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Dotsero Crater
Dotsero,
Colorado
(Eagle County)
Last Updated:
04/28/2020
Trail Information
Highlights
Considered the last remaining active volcano in Colorado, Dotsero Crater is a unique drive that you cannot experience anywhere else in the state. Located just west of Eagle, before entering the beautiful Glenwood Canyon, Dotsero last erupted around 4,200 years ago. Although extremely small in comparison to other volcanos, this relatively easy drive takes you over former lava flows, past large volcanic boulders, and up to scenic vistas with views of several nearby mountain ranges. This trail is the perfect early season opportunity as it sees relatively small amounts of snow and dries out rather quickly.
Trail Difficulty and Assessment
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Trail Reviews
Open
Rated
5/5
Visited: 02/11/2023
I always love exploring here. Today we came in from the east side (running waypoints backwards) . Around waypoint 13 the snow stops being stock vehicle friendly, at waypoint 12 we encountered a stuck Cherokee and towed them back to 14.
Ultimately we made it just before the hill at waypoint 11 and turned back as the snow got quite deep. My rig has locked 37s. Might enter from the west end tomorrow and check out the conditions there.
Open
Rated
3/5
Visited: 09/24/2022
Difficulty Accuracy:
Spot On
We've seen volcanos in Arizona and Hawaii so we thought we'd check this Colorado volcano out. We ran this trail from east to west as we were driving from Denver to Glenwood Springs. As mentioned in the summary, we ran into one spot between Waypoints 10 and 11 that had larger rocks and ruts. Other then that the trail was easy. We were disappointed by the lack of a view of the volcano and no signage about the volcano. Driving on the black rocks was interesting.
Open
Visited: 05/22/2021
This was an awesome trail. Not hard by any means but just super beautiful and we all had a great time. You can easily get through this with a stock vehicle. It is safe to say most stock vehicles can do this trail. As long as you don’t have only a couple of inches of clearance you can do it. I did not have to air down, nor did we really have to use 4 wheel drive. This is a fantastic trail for beginners, or if you are not a fan of heights I would highly recommend dotsero trail.
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