Music Pass Trailhead

Posted On: 9/8/2026 By: infinitealpine
Info: Made it in a stock RAV4. No major obstacles but the road is steep. High clearance is required.

Posted On: 7/30/2026 By: climbingyogi
Info: Got the Subie up very easily. It was actually a super fun road to drive, as there weren't really any obstacles to dodge. Just some pleasant ups and downs.

Posted On: 6/30/2026 By: E_A_Marcus_949
Info: Made it to the upper trailhead in a 2011 stock Jeep Wrangler. No issues. Definitely a good crawler is helpful as there are some obstacles and steep areas on the road. Lots of pulloffs and parking spots too though. The Subaru may have made it, but it would be pushing it based on some of the obstacles being on the steep sections. Other cars at trailhead: jeeps, 4Runners, trucks, Nissan Murano (did it scrape though), older land rover.

Posted On: 2/10/2026 By: piper14er
Info: Hiked up the road and on to Snowslide. "Just a good stretch of the legs Mary Kate."

Started with about 6" of snow and an ATV track that goes all the way to the meadow where the road turns left and continues to the trail to Music Pass.

An ATV ran up the road while I was up on Snowslide that took out the tracks by a few other people until you get to the left turn. They were using snowshoes and their track kept going towards Music Pass. I booted the whole thing and left the trail at the carsonite past the meadow.

Snow increased the higher up and got to a foot or so on the road. Unconsolidated snow was knee deep generally and then waist deep and unconsolidated the last 500 or so feet to the ridge.

A few pics of the road and then Snowslide for what it is worth.

A good one-man trench off the road, also for what it is worth.

Update 2/6/26

A lot of snow has melted and there is about 30-35% mud stretches along the road from the restroom up to the sign, more lower down than up. Also, should mention that after the first cattle guard there is snow and intermittent to the second cattle guard. May need 4wd.

Posted On: 1/9/2026 By: SherpaSara
Info: Lower 2wd TH was easily accessed, just a couple icy spots; above this someone had driven up the 4wd until deadfall stopped them, but there were a lot of icy spots and deeper snow in places.

As far as normal winter access, there is a sign at the split at 37.98598, -105.44247 that says “No winter maintenance,” so I assume this is where plowing stops. This is about 4.3 miles from the Grape Creek 2wd TH.

Posted On: 11/14/2025 By: Skimo95
Info: Easy 4wd, dry to lower sand creek lake. Dogs and cattle on road

Posted On: 10/10/2025 By: sglow319
Info: Made it today to the trailhead in a stock 2013 Toyota Highlander (about 8” clearance). Scraped once on the way up on a rocky section, picked a better line on the way down (it was dark when driving up). Definitely need at least moderate clearance (I’d guess at least 7.5+”) and 4wd. This road was at the limit of what I am comfortable taking this particular car on. Had my friend be a spotter a few times on the descent, which was very helpful. It’s not bad though, the road seems to be in good shape compared to reports of previous years. Lots of high berms where one could get high centered or scrape if not enough clearance (or go to fast). A few rocky sections, nothing significant, and a few loose rock sections on steeper hills. Narrow one lane road but lots of pull offs.

Posted On: 8/17/2025 By: MaryinColorado
Info: Recently re-graded, they did a phenomenal job! Road is in great condition from Rainbow TH all the way to Music Pass TH. Saw a Nissan Rogue parked at the clearing below the final stretch to the TH. If good lines are chosen very carefully, I can see how that was doable whereas before there's no way in heck I'd say a standard SUV could get very far past the Rainbow TH. The re-grading work is pretty impressive, overall.

Posted On: 7/29/2025 By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: Easily Subaruable to the upper trailhead, no problem spots of note. Took me about 20 minutes to drive from the Grape Creek TH to the top.

Posted On: 6/8/2025 By: zrsimpson
Info: Drove to the top of Music Pass in a stock 2021 Rav4 Prime. There are two places that will give a mid- to small-size SUV difficulty, one at the half-mile mark, and one right before the road splits into a higher and lower route for about 50 feet. Traction was an issue at the latter, but it was still doable. Probably at the upper limit for what a Rav4 or similar vehicle can do.

Posted On: 11/29/2024 By: SarahT
Info: Road is very snowy but drivable to Grape Creek TH with 4wd. One set of tracks continued for about 1/2 mile through deep snow to the Rainbow Trail junction.

Posted On: 7/21/2024 By: MaryinColorado
Info: For comparison purposes, I attempted Music Pass last year in my Honda Pilot. I made it a fair bit past the Grape Creek TH. Coming back to drive the whole thing in my stock 4Runner this time, I got to the spot where I'd turned my Honda around and thought, "Might have been a little stupid to take it this far." And then the more I kept driving, I thought, "There's no way I'd take a standard SUV up this."

Easy enough with the 4Runner, though. When the road splits in two temporarily, I took the same fork (uphill right) both times with no issue. The other fork looked like it had a massive roller where a shorter wheel base would do better.

Overall, good condition 4x4 road, though. From Grape Creek TH to Music Pass TH was 20 minutes.

Posted On: 7/17/2024 By: SherpaSara
Info: If you have a longer wheel base vehicle, you may want to stop at the open meadow about 0.1 mi below the TH proper. There is a steep berm on the last section that may cause you issues. I scraped and bottomed out pretty bad in a stock GMC Sierra double-cab.

Posted On: 7/15/2024 By: jjmirk12
Info: I made it to the top in a stock 2008 rav4 with little issues. There were two spots (one right at the beginning of the 4wd road and one near the end of the road) where I had a spotter get out to make sure I wouldn't scrape. There is a section of the road where it splits into two and both meet up after 40 yards. On the way down, go left if your car has low clearance; I saw a crv hit the front of their car on the right side because of a big roller (it doesn't look bad but he did hit his car going down it).

Posted On: 7/5/2024 By: GREEN
Info: For the 4WD trailhead: I made it up with no issue in a Silverado Trail Boss. At the top there was a few other half tons and even 3/4 tons with at least 2" lifts, and even a Bronco sport. 1 rough spot but the rest is gravy.