Middle St. Vrain

Trail is closed for the season officially.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (Oct. 20, 2020) – Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions, the USDA Forest Service’s Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests is announcing a temporary closure of all National Forest land in Clear Creek, Jefferson, Gilpin, Boulder, and Larimer counties, effective at midnight tonight (closure begins at 00:01 Oct. 21). This decision will be re-evaluated daily as conditions change.

This area is closed due to fire activity. It likely will not reopen before the end of the season.

A new Fire in Boulder County has put this area under evacuation orders per the county Sheriffs map. Nothing official from the Forest Service yet, but I expect that to come out tomorrow morning.

One of my favorite harder trails in the area. I just put on a new lift kit and 37s, what better close by trail to test the new mods!

Ran this trail with Coney Flats early on a Saturday morning, we only saw one other vehicle. It was very wet from the recent snow which made the trail challenging. Wife and I had a ton of fun.

After (if) you make it over the Gatekeeper obstacle at the start, the rest of this trail is quite pretty down in the trees and fairly chill. Still plenty of rock-and-rolling, but not bad in comparison to some other trails. We completed it in the rain with no issues. A Jeep in front of us did lose his drive shaft, so still be aware. (It was modified for the street, with no lift, and he took the hard line on one of the bigger rock outcroppings, so... idk.) Slow and steady won the day. At least a small lift and a little bit bigger tires would probably be preferable, but not necessarily required.

Definitely my new favorite trail that I have ran so much fun especially for my stock fj quite busy but not unbearable

This was our second year to run Middle St. Vrain and Coney Flats and of course it rained again which makes this already challenging trail even more of a challenge! It is one of our favorite trails with the water crossings and challenges along the way.

Fun moderate trail for built rigs. Traffic was pretty minimal today.

This is definitely a fun trail in the area with a good amount of challenge as well as extra activities. This was my first ever real 4x4 trail, so it's always fun to come back and see how the trail has changed (or maybe just my skills). I also love how this trail has a ton of cool hiking opportunities (Gibraltar Lakes are awesome - have yet to do Red Deer Lake). There was a surprising amount of open camp spots while passing through Saturday Morning. Met some cool 4Runner people heading up to camp and hike who were a fan of the website. Overall, it was great day. I highly recommend checking this trail out if you have a mildly built vehicle and are looking for a challenge.

We went out today to run MSV/Coney to get trail updates and we are glad we did. The rock obstacles are ALL much more dugout than pictured above as of this writing. New photos and video will be available here soon but do not underestimate this trail, it is rated difficult and lives up that. We got held up for about an hour today while a large group with stock vehicles not necessarily designed for what we were all doing. More than one vehicle got hung up and caused the delay. I love this trail for the views and the giant water crossing, but it really does beat up the body due to the bumpiness, even with low-air tires and upgraded suspension. Go on a weekday to avoid the large crowds that this trail tends to bring in on weekends.

Not a bad little trail. Once you get back there you can find some great dispersed camping. Awesome views as well.

MSV through Coney Flats open. Lots of water holes. High clearance or good lines required. Coney down to the end is more tree narrow and meh.

Trail was opened late Saturday after the adopted club ran it and cleared downed trees and performed necessary trail maintenance.

As of 9/3/19, Both Middle St Vrain and Coney Flats are both closed due to Forest Order ARP-BRD-2019-01 while bridge replacement work is done. You can find the order along with maps here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd657032.pdf

Ran this in a mostly stock FJ100 along with Coney Flats. With 33s as our only real upgrade, these trails pushed both my Cruiser and the accompanying Wrangler Sport to the limits. The guardian obstacle required lockers in the FJ and numerous line adjustments for the Wrangler. There are a fair number of technical sections that will challenge rigs with smaller tires and/or no lift. The boggy water crossings make this trail somewhat unique. It is narrow, but there are plentiful pull-offs, many of which are nicely shaded for a picnic lunch. Most of the trail is flanked by heavy pine forest. There was a fair amount of traffic during our visit. Pretty much everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful which was great.

I completed St Vrain and Coney flats in a stock 4Runner SR5, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, ATRAC works wonders, the T4R didn’t even hesitate to climb any of the obstacles. I would have been a lot better off if I had a lift, I did scrape a number of times but with the help of a good spotter, I faired pretty well. It helps that the T4R has a shorter wheelbase than Tacos and 4-Door Wranglers. I enjoyed the double takes I got for being in a stock 4Runner on the trail. I’d say that the water crossing is about 18” deep based on how high the water was on people’s wheels. This is a long drive that can cause you to be fatigued toward the end, be ready to pay attention to the trail, a lot!

Please Be Aware! Forest Service announced on 8/22/2019 that the trail will close early this season, September 3rd. Middle St Vrain, Coney Flats roads to close temporarily for bridge replacement project BOULDER, Colo. (Aug. 22, 2019) – Due to a critical bridge replacement project several campgrounds and roads on the Roosevelt National Forest’s Boulder Ranger District will close for the season on Sept. 3, 2019. The closures include: Peaceful Valley and Camp Dick campgrounds; Middle St. Vrain Road (Forest Service Road 114.1) at Colo. Higway 72; Coney Flats Road (Forest Service Road 507.1) at Beaver Creek Reservoir Trailhead; Bunce School Road (Forest Service Road 105) at junction with Park Creek Road (202.1) The closure applies to all motor vehicle traffic.

I ran this trail on a saturday morning. Unfortunately we did not have time to do Coney Flats, too. The water parts of the trail are really cool and somewhat unique compared to the other trails in Colorado. The trail wasn't too difficult, but some of the rocky areas did present dangers for my differentials (Cherokee XJ on 31s w/ 4.5 inch lift). Be sure to go slowly through the water. It's all rocky bottoms. One word of caution - there were two groups of 10+ jeeps going up while I was coming down. One was a guided tour which was moving very slowly and acting like they owned the trail. If you're someone who likes to enjoy trails alone, make sure to get going early on to beat the crowds.

Ran both MSV and Coney Flats in our JLUR with 3" lift/35s and had a blast...one of the most fun and wettest trails we've ever done, and the views from Coney Flats around the main water crossing are breathtaking (as you'll see in the photos). Agree with the 5-5 (for MSV) and 6-6 (for Coney Flats) ratings....you'll be tired after this trail because it's near continual effort...but FUN effort! Took us about 4 hours (with brief lunch stop at CF's main water crossing. You'll get lots of water (many muddy) crossings depending on recent rains. One of them along MSV toward the western end was several inches deeper than the main CF crossing (which was ~ 2 ft). Overall, this combo of MSV and CF is now one of our favorites -- great shape, great fun, and absolutely beautiful!!

Report from the High Country page: Our group ran MSV and Coney Flats on July 12th. water crossing are not too deep and trail is in good shape. I am currently running a stock JLUR and was able to run the trail with no problem.

Gates are open.

Still closed as of this afternoon.

Still closed due to snow and runoff. At the gate

Gate locked - still closed for season as of 6/1/19

Trail is open for the season.

Just an FYI, I drove up to the gate after exiting T33 and it's still closed.

Trail is closed for the season

The Mountaineers, a 4x4 club from Fort Collins, embarked on a late fall season trip to Coney Flats and Middle St. Vrain. With winter weather setting in soon, there are not many more weekend opportunities for these twin trails. There was still considerable water present on the trail, however, despite the near 50 degree conditions, icy conditions seem to have moved in for the season. The aspen trees donning the trail are all past their peak color and most have lost their autumn golden glory. The local District Forest Ranger will close this trail for the season once inclement weather overtakes the foothills for the season.

A nice day on the trail even though the clouds followed us all day and it sprinkled here and there. We ran the trail backwards from Coney Creek, though we took the time to go up to the bridge.

Beautiful trail! Ran this on vacation while staying in the Black Hawk area. Easy trail but very enjoyable. Make sure to connect to Coney Flats to make it a loop. Coney Flats is a bit more challenging but this trail can be done with open diffs and high clearance.