Mammoth Gulch

Pretty drive, but man was it bumpy... Saw a poor soul taking an empty flatbed trailer up this trail. I can only imagine that the trailer welds were strength tested. I hadn't aired down yet which was a mistake as well. Rating is accurate, but 4wd can help make it a bit smoother.

Trail should be open now.

I drove straight through yesterday, although I did have to drive on top of and over a 5' drift. I started on Mosquito Cr. out of Apex area and tried Miners Gulch but to much ice still on Miners and decided to come down Mammoth. I don't think I could have gone up Mammoth with gravity working against me but going down was a non issue.

Trail is impassable, even on 40'' tires. Too much snow and Dangerous icy conditions near the beginning pushing you towards the driver's side cliff edge.

The top of Mammoth is drifted over as of Nov 8 2022. Not terribly bad and would be easy to bash through with a couple high clearance vehicles but not something you'd want to try on your own.

Really nice trail, a lot rockier than the guide pictures show, but nothing a vehicle with good clearance shouldn't be able to handle. Ran the trail to connect with Elk Park, awesome views!

Drove the trail from North to South. Easy trail with some really good views on the way up. A good connector trail to some other really good trails (e.g. Kingston Peak).

Easy trail. Scenic view on top. Ran it from Elk Creek to Tolland. Scenic view of several lakes and the yellow school house on the lower end. We used it as a short cut over to Rollins Pass East.

Mammoth Gulch as a trail isn't particularly interesting although it could be a good option for off road novices. The biggest draws are going to be access to the views up top at the south end (intersecting with Elk Park Road and a trailhead for Kingston Peak) or the camping along the way. You are most likely going to encounter some traffic, it'll just be a question of how much. I took this south to north on a stormy Sunday afternoon in summer and ended up at the head of a 3 truck caravan of strangers. Expect to spend the majority of the trail bumping around on rocks and occasional ruts, most of which can be rolled over by any rig big or small with little drama although a careless placement could find a sidewall in peril. If you're coming in off the smooth dirt road at the north trailhead, you'll likely want to air down ASAP to keep everyone's fillings from getting shaken loose. Like other rocky hills in CO, low range 4WD isn't a requirement but does make climbing and, especially, descending a smoother affair.

4 stars for the views on the south part of the trail. Ran it south to north. The only issue in full size 4x4 was waypoint 1-2. Could larger rocks and one I probably didn't take a good line on and rubbed a little. Other than that, it was just rocky and rutted.

Great views and an easy drive. This trail has definitely gotten rougher over the years with larger rocks showing in the middle of the road. Ran backwards from elk park to tolland.

Trail is open all the way to the top where Kingston Peak trail and Elk Fork connect to Mammoth Gulch. Trail is a nice easy drive with fantastic views at the beginning and end of the trail

Hints of snow, beautiful as always. Took trail to Nebraska Hill, several small water crossings along the way. Very enjoyable trip, great day and not a lot of traffic. Went up to the beginning of Kingston peak but did not go any farther as we ran out of time. Talked to a wheeler that came through from Kingston and he said that there was a bit of snow, but nothing difficult.

Made it nearly 1 mile in before encountering impassable snow drifts. They continue all the way up to Elk Park Road. Intriguingly, there are fresh tire tracks coming up from the Apex side. Someone seems to have made it up there recently. Unsurprisingly, it's not possible to continue on toward James Peak w/o a tracked vehicle, but even then, there are substantial bare spots all the way from Tolland to the intersection of 4/4N, suggesting that no vehicle would be ideal for the circumstances as of the 7th. Some of the drifts are taller than me, so we have quite some time to go it seems.

The road is super icy and dangerous. It's deceiving because the road is really dry at the beginning. But as soon as you get into the trees it's very icy under a very thin layer of snow. Made it shy of a half mile before deep soft snow keeps you from going any farther.

Made it probably half way to way point one in the one spot you could turn around before a rock obstacle. Lost momentum at that spot and couldn't get going again. It was deeper than when last reported on and is pretty much impassable unless you chain up and have very large tires

Based on reports from nearby trails, the trail is probably very difficult or impassible due to snow

I went as far as the 1st large campsite on the right side. The snow was only about 6" deep and there was plenty of traction. trail condition up to that point was mixed with dry patches and some small 1 foot drifts.

Per the National Forest Service: FORT COLLINS, Colo (Nov. 9, 2020) – More forest closures are being lifted across the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests as all Stage 3 restrictions are rescinded beginning at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10. Closures will remain in place around areas that experienced wildfire in Grand, Boulder and Larimer counties. These fire areas present a public safety threat as burned trees can fall unexpectedly, hot spots are still burning, and new hazards can be hidden under snow.

Due to extreme fire danger the Ntional Forest Service has temporarily closed all National Forest land in Clear Creek, Jefferson, Gilpin, Boulder, and Larimer counties. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/arp/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD831612

A very easy trail, we went out there to test this XC70 my buddy built out of Baker Garage. Everything worked great, need a tougher trail haha. Mammoth Gulch is still cool and connects to a bunch of other stuff.

Calvary 4-Wheelers ran this trail as a back way in to the Dakota Hill area. They haven't run a bulldozer over the road in a while and it is getting a little bumpy but still passable in 2wd with careful driving. The weather was cold, windy, wet and rainy so I did not get out and take any pictures.

We took this trail on our way to Kingston Peak. Basically the road is a connector to other trails in the area. It is rocky and nothing technical. There were some nice dispersed camping spots along the way.

ran this trail after I finished kingston peak, pretty bumpy and plenty of space to pass, there are a few spots with views but the big reason to come here is to camp, I was just passing through but it still looked like there were plenty of spots (all of which were taken). watch your wheel placement when you move to the side to allow others to pass, I ended up pulling two vehicles back up onto the road after they had slid off. I give this trail four stars because there isn't that much to see and there are a lot of people (As per usual in colorado).

Dirt road with seemingly a lot of folks putting their vehicles on dirt for the first time. Pretty much every time I take this trail I have to take it super slow as I get behind someone that will not let me by. Be patient with them on this one, we were all n00bs once.

Really a connector trail, full of AWD Subaru type vehicles. Kingston was closed.

The Gate is open to Kingston Peak. The wildflowers right now are beautiful. Mostly dry on all trails.

Same as the review by Rick Boyett below. Open up to the Kingston Peak gate, which is closed. Some puddles from rain, but nothing more than 1/2 ft to 1 ft. I didn't see any snow myself.

Wide open, up to the Kingston Peak gate, which is still closed. Some bits of snow here and there but nothing serious.

LJ on 37s, dual lockers, and another LJ on 33s, dual lockers. The current snow conditions are quite deceiving. Up until waypoint 5, there was only a few inches of snow on the trail. At that point, exactly at the pullout, was a Ford Raptor stuck in a wind blown, sugar snow drift. They did not have a shovel, or any other recovery gear. They were attempting to free themselves by tossing rocks and pine branches under the tires. We were able to give them a quick tug out with our recovery rope, got them turned around, and continued on our way for about 100 yards, when we ran into another buried pickup truck. The time a dodge. Again, we quickly whipped them out of the drift and again continued on. We were able to complete the entire trail, but the snow beyond waypoint 6 is extremely deep, dry sugar snow that will swallow regular suvs and pickups. Anything not on large, aggressive tires will have major issues like we saw.

For being so close to Denver, this a great trail/area where you get to really experience the alpine environment.

We headed up here to get to Kingston. The trail is open all the way through and doesn't appear to have taken any damage from the rains lately.