to the TH fairly easily. Our driver opted to air down from 35 psi to 25 psi and felt that was helpful. My Forester was able to easily make it to the junction of 559 and 416 but I would not consider taking it farther. The road had some deep ruts for a couple miles and a short rough, rocky section before the camp sites, but were easily manageable. This was a good meeting spot for camping and piling in a capable vehicle in the AM. The last few hundred yards to the TH are severely rutted as MtnMan pointed out in his recent TR of Medano and Herard. We parked at the first campsite and it only added a minute of walking. FWIW, from Westcliffe Google Maps tried to route me through the private property north of the 69/559 turnoff. Bergsteigen's TR mentions this as well. The first half mile of 559 was removed from GMaps, preventing it from routing you up CR 559. Just continue a few miles past the ranch and you cannot miss the big brown FS sign for Medano Pass Road.