Paradise Divide

Closed for the season! See you next year!

Beautiful drive but not a 3 on difficulty.

I would rate the difficult of this trail as a 1 or 2. No obstacles if just doing the loop. A few switchbacks. Plenty of pullouts and space for oncoming vehicles to pass. Got to see all the fall colors and sit above the clouds as we reached the fork for Schofield Pass and Paradise Divide. Plenty of stock vehicles and sedans on the trail. A lot of opportunities for photos. We hit all 4 seasons on this trail and it was breathtaking. Drove through very minimal snowfall, hail, rain, towards the summit we had heavy fog and cloud coverage and slick road and mud the entire trail. The lightning show at the end of the trail when we reached Emerald Lake was phenomenal. The only "real" obstacle in my opinion was the incline/decline - steep hill that leads into switchbacks (depending on which was you are going).

Great loop in the mountains. I would consider the rating to be a but high normally. There's no obstacles but the shelf roads can get tricky, especially when wet. I drove it in the rain/snow/fog and wouldn't want to see inexperienced folks heading up toward Paradise Divide when wet. That said, when dry, I'd say this is a 2 (and perhaps even a 1 but a few narrow shelf road sections could bump it up).

Beautiful trail with incredible views but I'm confused by the rating; I saw several minivans and small crossovers that had no issues doing the whole thing. It's basically just a dirt road with the occasional bump or two. There were good opportunities for camping with most campsites being occupied even on a Monday (probably because I was here during peak fall-color season). I ended up camping somewhere else and still had some incredible views and solitude.

Nice trail with great views and some nice dispersed camping sites. I don't underdstand the 3 rating for difficulty though. Maybe they've improved this road since the rating. A minivan can make it to waypoint 6 (and did in our group) and a stock suv could do the whole thing.

Always a beautiful simple ride with amazing views.

Amazing drive with incredible views. If you are somewhat new to off-roading like I am, don't let the incline at waypoint 6 make you nervous. I was a bit nervous looking at it with the exposure but it wasn't bad, plenty of room.

Trail is open all the way through 🤙🏼

As of 6/11/2022 saturday , road was clear from waypoints 1-7, and then between 7-8 became impassable by multiple drifts. Not sure how the gothic side is. Helped recover somebody from a snow drift in the mentioned 7-8 section, and then both of us made it through said drift, only to find a few more precariously placed ones and one further down by waypoint 8 that was totally impassable by anything with 4 wheels.

My small group came up Schofield Pass and turned west at WP 10 and went up and over/down the west side. The road was wet but in good condition, and it was nice to have some smooth driving after coming up the Devil's Punchbowl. We hung out at the lake (WP 9) and took sunset photos. We saw three elk (two cows and one juvenile bull).

I'm going to go ahead and give this a 5 because the scenery is indeed spectacular. West side is best. On a Friday it was only moderately busy, though more so on the east side due to the mountain bikers heading up to the 401. I'm hard pressed to say what earns this a 3 difficulty rating. It was pretty much all well-maintained dirt road. Maybe steepness

Drove up to the switchback campsites. More a comment on the camping situation: There are now designated campsites along the road up to the switchback. Camping is only allowed in designated sites. I've attached some photos of the camping information board located at Waypoint 4. There is also a pit toilet at Waypoint 4 and at least in the designated sites near Waypoint 4, fire rings in each site.

We drove Paradise Divide on Saturday and we started with the Eastern half out of Mount Crested Butte. It was insanely busy so I would recommend this trail for a weekday. We drove the Western half in the late afternoon after finishing Schofield Pass. The Western half is much more scenic and I would recommend driving it first if you want the best photo opportunities. It was busy but not nearly as bad as the Eastern half in the morning. I hope to drive Paradise Divide again, but on a weekday and maybe not during fall colors.

A beautiful trail any time of the year, especially when fall colors are in full swing. Not a difficult trail by any means - the only obstacle right now is the cattle.

Ran the trail clockwise. We enjoyed the west side better than the east side. The scenery is better, and the trail less traveled. Although Emerald Lake is beautiful.

Trail was open all the way around. I ran it clockwise. Great views, classic single lane shelf road through majority of upper portion. One tight area after the pass, snow on tight area, should be gone soon. Minor damage between parking area and lake. Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk, mopar rock rails, additional Chief protection plates, Falken Wildpeak AT3W 265/60R18, OR1 ~9" clearance for most, aired down to 20 PSI. Only bottomed out once, after pass, on eroded drainage crossing. Trail Rating seems correct.

Made it 3/4 of the way from waypoint 6 to 7 before there was snow over the road. The snow was very soft so could be passable. As it was on a very narrow section with a very steep drop off I wasn’t risking it. Running in reverse you can get close to emerald lake (11). That section is covered in about 4 ft of ice at the moment though so you need to park and walk the rest of the way. Definitely no chance of getting through for a while yet.

Ran Paradise Pass on Sept 29 in my stock F150 4x4, no problems at all. Had some Oregon guests with us looking for fall colors. Found some, the leaves are a little late this year, but this is still a jaw-dropping beautiful route. We ran it backwards from the trail directions given, then went left on FR811 through Elkton. Beautiful leaves on that route. Pretty light traffic for a Saturday afternoon. The shelf section between point 4-5 on the route guide gave my guests sweaty palms, but they enjoyed it anyway. Tried fishing at Emerald lake...don't bother!

This is a fantastic drive in the Crested Butte area, suitable for stock 4x4 vehicles (even crossover/sport utility vehicles). The road is in very good condition, and there are no obstacles to impede travel. Be courteous to others and remember trail etiquette--uphill has the right of way, and four wheels yield to two wheels or pedestrians/equestrians. Be cautious of cattle on the road in this open range area.

Made my annual Created Butte trip and drove this on my way to some hikes in the area. The Gothic side (waypoints 10-19) is mountain bike central. They’re numerous and like to ride the middle of the road. Good views though and easy driving. Watch out for cows in the road!

It said the road was closed on the gothic side, we went to the snow bank walked up on it. It was hard packed I went over slow with no problems, Other than that nice trail

Still blocked with snow on the Gothic side. So much snow only plows would make this passable this year. Tons of people clogging the road on the Gothic side. We drove around from the Crested Butte side, which was a great drive and significantly less people.

Trail is absolutely gorgeous. Trail is closed at Waypoint 8 and impassable due to snow, so can’t get to Schofield Pass (pics 1, 2, and 3). 811 is fully open. Trail is also closed right after Waypoint 10 going north before Waypoint 11 due to a huge avalanche that is burying the road under about 50+ feet of snow (pics 4, 5, and 6). Emerald Lake is pretty much non existent at this point as it is just debris. Can park just before Emerlad Lake and hike up the road to where the avalanche covers the road and can walk down the road further on the other side.

Great road, and nothing super challenging. Some ruts in the road on the Gothic side could get interesting in rain. Partially closed due to avalanches, but hike-able from there to see Emerald lake (obstructed) and farther. Gonna take a lot of sun to melt all the snow, but hopefully open later in August.

Trail blocked by avalanche at waypoint 6 and between 10 and 11 from the gothic side. Small obstructions so hopefully they will be cleared soon

Got a message from a friend who is visiting the CB area; he says Paradise Divide is partially open but impassible, same for Schofield Pass. He says it will be a few weeks yet before they are open to wheeled traffic.

Only did half the trail (way points 10-18) on my way through Schofield to Crystal. Trail was in great shape and offered beautiful country.

Blocked by several snow drifts and an apparent avalanche between Waypoints 9 and 10. I drove from the Slate River side (west) over the divide with intent to drive Schofield Pass. Had to turn around at grid coordinate: 39.00518, -107.05708

I ran the western half of Paradise Divide (734) from Crested Butte to the intersection with Schofield Pass (317). The road is open and surface conditions are good. Dropped in to the Oh Be Joyful Campground to check on some details, found the sites to be clean and well maintained.