How was the road up to the upper Nellie Creek trailhead? Do you need a SUPER 4wd or will a normal SUV make it? Thanks for any info you can provide!

It is a rough road, but we were in a plain old Dodge Ram 1500...not a 'Super 4wd' by any definition. I would certainly compare it to Baldwin Gulch Rd to Antero, or Castle Creek Rd to Castle and Conundrum if you have been on those. As far as SUVs I'd say it'd all depend on clearance, but would think it you are slow and thoughtful over some of the larger rocks you'd do fine. I believe we saw an SUV or two, don't remember what. Of course it was mostly jeeps at the 4wd TH. Some of the switchbacks may have been tighter than Baldwin Gulch Rd, since a pickup has a lot longer wheelbase than jeeps (or smaller SUVs) I made a couple multi-point turns on a couple of them.

Full disclosure: I do have a couple ”running board straightening” projects for my pickup...but you can probably attribute that to operator error! And not the first time I've bent my running boards out of place a bit.

The stream crossings were not too bad this far into July, even going up late Saturday afternoon (when presumably the water was close to highest). That said, I definitely stopped, got out, and evaluated the one that is sort of at a 90 degree angle along a turn. I wish I had gotten pictures of the road/stream crossing I'd have posted them, it'd given a little better idea.

Finally, we camped in a great spot about 0.2 or 0.3 mi from the 4wd TH. Mosquitos weren't too bad Sat night, but they certainly were early Sunday afternoon returning from Uncompahgre.

Agree with Jasonic's assessment. Rented a 2-door Jeep and was surprised seeing several long wheelbase vehicles at the TH. I was too scared to try this road in my rented Nissan Frontier, although other drivers are able to do it in similar cars/trucks. But driving in the Jeep was fun, and the hike was beautiful.