County Road 30

[noahnotevan]

Hi everyone.
On Friday I plan on doing Redcloud and Sunshine, and I am very excited. I only moved to Colorado (the San Luis Valley!) from New York State (the Hudson Valley!) a month ago, and although I've gotten pretty high up otherwise, these will be my first 14ers. I was thinking while I was in the area, it might make sense to do Handies as well the next day, if I am feeling up for it. However, it seems that the road which would most directly connect them, County Road 30, is very windy and high up. I was wondering if anyone knew the conditions of that road. I have a very low clearance 99 Toyota Camry, so definitely shouldn't risk anything.

[dwoodward13]

Welcome!

Always a good spot to start for 'can my car make it?' questions are the trailhead conditions reports. It looks like you should be fine to get to the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch TH (https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/trailhea ... hparm=sj13) in your Camry. If you haven't seen, from this same trailhead there is also a route up to Handies (see the East Slopes Route). A Camry won't make it to the standard American Basin TH, nor I would guess much further past the Silver Creek/GG TH. It makes a fine tour to go up the East Slopes, then take the standard route down, which I wish I would have done when I was up there.

As a fellow Camry owner, get used to doing a bit of road walking if you continue to do the 14ers. I always think of it as a nice warm up and it builds character! As Gerry Roach says, "I want more mountain, not less".

[nunns]

If you are talking about the road to the main trailhead for Handie's Peak (American Basin), then it is fairly rough. Although it was passable for my minivan (low clearance) a few years ago, it was bumpy, and it is possible it has gotten worse. Check the road condition here: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/trailhea ... hparm=sj12.

Another possibility for climbing Sunshine and Redcloud is to climb from the Mill Creek campground: https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=s ... shine+Peak.

The road to Mill Creek is pretty smooth for a dirt road, parking at the campground is easy, and the climb from there is fun.
Hope this helps you.


Sean Nunn
Raytown MO

[Ptglhs]

I got a 2WD 2018 Elantra with 5.3" of clearance up past the 1st stream crossing and to the lower 4WD TH 2 months ago. You'll be fine, just use your head: put your tires on either side of the deeper ruts, watch the obvious taller rocks, etc.

[dtron]

I was just there this past weekend and drove all the way up to the 4WD TH in American Basin (Toyota 4Runner). I agree that you might be able to get to the first creek crossing (still CO 30) in an average sedan, but I wouldn't venture much further. What would probably be more reasonable is to begin your hike at the Grizzly Gulch/Silver Creek TH and not risk it. I'm sure you could get higher on CO 30, but I'm not sure you could get high enough for it to make a significant difference in hiking mileage vs. just doing the East Slopes route from GG/SC TH. In summary, I think you can get to the GG/SC TH fine and would plan on doing both hikes from there. There were several sedans there this past Saturday.

[noahnotevan]

Thanks for the help, everyone! I am mostly confident, with the small caveat that I am worried that rain might mess with getting to the trailhead.

[kwhit24]

Thanks for the help, everyone! I am mostly confident, with the small caveat that I am worried that rain might mess with getting to the trailhead.

If you end up going from Lake City to Grizzly Gulch TH, then you won't have any issues even with rain. It rained most of this past weekend and that didn't cause any issues. Just take it slow and watch the tight corners. Granted it was Labor Day weekend but there were a lot of ATVs, motor bikes, and other vehicles up there.