Castle & Conundrum upper 4wd trailhead

[Thrlskr]

Will a Ford Raptor make it up easily? Though it has decent clearance, it has long wheelbase and is wiiiide. What do you think?

[oldschoolczar]

I bet you’d be good. I took my stock Tacoma up to the upper trailhead. I had no issue and I don’t recall a lot of tight, hairpin turns. I recall people recommending against it and I had no problems, although it was slow going. It probably wasn’t much faster than hiking up. This was 2 years ago. Clearance was critical. I think the Taco has 9.5” clearance stock.

[Thrlskr]

Thank you!

[Ptglhs]

I was down there Sun/Mon. I drove my car .6 mile up the road and parked in a campsite. I saw a couple of outbacks and a volvo suv type vehicle before the stream crossing. Stream isn't deep but the opposite back ia steep with some pretty jagged rocks so clearance is a must. Coming down I saw 3 lifted short wheelbase jeeps and heavy duty tires at the Pearl pass junction.

[oldschoolczar]

Thank you!

We went to end of road at 12,800.

Experience with 4WD roads definitely helps. There were some big rocks but they were avoidable. My wife did have to get out and spot once or twice, but the truck was only 1.5 months old at the time so I was pretty careful with it.

I don’t wanna undersell it! This was definitely one of the sketchiest roads I’ve taken my truck up, but I bet a Raptor could get up. Raptor is wide through. You may get some new pinstripes - I think I came thru OK in the Tacoma but it’s narrower. I do vaguely remember the slowest going being after the turn near pearl pass which I think is mostly above treeline. Only other vehicle at the upper TH was a lifted, snorkeled Land Cruiser.

Would be interested to hear others’ input who’ve driven up!

[gzrrnnr]

A simple comment - when we started doing 14ers 50+ years ago, it was considered good and proper ethics to climb the peak from below timberline. Driving above timberline to shorten and minimize the effort was considered cheating. Wonder how many times Pikes Peak and Mt Evans have been "climbed" by jumping out of the car at the summit house?

[Sean Nunn]

A simple comment - when we started doing 14ers 50+ years ago, it was considered good and proper ethics to climb the peak from below timberline. Driving above timberline to shorten and minimize the effort was considered cheating. Wonder how many times Pikes Peak and Mt Evans have been "climbed" by jumping out of the car at the summit house?

Are you implying that if I drive my car up the Pike's Peak road and climb out and hike the last 100 feet to the top, then I didn't really climb Pike's Peak?

[MUni Rider]

Will a Ford Raptor make it up easily? Though it has decent clearance, it has long wheelbase and is wiiiide. What do you think?

I think you could. I was just up there Yesterday. The first test will be your clearance. Castle creek water level was low and the actual creekbed is level and easy to cross, but the climb out of the creek on the other side is steep and large rocks with big holes in the dirt between them. The few switchbacks along the way after that are wide with good line options.

I would have felt comfortable with my truck if I had driven it, but it was back home in Canon CIty. (F-250 crew cab super duty.) It's a huge diesel beast @ 8,800 lbs empty. But I parked my Yaris at campsite #1 and ran up to the end of the road at 12,800 moving faster than I would have with the truck. That was a long run... I missed the turn and ran about 1.5 miles up Pearl Pass. On a switchback I overlooked the valley I had just come up and saw the correct road up into Montezuma basin in the distance far below. Ha! Oops. Extra trail running mileage in preparation for PPM...and I got a really good picture of the true route....but I digress.

Someone else had driven a military HMMV up the the Montezuma mine. It looked like the same military issue type vehicle I drove around in Germany and Bosnia back in the 90s. Not the civilian version. Those things are super wide, so if that thing fits on the road, the Raptor will have no problem. Let us know how it goes.

[jrs1965]

Once you get past the Montezuma Mine the road narrows. There's a wide flat spot below the mine suitable for truck camping. The mine is like 1 mile below the upper TH. I would not recommend going all the way unless someone were to have good 4x4 skills/experience.

[transplant_hiker]

I have taken my stock F-150 FX4 up to the the junction of the Montezuma Basin road and Pearl Pass and I honestly felt like it wasn't too bad. As others have mentioned, exiting the creek bed was probably the worst section. The long wheel base of the truck wasn't the best for the road but the clearance I had wasn't an issue. We parked at the junction and hiked the rest of the way. I know the Raptor is even more capable than the FX4 so you will have even less issues than I had.

Having said that, I sincerely feel like it is faster/easier to just hike a lot of the rougher roads. I tend to get a little paranoid when accessing those hard-to-get trailheads with my truck for fear of doing something wrong and getting stranded (as my friend and I are often the only one's there).

[jchapell]

If comparisons are helpful for your experience:

Castle Creek 2018 (at night, getting up to about 12300 where there was a flattish spots we could sleep). Stock 4Runner
was worse than
Matterhorn Creek 2014 (upper TH). Stock rental Pathfinder (did get back to Lake City with a flat tire )
was worse than
S. Colony Lakes 2018 (upper TH). Stock 4Runner
was worse than
S. Mt Elbert 2018 (upper TH). Stock 4Runner
was worse than
Clear Creek/S. Winfield 2017 (upper TH) Stock 4Runner

[James Dziezynski]

I have taken my stock F-150 FX4 up to the the junction of the Montezuma Basin road and Pearl Pass and I honestly felt like it wasn't too bad. As others have mentioned, exiting the creek bed was probably the worst section. The long wheel base of the truck wasn't the best for the road but the clearance I had wasn't an issue. We parked at the junction and hiked the rest of the way. I know the Raptor is even more capable than the FX4 so you will have even less issues than I had.

Having said that, I sincerely feel like it is faster/easier to just hike a lot of the rougher roads. I tend to get a little paranoid when accessing those hard-to-get trailheads with my truck for fear of doing something wrong and getting stranded (as my friend and I are often the only one's there).

+1 for this mindset. If it's a 4x4 that you have to crawl up and it's 2 or so miles from the final trailhead parking, I'm more likely to not put the wear and tear on my truck (3rd gen 4Runner). Of course there are exceptions like the Lake Como road, which is equally bad to drive OR hike!