Georgia Pass

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4.8/5 (90 reviews)
Breckenridge, Colorado (Summit County)
Last Updated: 11/23/2023
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Trail Information

Highlights

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Camping Category Icon Camping
Forest Category Icon Forest
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Rock Category Icon Rock
Scenic Category Icon Scenic
Snow Wheeling Category Icon Snow Wheeling
Georgia Pass is the middle and least trafficked of the three main passes over the Continental Divide in Summit County. To the east, Webster Pass is more popular with the 4WD crowd due to the well known and technical 4WD offroad trails it connects. To the west, Boreas Pass is easy and often clogged with tourists in minivans. The southern slope is an easy dirt road. The north, however, is where all the fun awaits! The trail summits in the saddle between Mount Guyot and Glacier Ridge with spectacular views of both the rugged Swan River Valley and the grassy plains of South Park. The Glacier Ridge 4WD trail meets this trail at the summit, connecting to the notorious rock garden, SOB Hill (a.k.a. Number 10 Road). On a historical note, Georgia Pass once served as the primary route into the Swan and Blue river valleys for gold-hungry miners. At the height of the rush, as many as 200 prospectors a day flooded over the pass, then called Swan River Pass, into the boom towns of Parkville, Swandyke, and Tiger. No trace remains of these once vibrant towns except for a few ruins in Swandyke. (Parkville was buried by river dredges in the 1880s. Tiger was intentionally burned to the ground by the Forest Service in the 1970s to "rid the area of squatters.") By the 1880s, Boreas and Hoosier passes had become easier and more civilized routes and Georgia was all but abandoned.

Trail Difficulty and Assessment

Trail Navigation

The northern slope of Georgia Pass begins as a relatively tame dirt road. Gradually, it becomes more rough, rocky, and narrow. The last mile before the summit is the hardest section with some tight rocky areas and some rutted, washed out dirt. The southern slope is all wide open dirt roads. Because of this, and because the summit is part of the Colorado Trail, it is sometimes crowded with sight-seers, hikers and their cars. Since the north slope is more interesting, it is usually run from north to south. Cell phone signals are spotty at best throughout the trail. The nearest emergency room is at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center (970-668-3300), located just off CO-9 south of Frisco. Summit County Sheriff office (970-453-2232) is on CO-9 in Breckenridge.

Trail Reviews

4.8/5 (90)
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Official Crew
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51400
Seasonal Closure
Visited: 11/23/2023

Closed for the season.
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Official Crew
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51400
Impassable
Visited: 10/29/2023

16" of snow reported in Breckenridge this weekend. The surrounding trails will all be impassible. Most likely a season ender for the area.
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Official Crew
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51400
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 10/20/2023

The trail is still open through. The sluice box is just starting to ice up a bit. There's a good amount of slippery hard-packed snow between waypoints 12 and 13. The big Continental Divide sign has been knocked down. It's propped up but barely.
Trail Review: Georgia Pass - Trint Ladd
Trail Review: Georgia Pass - Trint Ladd
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2350
Open
Rated 4/5
Visited: 09/23/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Let my wife drive this one to give her more of a first-hand offroad experience (she loved it and wants to try some harder trails sometime). We ran it south to north. The southern half of the trail is a maintained but very washboarded/bumpy road that a minivan could probably run. Air down for comfort though. The northern half of the trail is a lot rockier, and is where the 3/10 rating comes from. We never had to use 4WD, though we did throw it in 4LO part of the way down so we didn't have to ride the brakes. It would probably have been slightly more challenging running north to south. We also ran the Mount Guyot East offshoot which had a fun little water crossing (maybe 18" deep?).
Open
Rated 4/5
Visited: 09/05/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

Feels like there are more difficult spots rated 4 instead of 3.

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