Transfer Trail

We ran up the trail for the first time for a recon for a point to point next summer. Down low it was no snow but up higher several feet. It was warm with snow melting and tons of mud. We had a 2.5 lift and 35 mud tires aired down to 14 psi. We booted it up several steep muddy areas with the big v8 in 4Lo and second gear otherwise you'd spin out. Some deep water and broken ice in places. A stock rig and street tires chalk it not possible. This trail was super amazing and very different than the front range. We got up to around 10k and ran into a old built up Chevy. The guy said he got stuck with some jeeps not far above and said we should turn around. Great idea that truck was stuck? The guy had a winch in the front and back. Cool by me because it was a monster !

Man, I'm really falling in love with this area. This trail is awesome. You get a great mix of technical terrain and beautiful views. Took about 2 hours to get to waypoint 16, which was mostly steep and easy shelf roads and easy unmaintained forest road. In typical Colorado fashion I got all four seasons in those 2 hours. Sunshine, rain, hail, and snow. I camped near Bowen Lake. The obstacle at waypoint 19 was much more technical than I thought it was going to be based on the pics. Having said that, it was a solid "4" in difficulty and was fun to go up. After that the trail was super muddy and sometimes covered in snow from the day before. Navigating the muddy, steep, and off camber descents was pretty exciting/challenging. Almost slid off the trail a few times. Thankfully most of the descents are short and if I had slid off the trail and gotten stuck, there were lots of options for me to winch off of or use recovery boards. (oh yeah, go prepared to self recover. I didn't see a single other vehicle while I was on this trail and there is no cell service) Some of the mud puddles were pretty deep and unavoidable, coming up past the bottom of the truck door (around 2.5' deep). Took me 2-3 hours to complete the trail from waypoint 16. As far as difficulty I'd say it's a solid 4 but only because of the obstacle at waypoint 19 and the muddy descents. Otherwise I'd say its a 3. Blair Mountain is much more challenging in my opinion due to its sections of sustained technical driving. Can not wait to combine this trail with Blair Mountain next year! Fun side note.....there were several large flocks of sheep with badass guard dogs, haha. (sorry, only took one pic towards the end of the trail.)

Wildflowers, wildflowers, and more wildflowers, some great vistas, and nice lakes for a roadside lunch. Road was mostly dry...just a few puddles that we chose to splash around it.

A trail with some good views. Lots of mud right now. Would not recommend full size trucks. There is risk of pinstriping as well.

According to the MVUM, this trail is open for 2022! It may be impassable at this time of year due to snowpack, so travel/plan accordingly.

Snow has fallen in Colorado making this trail potentially dangerous, if not impassable. Please use caution if you decide to go out and explore.

Amazing drive up to scenic waypoint #10 where we set up camp. Sunday afternoon and only encountered 3 UTVs on our way. Little more challenging then I was expecting but made it just fine. All dry and dusty.

This trail is open per the MVUM but may be impassable due to snowpack.

The trail is back open. Only trails within the fire perimeter are still closed. See the new closure map here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd811257.pdf

Lots of mud, but the trail is open and passable in it's entirety.

Fully passable with no issues. Great trail coming from Coffee pot road. Great views of the valley below and many Aspens with color!

Wow, this trail was a doozy. Myself and 3 friends did this in a 2011 FJ Cruiser on 33in tires and a 2.5 inch lift and a stock 2019 Tacoma TRD Off-Road. We stopped a ton to fish and take pictures but overall I’d say it could take about 5 hrs to complete. Definitely worth airing down to cushion the ride as it’s super bumpy. There were a few tough obstacles here and there but nothing too crazy. I pulled the Tacoma out of a mud bog so it’s worth mentioning that it recommended to go with a friend or at least bring some recovery boards along if you’re gonna go it alone. The views are gorgeous and plenty of spots to camp. The “lakes” to me were mostly just giant puddles. No fish in most of them. We didn’t catch fish until we got to Deep Lake which is at the end of the trail. All-in-all, an amazing trip that we still talk about all the time. Take care of the land and enjoy!

Passable the entire length with caution: lockers may be required unless you illegally bypass the many bogs. A couple of manageable snow drifts but lots of bogs remain. Pulling an off-road trailer, I managed all but one with open diffs and got stuck -and deep- in the large one just north of Haypress Lake. A little effort and locked diffs and I made it out. I would not attempt with open diffs and no support to winch out if needed as there are no trees within most winch line length from which to winch. Unless someone happens by, you'll be there a while as there's no cell service. Riding solo and tired from our 4 day trip, I opted to use the legal bypass for the bog just north of Windy Point.

Yep, still impassable! We made it about 5 miles up and hit a wall of snow. Ended up camping there and shooting down to Coffee Pot Road and went up the other side and it was open for a long way up (we found a camp site before we ran into anything).

A new seasonal closure was implemented for upper Transfer Trail above Glenwood Springs. Closure started Nov. 23 to maintain conditions for snowmobiling. Not sure of the date the gate will open again. Call the local BLM office to check in the spring.

This trail is absolutely fantastic. We started this trail in Glenwood Springs. I recommend running this trail as the guide intends because it is uphill this direction. There were very few places for the downhill traffic to safely turn around. Lots of beautiful lakes, lots of fun foresty whoopy sections, lots of stunning scenery. This trail gets it's rating from 1 spot in particular, waypoint 19. This waypoint took some spotting since it was dry and rutted out, but we all made it up first try. The rest of the trail is fairly easy. There is so much to see up here, just make sure you have enough time!

This is a fantastic and very scenic trail. However, the route plotted here does not follow what maps call transfer trail. If you are in a stock SUV or truck, be sure to follow the gpx waypoints on this site and don't follow what Google maps or your in vehicle navigation calls transfer trail or you will end up taking White Owl Lake Trail to Grizzly Jeep Trail. To avoid those more difficult trails, be sure to take the hard left at waypoint 21. We ended up taking grizzly Jeep trail back to Coffee Pot Road, which ended up being very fun, but much more challenging than anticipated. Overall this trail ended up being one of our favorites on our road trip from Phoenix.

Ran this trail with a group of roughly 40 rigs.... yeah.... Actually went a lot smoother then one would imagine. I have run this trail numerous times and this is by far the driest I have ever seen it. There were only 2 small water crossings up at the top. I was able to pull an offroad teardrop trailer with minimal issue.

Ran Transfer Trail on Saturday the 23rd of September to see fall colors with the intent of summitting Blair Mountain in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area. We had light rain to start out with in the town of Glenwood Springs with a rainbow glowing in the west - showing us glimpses of the sun and some signs of hope for our trip. The top of the canyon was shrouded by low clouds which made for awesome views as we climbed to reach the overlook at Waypoint 12. It began to snow and by the time we had reached Windy Point our visibility was down to about 50'. We continued slowly reaching Waypoint 15 before deciding to turn back as we had only seen one other vehicle coming down and the snow was accumulating on the trail to a depth of 3-4". Obstacles and deep puddles in the trail started becoming obscure and unpredictable. Transfer Trail isn't scheduled to close for a few more weeks but mother nature may decide to close it sooner!

One of my favorite trails in all of Colorado and this entire area really. Impeccable forests, lakes and meadows are to be had in this area.