Crescent Lake

Open for the season

This was my first Difficult trail. We did it in our 2008 Chevy Trailblazer with a 3" lift on stock tires. I would not take this vehicle here again. We bottomed out more than 50 times, dented the muffler, and popped a tire. The trail took us 6 hours because we had to constantly get out to check our lines and clearance. There was a deep water crossing after point 16 (Rocky Climb) that almost swallowed our vehicle. It had rained the day before and the water was over 30" deep. I walked across the water 3 times and it was only knee height, but we slid to the uphill right side and into the deepest part. The left side had a good bottom to it that was much easier on the way out. We spent two nights at Crescent Lake. We brought an inflatable boat and a paddle board. The water was very cold, and so was the beer.

Went last week. My first difficult-rated trail. In on 12 Aug and out 15 Aug. One highly modified jeep. Not sure how high the lift is but is is high and 38.5" tires. One 2011 Tacoma. 3" lift and 33" tires. Trail is very rough. Water at the stream crossing was low. Several muddy puddles on the trail but no more than a foot deep. Trail up to Emerald Lake is just a matter of very rough/bumpy. After that you do have to pay a lot more attention to tire placement. Smashed the RV power receptacle on the Tacoma coming down off some rocks. The replacement is going into the bumper next to the license plate. Camped at the very end of the trail. Quite a few more people than we expected. For a couple of days there were five groups camping around Crescent and Mackinaw Lakes. A total of 19 people, including my group. On Saturday a group of seven day-tripping ATVs came buzzing in and parked so close to a camp near us they were almost in the camp. I think anyone who has done a lot of dispersed camping or backpacking is probably used to unburied toilet paper around campsites. However, a first for me was finding used tampons near a campsite. And someone had defecated right next to the runoff from Mackinaw to Crescent Lake and left it on the surface. Very inconsiderate of other people and the environment. Ride out easier than the ride in.

We ran up this trail on 7/29 and back on 8/1 (4Runner TRD Off Road, 2" lift and 33s). On the way up it looked like it hadn't rained in a few days and the mud wasn't that bad. It took us a little over 3 hours driving straight through. I agree with other posts: this trail is relentlessly rocky, but the final destination is worth it. We spent 3 nights next to Crescent lake and it rained every afternoon and most of each night. The trail was much different on the way back. The rocks were much more slippery and there was a lot more mud. I would definitely watch the weather the day or two prior to your trip. We would have struggled to get up with the conditions we had going down.

Went up this past weekend. Absolutely gorgeous highly recommend this trail. I will caution on weigh point 10. The right hand side (going uphill) is very washed out. We had one person in our party got stuck and another person in a different rig from a different group got stuck in this area, going both directions. There is a small pond feeding this area. Someone had stacked several logs in the rut which made it worse, by damming the water in the rut. Do your best to stay to the high side. We did remove some of the logs which did clear out some of the water and hopefully will dry out. Multiple vehicles have slid into the hillside dealing with this section and it has created a solid moderate off camber rating and substantial erosion issue. The creek crossing at weigh point 12 is bone dry. We camped at Emerald Lake for three nights and it was wonderful! Great fishing as well. Went all the way to the end no snow blocking the the trail but it was wet from the snow drift on the sides of the trail.

Beautiful, remote trail. We stopped and camped at Emerald Lake, so I can't speak of the higher portions, but we found great trail conditions and minimal mud. My satellite imagery shows there's still a fair bit of snow above Emerald, but we didn't venture up there to find out. Somebody put a lot of effort into clearing trees and throwing down hay to dry this trail out. Thank you!

Great trail, ran it on a Can-Am Outlander. Probably closer to a 4-5 difficulty rating than a 6, but it helps having an OHV with more approach angles/lines than a full-size highway legal vehicle. Will definitely challenge the best of stock 4x4s. Wasn't crowded at all on July 3rd, only saw 3 SXS's (all RZRs) on the trail that made it to the end. Great way to get a taste of the Flat Tops without the traffic, though you're pretty limited to this road and not much else in the area. If you have the clearance for the trail, you have the clearance for the water crossings, though may get splashed. As always, stay the trail. There are well defined long-term bypasses to some of the worst curves and slopes, and then there are some very clearly new unofficial ones that shouldn't have been made.

Excellent trail. Pretty popular this weekend probably because of the fire ban in most counties near the metro area. Great fishing and canoeing to be had on the three lakes along the trail. The trail gets more technical toward the end but can be done easily.

This trail was absolutely awesome. Yea it's a little bumpy, yes it might be a little difficult when wet but it's worth it. I would recommend if wet have good tires. The trail is long takes about 3-4hrs to get to crescent lake. We camped for 2 days. We ended up.staying at emerald lake. Multiple dispersed camp sites through the whole trail.

The trail is fully open to Crescent lake. While this trail is not difficult on dry days it can be a challenge when it rains, the hills turn to black mud. Several off trail tracks were made so people could make it around these obstacles and continue on to the lakes. Please do not use these, if your vehicle or the conditions are such that you cannot "stay the trail" then please turn around. Both Crescent and Mackinaw lakes are full to the spillway and access to Mackinaw via the road is still some time away. There are currently 7 snow drifts ranging from 4x8 to a massive one that extends into the lake where the lake and road meet. Crescent lake extends to about 2 feet above the road on the tippy section. Overall the trail is in great shape except for mud hill 2 which is more deeply rutted which makes it more fun then normal but very passable with proper gear. There a few aspen that need to be trimmed but overall the trail team and Randy did a nice job getting this trail ready for all of us. Thank you Randy and High Country Wheelers.

It’s a long 8 miles but the we really enjoyed fishing the lakes. Saw a few full size trucks up at there, but there was also a Ram high centered before the lakes so proper line is critical in a few spots if your clearance isn’t great. Also narrow in spots so scratches likely on bigger vehicles.

Ok look I just want to make it clear to anyone who wants to run this trail it is a long drive and the trail is long and very bumpy the entire time there is nothing difficult about it but the bumpy road seems to go on forever and the lakes are ok but for me it was just to much just a heads up for any one planning to do this trail it is oh so bumpy not hard bumpy

Ran this trail with Casey Wilson (4Runner), my wife (FJ Cruiser), her brother and her dad (ATVs) on September 9th, 2017. Trail was passable for all of us, made harder in some off-camber spots due to spotty wet weather. During a heavy rain there may be a few areas of this trail with a risk of sliding off. Lower half of the trail was fairly easy, upper half of the trail became a rock garden in spots. We were surprised to see two full-size unmodified pickup trucks at the end of the trail, and suspect that they were pretty well beat up by the drive in. High clearance + short wheelbase recommended. Plenty of camping sites at Crescent Lake, and we ran into a lot of hunting traffic (bow, black powder). At least two of the weekend campers shot elk while we were up there. Reports of large fish in the lower lake as well, so bring a fishing rod. We started to catch the Aspens just as they were changing and saw great yellows and oranges on the trail. Due to the wet weather much of the fallen wood near camp (and there's a lot of it due to a historical fire) could not be burned, so recommend either bringing a chainsaw to cut the dead fall or bring your own firewood in. Prepare for rainy, cold nights. Big thanks to Casey for coming along with us!