3 Posted By: blockingthesky Info: The gate was open when I arrived today at 1PM to the Hessie parking area and Fourth of July Road junction. I drove carefully about 300 yards up the road over packed snow before turning back towards Hessie after considering the time of day. Turned out to be a good move - when I returned from Lost Lake to the Hessie area around 4PM, the Fourth of July Road access gate had been closed, and a fella, his dogs, and his 4Runner were trapped behind it. A Ranger came and rescued him after I drove out a bit and sent out the call. I spoke to the fella later on: apparently the gate wasnt closed by a Parks official; it was secured with a dummy lock. The Ranger speculated that a local had taken them upon themselves to close it. So, the gate is still open, for now - but looking at the 3 days of incoming snow, our gate-closing rogue agent may have been onto something. (That said, I do hope that its standard practice for Parks to make sure nobodys got a vehicle behind an access gate before closing it for the season, especially if theres no cell service/callbox onsite!) | ||||
Posted By: drummerjohn Info: Road was a little rough but I was able to make it with a Sonata driving carefully with some occasional scraping. Several areas I had to slow down and pick a good line. | ||||
Posted By: colingoodman Info: Apparently this trailhead is wildly popular. I drove up for the Arapaho traverse only to get turned away due to the parking lot being full and there being a 90 minute wait time for a spot. Not only that, the overflow area was very crowded with the school parking lot being full and many cars parked along the highway. Not sure if this is just a fall foliage thing but beware of this and get here earlier than I did (9am on an autumn Sunday) | 1 |
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Posted By: poseidon Info: Road to trailhead was not muddy at all and easy enough to navigate even in my 2WD Prius with 6" of ground clearance. Got there at around 6:10 with the upper lot mostly full, but found plenty of spaces along the side of the road. Coming back down at around noon there were a few cars headed up, so be prepared to yield. Overall less challenging than I expected! | ||||
Posted By: Cereal Info: Road is completely dry and in great shape. I got my Corolla to the TH no problem. | ||||
Posted By: CarpeDM Info: Apparently, when the Hessie and Fourth of July TH parking lots are full, they’re now closing the road and running shuttles from the high school. I found this out 7/23/22. Hiking something up there was going to be my Plan B when Plan A fell through. I arrived at the closure just before 7am to find that even the high school parking lot was nearly full. I was told that shuttles run about every 20 minutes. (I went to Plan C.) | ||||
Posted By: markf Info: On Wednesday, 11/17, I was able to get to the trailhead in a Honda Civic with good snow tires. Quite a bit of bare ground, and limited clearance was not a big problem. | ||||
Posted By: markf Info: Winter access for this trailhead is at the Hessie Rd and Fourth of July Road split (39.951572762098884, -105.5950280484135), about 4 miles below the big parking lot and Buckingham Campground. This is also the 2WD option for the Hessie trailhead in summer. The road to this point is 2WD dirt, and is well maintained in winter, although snow tires or chains are frequently necessary for 2WD vehicles. This area is very heavily used in winter by snowshoers and XC skiers. | ||||
Posted By: ccerling Info: FYI. There are road signs up indicating that 4th of July Road will be closed on Tuesday 8/3 with no access in or out for resurfacing work. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recarea/?recid=28264 | ||||
Posted By: kingshimmers Info: Trailhead and road parking was almost full at 6:30am. Road has some spots that are in rough condition this year. Some years I’d take a sedan up, others I wouldn’t... this is one where a few of the spots would be rough. Potholes and ruts are starting to get a bit deep in one or two places. That said, I did see a Tesla model 3 at the trailhead sooooo... | ||||
Posted By: 123tqb Info: Road is closed from the Hessie trailhead onwards. Expect to add another 4mi each way, with icy conditions all the way up to 4th of July. Microspikes highly recommended, with deeper snow after the trailhead. Snowshoes not necessary yet, but could be used. | ||||
Posted By: LetsGoMets Info: A good number of deep ruts and high rocks - I’d imagine you need to get creative with a low clearance vehicle to avoid damage, but there were a good number of 2WD cars there. Trailhead (and all road parking) was full by 11AM (Friday) - I was stalked by parking spot claimers the second I walked out of the TH. | ||||
Posted By: DaisyofColorado Info: We weren’t able to make it to trailhead with AWD, winter tires and high clearance cars (Subaru, Nissan xterra, Honda CRV). We made it 1 mile left to the trailhead (3 miles up from Hessie TH) and had to turn around. Snow got very deep, slipped a lot and I got stuck in the snow (AWD, Winter tires Honda CRV) and had to be pushed out by friends. The section of the road to Hessie TH was good. | ||||
Posted By: grahampa Info: Fourth of July TH is still closed at the normal winter closure. About 2.5 miles up the road from the closure starts long stretches of snow coverage. snowshoes recommended later in the day. I still was able to make it to the TH from the winter closure in about 1.25 hours in my trail runners around 1 pm. anything further up the Arapaho pass trail snowshoes, gaiters and/or skis highly recommended. | ||||
Posted By: kingshimmers Info: On this specific day, Fourth of July Road was 95% clear of snow. Road was mostly dry on 11/4 (no giant puddles), and currently passable in most vehicles. Outhouse is still stocked with TP ;) | ||||
Posted By: kingshimmers Info: Currently fine and passable in most vehicles. One set of puddles getting larger as the season progresses, but still looking fine as of now. | ||||
Posted By: jennincolorado Info: Based on a previous report that I read online last week (I can’t remember if someone posted here or elsewhere) I didn’t take my Subaru Legacy up this & waited an extra week until we could take my boyfriend’s Outback. I think my car would have been FINE even with it’s low clearance (5.9in). This road is not bad at all. Its a 2wd dirt road. There are some rocks and some puddles. But anyone who has driven off road before on a 2wd road with a lower clearance car & knows how to maneuver your vehicle -- will be fine. We saw all sorts of cars up there at the parking lot including a Prius, a low Nissan sedan and an old Chevy car. | ||||
Posted By: scholbiwan Info: Trailhead closed at the Fourth of July/Hessie split. Hessie appeared open at the split, but we did not go further down that path. Signage for Fourth of July closure said "Road Work Ahead", but the cones were completely blocking the road. We suspect road damage and did not venture further. | ||||
Posted By: Tornadoman Info: Made it to the trailhead and back in a Toyota Corolla. There are rough spots, some deep potholes, and a few rocky spots. We had no problems, and did not scrape bottom, etc. It took us about 30 minutes each way to do the final 4 miles to the trailhead, so expect a slow, careful ride if you are in a passenger vehicle! | ||||
Posted By: emgordon Info: Take it slow in a low clearance vehicle, but anyone should be able to make it. It gets real busy so go early or late. | ||||
