Wheeler Lake

We went out to re-map this trail. It was my first time out there, and wow, what a cool trail! Flopper is not the hardest obstacle on the trail, but for me, it gave me the most anxiety. The hardest part was just after the start of bowling ball hill IMO. We met some fans of the site right before we started the trail, one in a locked 5th gen 4R on 33s and one bone stock JL 2dr Rubicon. Both made it up fine with just a bit of getting hung up and re-picking lines. For that reason, I think we are going to re-rate this trail as a low 6. Great day on the trail and we met a lot of cool people along the way. Highly recommend if you are into rock crawling. I didn't give it 5 stars personally as it was an out-and-back with limited camping. For an overlander such as myself, I don't typically seek out these kinds of trails, but glad I did it at least once!

Project with Mike-Hi and CORE. New winch anchor, signs and blocking off trail issues.

I loved this trail, although I’ll admit getting the new Cherokee through it was nerve racking for me (despite it doing awesome!). I’m more a video guy, so I’ve attached a trail guide video which relied heavily on this written guide. The second obstacle was my biggest challenge (SWB stock jeep) but I wasn’t aired down enough. Thought bowling ball hill was easy and with a skilled spotter, the flopper was a piece of cake. The New Cherokee struggled on the middle climb of obstacle 2 and took the v-notch instead (that was a bit crazy), but had no issues elsewhere. He didn’t do bowling ball hill altho I think he would have been fine. Definitely requires skids and rock rails. Also need durable tires as others have had issues with sliced tires on this trail. We’ll definitely be back!

Awesome trail. Ran it on a Monday and saw more hikers than 4-Wheelers. Our group of 4 included a TJ Rubicon, XJ with lockers, nearly stock '42 MB and '50 Willys Jeepster with a limited slip rear. Mostly took the easier lines going up and harder lines coming down.

Trail is open to the lake. Very busy on a Saturday. Get there early.

Open to a few hundred yards before the lake. Had to cross some snow patches on the way up. Probably another week or so before you can get to the parking area.

Trail is open till the V-notch with some snow. Not sure how much farther it is passable.

Trail is open all the way to the top and in good condition.

The trail is open to the lake. The trail is in normal condition.

Impassable due to snow drifts covering trail starting at about a mile from trailhead. Hiked up to the lake and there is about a half dozen more snow drifts across the trail. Some 50+ yards long and several feet deep. I don't see the trail being clear up to the lake for at least another 5 weeks.

Not sure what for, but the gate is closed.

The trail will be closed this Friday and Saturday, August 17th & 18th for a work project with the Forest Service.

There are online reports that Wheeler Lake is clear up until the last ledge where there is a small drift. A few large crawlers manged to plow through the drift but the snow should hopefully clear in the next week or two.

First time running this trail it is awesome the only drawback is a lot of pinstripes but so be it this trail is a good balance of challenge and fun the lake is great for fishing and there's plenty of things to see along the way this is my new favorite

Reports that you can now travel all the way to the lake in a vehicle.

As part of the Set The Free event, we took a group to Wheeler Lake. We hit 2 patches of snow before even coming to Bowling Ball Hill. One of the sections we were able to drive along the top of, the other we had to dig a channel on the high side to keep the Jeeps from sliding down into the brush. Bowling Ball hill was clear and just above the hill we hit one snowfield that wasn't more than a foot deep, but was no issue for us as we were on level ground. The lake was still frozen in a few spots, but the weather was amazing and the views were epic. On our way down, we had to dig a little more in the snow but not a lot. There was a ton of traffic up there for the holiday weekend and the group that ran the trail the next day had no issues.

Snow still in valley before Bowling Ball hill going over the top of the stream and then the main climb up Bowling Ball hill is covered and very deep. Lake is still not accessible in vehicle.

Reported that snow has melted and the trail is now clear up to Wheeler Lake.

Reports that the trail is open for use but there are still large snowdrifts that are blocking the trail that you are not able to reach the end. I have updated the status to Partially Open.

We couldn't have asked for better weather to run this trail in, especially being October in Colorado! Last year at this time the trail was nearly impassible by the amount of snow on it. The traffic was pretty minimal, a few hikers and a few other Jeeps. Our group consisted of two Toyota pickups. Both trucks are built up quite a bit so this trail isn't much of a challenge for them. We did enjoy taking some of the harder lines that we couldn't do in our other truck usually. The Magnolia Mill is still in good shape, but unfortunately someone did graffiti various parts around the entire structure so it kind of takes away from any photos. I'm hoping that will be fixed sometime soon. We made our way to the first big obstacle The Flopper. Both rigs took the right line which made for some good flexing photo opportunities. Once we reached the V-Notch area, we chose to go up the left most route to provide an added challenge. This obstacle is steep and made more difficult because of the added dirt that covers it and the fact that there's always a puddle of water at the bottom to get your tires slick and mud covered. With a little skinny pedal we made it up. Continuing on through the trail and enduring lots of pin striping from the surrounding vegetation, we reached Bowling Ball Hill. It always has a unique feeling driving up this hill as you feel like you're giving it gas but feels like you're going nowhere from all the rocks rolling around underneath your tires. One new change is at the top of Bowling Ball Hill where a large boulder now sits in the middle of the trail. Someone must have used it as a winch point and it got drug from the side. It's big enough that you wouldn't want to rub into it with any body panels. It also makes it a bit difficult getting a good line at the next little rock ledge just around the corner at the top. You may have to back up a few times to line up better. Once to the top we did a little hiking and explored around Wheeler Lake a little. We checked out the mine, hiked out to the car, and checked out all the artifacts still left behind from the old days. It ended up getting pretty windy at the top so I didn't get to fly my drone unfortunately. I was pretty amazed how brown everything was as I'm used to running this trail when everything is such a vibrant green. After a quick lunch it took us no time to get back down to the trail head. Great day on the trail!

1st Visit in 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee 29" tires 2" lift. My friends truck was broken down at the top of the trail so he begged me to take him and 200lbs of parts up for recon. We took the alternative "east" route on all obstacles. Even my Grand Cherokee with a 2" lift wasn't tall enough to clear everything in 2009 (and the ruts have gotten way worse. I destroyed the bottom of my Jeep by bending in all of the stock skid plates so badly that the front skid was rubbing on my driveshaft. Please don't take anything truck or SUV UNLESS YOU HAVE 33"-35" TIRES MINIMUM . After I came back I had to replace a drive shaft and a control arm $1200. I've gone up the trail with traffic jams 40 jeeps deep because someone thought there stock 4 runner had "off road capabilities", then had to be towed down the trail. I've also seen tourist try to take a rental suv up here and destroy the sides of the trail because the rock sections were to difficult (so they drove in the bushes). I've now driven this trail about 30 times over 10 years in a 4dr 2013 Jeep Wrangler with a 3.5" lift and 35" tires