An Unexpected Challenge Driving The Lake Como Road

I must admit I only partially read the trailhead description for the lake como road, but it was hands down the worst “road” I’ve ever driven. To say the least, this road was not paved, and to say the most, this road was absolute trash. In my defense this website advertised it as a road, so I just assumed it was paved. It took me the better part of a day to drive it to the top, causing me all sorts of problems and essentially destroyed my girlfriend’s (now ex) car. So to anyone who brings a non-4WD car, expect at least 2-3 full days to make it to the top of the road and back down.

Being somewhat of an elite hiker myself I was looking for a real challenge this weekend. I considered the Bross-S.Bross traverse but figured it might be too risky, especially with high winds in the forecast in the notorious Mosquito Range. Would make the exposed ridge difficult to navigate! After further research it was concluded that the Lake Como road and 14ers Ellingwood Point , Mt. Blanca , and easy 13er Little Bear Peak might fit the bill. If time allowed it, I wanted to hike all 3.

Per usual, I elected to pack light but still carry all the essentials with me. I've gotten a lot of questions lately what I usually bring so I have attached a pic below. This honestly is all I usually bring and it it hasn't failed me yet. I then headed out in my girlfriend’s (now ex) VW Bug at around 5am from Greenwood Village. I would have brought my own modified Jeep but it was out of gas. In hindsight I now realize I should have brought the Jeep and just filled up at a gas station on the way down.

The way down was uneventful. I picked up my flatlander buddy Bryan (bludwig) who was visiting CO from Kansas. He told me he used to do some bouldering at the gym so I figured he probably would be ready for this trip. In addition he told me that he scaled the tallest peak in Kansas so that had to count for something. This would be his first 14er trip, so he was understandably exited. After grabbing iced coffees from Starbucks we made our way south. It took quite a while to actually get down to Como Road because the VW Bug was slow af. Unfortunately I did get a speeding ticket on the way down for going too fast in a construction zone. The officer gave me the choice of a lecture or a ticket. Already running short on time, I opted for the ticket.

We eventually got to the base of Como Rd at 11:34am, about 6.5 hours after Ieaving Greenwood Village. At this point I was pretty upset because I knew we had to really hustle if we were going to complete the grand 14er traverse between Blanca and Ellington before dark. To make matters worse, the Como Rd was in absolute garbage condition. My girlfriend’s VW Bug basically struggled from the moment the road started. After 10 or so seconds of driving up the road I abandoned my hope for the traverse. I thought if we could drive to the lake at a reasonable hour we could at least hike the less rigorous 13er, Little Bear, as a consolation.

Slowly but surely we started to weave up the lake Como road. I was probably going no more than 2-3 mph. Several hikers passed me on the way up. In this beginning segment, we commonly had to stop to push rocks out of the way or else they’d cause the car to get stuck. The base of this car is unusually low. In all honesty this vehicle is not practical for this type of activity. There was a jeep in front of us but they didn't know what they were doing which slowed us down even more.

After about 3 or miles of grueling torture we finally made it to where the National Forest began. I figured this area might be better maintained but I was definitely wrong. If anything, the road actually got worse. We were able to eventually able to drive to this mega obstacle of slanted and pointed rock. I must admit this part made me consider turning around, but after some internal deliberation I decided to floor it and hope for the best. The first attempt went horribly, and the underside of the VW scraped hard against the rocks, making the worst noise I’ve ever heard a car make. The car rolled backwards, back to the original position. Honestly I was relieved it didn’t flip because I would not have wanted to explain that to my girlfriend (now ex). Little did I know then, I would have worse explaining to do later.

Despite this failure, second time did the trick, as I applied even more speed than the previous time. I still scraped the entire underside of the car against the rock, but the combination of rapid acceleration, momentum, and torque did the trick.

After navigating a couple switchbacks, we came up again to another obstacle similar to the previous one. Using the same technique as before, we made quick work of it, except the rocks on this one broke something pretty bad on the car’s underside, causing gas to leak everywhere. At this point I quickly realized we’d have to pick up the pace if we were to make it to the top of the road before running out of gas.

I’d say that move was probably the crux of this route. I’ve included a picture with route recommendations. The red route is exposed and dangerous and I would not recommend it, while the green has better rock quality and is an overall safer option. If you find yourself driving anything that exceeds 6 bars of TH difficulty, it probably means you are off route. I found a helmet reassuring to wear during this section.

Eventually after a stint of driving through the trees, we stumbled upon another obstacle. At this point the obstacles were really starting to get annoying. This one had a V notched shaped massive indent. There was just no way the car could make it over without outside assistance. Fortunately, we flagged down some hikers, and after several efforts were able to force push the car up this obstacle with only moderate damage to the vehicle.

After driving through a boulder field, we FINALLY made it to the lake. And just in time too, because the car was overheated and subsequently died within minutes of arriving to the top. Also, basically all the gas leaked out anyway. We tried to restart the car several times to no avail. Nobody else had their car up there so we couldn’t even try jumper cables. Knowing my girlfriend (now ex) needed her car to drive to work tomorrow, I called AAA to see if they could send a worker up here but they said it wouldn’t be possible. I tried every option to convince them to come up but they eventually politely yet firmly hung up.

At this point it was pretty late in the afternoon , and I definitely knew I wouldn’t even be able to hike the traverse or do Little Bear. At the same time I knew I was gunna be screwed for ruining my girlfriend’s (now ex) car. Since AAA wasn’t going to come up anyway we decided to put the car out of its misery. I rounded up a couple of hikers and after some disagreement we decided to push the car into the lake where it probably won’t ever be seen again. That way we didn’t have to deal with somehow getting it back down to the bottom. In addition, it would satisfy LNT guidelines since nobody would ever notice a car at the bottom of a lake.

Walking down the entire road that night was probably worse than driving up it. It took forever, and I would not wish this hike on even my worst enemy. I was basically starving and at this point wishing I’d never even come here.

Overall, the trip didn’t go as planned and the fallout was fairly dramatic. My girlfriend dumped me for the incident, but more importantly I still didn’t get to hike any of these mountains, all because of this stupid road. At least my mom was happy I made it down safe.

Details matter, this should never have been called a road and I advise that this website’s owner adjust the the description accordingly. If not, many more will make the same mistakes as I did and have no choice but to abandon their vehicles at or in the lake. For example, this website lists the commitment as “low”. Obviously that is not the case.

Final Trip details below (No go pro footage because I left that in the glove compartment and sadly forgot it before we pushed the car into the lake) :

Start from Greenwood Village: 5.02 am

Arrive at Starbucks: 5.23 am

Base of lake como : 11.34am

To the lake: 7.10pm

Mileage: 7.4 miles (to the lake)

Minimum Speed: 0 mph (stop light near my house)

Max speed: 68 mph (construction zone area)