Yankee Hill Road

Ran east to west and had the whole trail to myself; never saw anyone from air down to air up which was awesome, knowing how busy this trail can be. Waypoint 9 was nastier than I expected and the mud didnt help. Normally I skip this section because each time I've been here there's a line of waiting traffic for it so today was my first time following the full Yankee from start to finish.

Great time, mix of train and snow, made some stuff more entertaining

Yankee Hill Road is a beautiful and fun trail; it is one of the best trails in the area. When going East–West you start winding through the forrest, and you're then rewarded with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. The trail is definitely not easy: The rock garden at WP6 was quite challenging for us in our stock Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Due to the wet conditions, it was difficult to keep an exact line over the boulders – we were happy to have proper rock sliders. Instead of pushing on, we decided to turn around and bypass the most difficult section; at WP5 you can take Freeman Gulch Cutoff, then the Pisgah Spur, and then merge back into Yankee Hill Road at WP10. I can recommend this bypass to anyone who wants to experience this wonderful trail but wants to avoid the most challenging parts. You could even temporarily split up a group with diverse vehicles and driver experience.

Made it all the way no problem, little snow up at the top but nothing crazy. Should get better in the coming weeks.

Open all the way through to Alice! Hit it both ways yesterday. Lots of fun! Snow drifts but people have driven through them so they have some tracks. Nothing crazy. 33’s and 5.5” lift Jeep XJ no prob.

I made it up the back side over looking at Saint Mary’s glacier! There was a snow drift that took a couple of passes in my gladiator on 35’s. But we made it and it was so beautiful.

This trail gets wild. I was able to make up to Waypoint 10 before turning around due to snow. It's all manageable up until then. Start early in the day though, as it warms up the trail gets muddy. Hopefully you like rock crawls, because once you get to Waypoint 6, they become almost arduous. They look scary but I was able to navigate up them in my Ranger while only banging up the footsteps on my runners. I used 4Low and a locked rear most of the way up. Had to try a few places a few times due to all the runoff and a slick trail. Coming back down the trail seemed way more brutal. I should have seen the writing on the wall after seeing all the pieces of other people's trucks scattered up and down the trail, and I definitely lost a fight to a tree and sustained some body damage when my rear end slid off a muddy rut. A few of the obstacles had bypasses, some did not. While I imagine the trail rating is accurate when the trial is dry, I would say it's more difficult in current conditions.

It's a mixed bag these days. I ran this on April 30, 2023 and found mud, snow, deep ruts and a lot of running water. I started at York and made it all the way to the top where you can see St. Mary's Glacier. Between waypoints 15 and 16. I could have gone further but there are no trees to winch from on the other side so I'm staying away for now. I think a stock Rubicon can make it to waypoint 13 without much problem, maybe further but the ruts get deep and snow gets loose. With the temps the snow turns to slush and if you have slick tires it will turn to ice real quick. Besides a good set of 35s (at least) you should definitely have a winch and recovery gear if you are going to tackle this, and make sure winchable trees are in range. Then you should be fine.

Some extra snow. Made a wrong turn and things went sideways. https://youtu.be/Gyooonw11l8

This trail had some icy spots hidden under the snow. Also snow drift from the day before made the top almost impassable. Had to drive into the drift and winch to the top.

Ran Yankee all the way through yesterday. Definitely passable. Rivian, Gladiator and Bronco all did it easily.

Whole trail was pretty easy except for one snow drift that was stopping most of the trucks. So it's not impassable right now, but definitely bring at least 2 trucks.

About a foot of snow currently, drifts we’re pretty big on the back side, but managed to break trail all the way through

Ran it from east to west. Some snow pack. Not enough to trouble even this newbie (granted JLU with 3in lift 35s) - did end up spinning the wheels a couple of times - but that was user error in not placing tires on pressed down tracks. One ~30 foot section of ice (near waypoint 18?) - presumably frozen snow melt. A fellow off-roader in a truck was kind enough to guide me through it. The rocky section (soon after the ice) warrants the 4-5 rating - needed some careful tire placement and spotting. Managed to not scrape anything under. Not gonna lie - it did make me think of turning back, but it was not sustained - just one 30-40 ft section that was the crux. Glad I plowed through. Views at waypoint 6 were beautiful!

Snow was perfect… no issues.

Calvary 4-Wheelers ran several segments of this trail as we took a meandering route through the Yankee Hill network on Saturday, November 12. The main trail was mostly clear with patches of ice and packed snow here and there. Some of the side trails had more snow, especially in thick trees or south facing slopes. The weather was very nice, with partly cloudy to sunny skies and cool but not frigid temperatures. The scenery, of course, was spectacular.

Ran it today in reverse along with the Columbine Cutoff in a 21 Wrangler Rubicon 2-door, stock. Somewhat busy up on the trail but not too bad. Aspens are done and dropped all their leaves. Some of the climbs were a bit rocky and I'd definitely recommend against any lower clearance cars without full skids. Views from the top were pretty great though a bit windy.

We have updated the rating to better reflect the current conditions. It is going from a 3-3 to a 4-5. A new and updated trail guide for this will also be coming out by 10/30/22. Otherwise, air those tires down and enjoy before all the snow flies!

Ran it today with a TJ, CJ, and razor. Super busy but fun.

Definitely harder than it’s rated especially around waypoints 13-15 and If you stay on 175.1 and bypass the rock pile you will get some Colorado pinstripes. Subies beware if you try the trail make sure you have rock sliders and a high clearance bumper especially if you do the route coming up from central city, you will get trail damage guaranteed! Awesome trail though this is my second time on the trail the views are amazing especially with the aspens changing.

Pretty Darn Rocky in a couple bits. Definitely got to use the rock sliders. There's a bypass to the crux that keeps the max difficulty down.

Completed with Jeep Rubicon Recon 4H required. This trail should be rated a little harder as there are a lot of large rocks and dips that have been made worse due to washout.

We ran Yankee Hill in a stock Subaru Forester Wilderness (with full skid plates) from Waypoint 9 (Cumberland Gulch) to Waypoint 1. Great views of Saint Mary's Glacier from the top. Very rocky, rough and rutted from Waypoint 3 to 1. Required some spotting and careful line selection in a couple spots. We tested the skid plates a couple times and lost a mud flap. This portion of the trail should probably be a 4.

I started in central city and got to miners gulch, which is number 15 on the map. It’s a large open space with a couple mud puddles and nice views. The half mile leading up to it was the only part of the trail that a two wheel drive stock car couldn’t do. But that last half mile I would think you would need a bit of lift and 4WD drive unless you are a very experienced drive. and after that the trail continued to look difficult.

Great day out on Yankee Hill starting from Central City. Trail traffic wasn’t bad at all and got high enough to escape the heat.

Trail was pretty light today traffic wise. No issues and always a good time.

Rougher trail than I remember from last year. 2010 Xterra with 3 inch lift kit and 33’s. No bumps or scrapes today, did use the lockers a couple times. Still some mud puddles but they are drying out. Good flowers along the way.

Ran it from mine road up to yankee hill over to central city. Did a few side trails on top of Yankee those were very tight and took some paying attention. Super rocky the entire way it’s a bump fest but it was fun all the way

Ran this trail in a stock GX470 with 32 inch tires and a stock 02 Tacoma TRD off-road. We found it to be fairly difficult in a few sections. We had to stack some rocks and used spotters in the rock gardens. Other sections were basically just a dirt road. Great scenery and I love the sections in the dense pine forest.

Great day. Was surprised how few people were up there on July 4 weekend.

Yankee Hill the equivalent to the I-25 of off-road trails on the weekend. Very busy as always. The ground at The overlook on waypoint 3 is extremely soft and a small sinkhole popped up over the past few days. Lot of fun whichever way you run it.

Ran the trail rom east to west. I think the rating is fairly accurate. There are a couple of spots that can be a little difficult especially if you are running it it in a full size truck. Rode the side by side and had no troubles at all. The area is very crowded and we park and unloaded at an OHV parking area near Columbine Camp Ground.

Had a blast on this trial took the fam and met some cool people took us about 2:30 hours did it the normal way and want to go back and do it reverse can't wait

Not much to add to Yankee Hill other than it's Yankee Hill: easy to get to, easy to run, close to Denver so always busy on the weekends. A LOT of RZRs but for the most part, everyone was staying the trail and polite. This is a great trail to start teaching your kiddo to drive/wheel, better if not on the weekend. But it's a go-to easy trail for taking visitors uneasy with challenging trails or those new to wheeling and exploring their capabilities.

Went East to West from Central City and had a blast. I ran a stock Bronco Sport Badlands, so I knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk, but the obstacles we hit even gave buddy's 4Runner a run for it's money. This trail has seen quite a bit of erosion since the waypoint pictures were taken and if you aren't running a lift, it's very easy to pick up some damage if you aren't very careful about your lines. Especially at waypoint 13, where even the bypass is dodgy.

Ran this today in my stock Xterra Pro-4x. Went from Central City to Alice. Glad I had a rear locker around waypoint 15 going uphill since it’s a bit wet still from snow melt. Saw a stock 4Runner in front of me have to absolutely send it to get up some of the rocks and it didn’t look pretty. Going from Alice to Central City would have probably made that section easier going downhill instead. Overall solid trail with some fun rocky sections where picking the right line is pretty important. Great views at the high point. This area seems great for SxS, ATVs and dirt bikes. Lots of off shoots to explore.

All clear, just some parts of the trail where one side of the trail has now/ice

It was a fine slow moving day with 3 trucks from The Risingsun4x4club.org and one from 4runners of Colorado fb group. We spent more time sitting trailside with the grill fired up and shooting the breeze than behind the wheel. The trail was more fun than what I expected with the difficulty a little more than the rating. There is still some pack snow on the edges of the road but dirt all the way through.

We did a shake out trip today running from east to west (reverse what is written here). The eastern 3/4 of the trail is clear of snow but wet. From about waypoint 13 to waypoint 6 (Yankee Hill, the actual hill), snow and ice patches force you to one side, force you into ice ruts or, in a couple of places, cover the trail completely. The snow that is there is hard packed, rutted, and icy. The trail is completely open, but you'll be forced to take the harder options in places. The actual Yankee Hill looks like it might have some drifts near the top (last pic), but we didn't go up to see. Also, as with most trails, this one seems to be getting harder with the increased traffic.

Very fun trail. Did this in a stock 5th gen 4runner with a 2 inch leveling kit. Majority of this was very open, but right now in the afternoon when the snow starts to melt a little bit, traction can be very hard to find. If you go over a snow patch it’s best to keep your momentum. Got stuck in a few snowy areas. Overall really fun trail with lots of fun puddles to play in this time of year. We ran this from central city, and starting at waypoint 15 is when things got a little sketchy and rough for a stock vehicle. Line choice is pretty key if you’re driving a stock vehicle like I was. Really fun trail overall!

Passable all the way through. Tracked out snow most of the way is slick, good tires help. Saw Mike the same day, not too much traffic but still a popular trail.

Lots of vehicles going from Central City all the way to St Mary's today. Still lots of snow and the locker helped in a couple spots. Beautiful day.

Fun road that gets gnarly in spots during winter. Saw tons of people on it yesterday.

Was able to run this today from Central City to Fall River Road. A few spots had packed snow, but it's been so dry that we didn't have any trouble in a stock Rubicon 4xe. Of course, one good storm could take it back to impassable. We were ready to have to turn back today, but made it, no problem.

Snow is starting to accumulate. See you in 2022! Will update with snow melt reports as they happen in the spring!

Ran it solo in my GX470 with 2 inch lift, took some minor hits to my skid plates on a few of the offshoots but overall pretty easy. This is a cool complex of trails because it has a variety of terrain to drive interspersed off of 175.1. . Some off camber sections to articulate on, small rock gardens, rock ridges and hill climbs. Waypoint 14 @175.1I and the steep rock hill 175.3H were my favorite parts. I ran out of time to do the full track so I will come back again some time. You could easily spend a whole day here. I came in from Cumberland gulch to 271.1F which I believe is Sheridan hill. not very scenic but has some small rock gardens interspersed between tight trees and an old uphill climb at the end. I would avoid if you’re worried about pinstripes. I took 175.1 toward central city for awhile then went down pigsah road (175.1I too?) to waypoint 16 where I turned around. Went back up to the 175.1I shortcut at waypoint 14. To the right is easier but you will need to pick a good line because it’s a tight squeeze in a corner around some rocks. If you have more clearance the line to the left is straight on. Maybe next time I will try it. I would skip this part in a stock vehicle. From there I climbed 175.3H for some photos before sunset. Exited via washoe gulch back down back down to Fall River road. Washoe is also narrow with a few rock step downs. There’s not any major obstacles but if I was in a stock 4Runner I would probably stick to 175.1 or bring a spotter for the offshoots.

Ran from Central City. I ran this trail once last year (don't recall day, but summer conditions), and while it seemed very similar this time, was perhaps slightly more eroded than I recall overall. Still a very fun, scenic trail! Managed to inadvertently scrape my rear diff just slightly at a random time (just poor line choice) and used rear locker once or twice. Chose to stay on 175.1 between waypoint 14 and 13 (moving from 14 towards 13 in the direction I ran) this time though and it's definitely more technical. Solid 4 rating IMHO for that optional path and required some good scouting/planning along with a little spotting to ensure good tire placement. Long wheelbase may struggle on that part unless you have significant lift/clearance. I'd agree with a 3 rating overall still (as mapped), but I think 100% stock rigs that aren't considered to have high ground clearance may suffer some scrapes/bruises. The optionality on this trail is great though, with multiple areas that are more open with all sorts of little obstacles to play around on.

Yankee Hill is a cool trail with a few different kinds of obstacles, not many trails have long steep loose rock hills. There are a couple stair sections and rut sections, also has great views at the top. I ran it in reverse of how it's described here.

Ran this from Central City over to St Mary’s for the first time in a few years. I forgot how much diversity this trail has from scenery to all the little patches of obstacles. I think running this from Central City is the way to go!! Trail was nice and clean, kudos to all the volunteers doing trail clean up and to everyone else for packing out more than packed in.

Ran today in a stock 4Runner ORP from Waypoint 4 on and this was more than I bargained for. Picked up a bit of pinstriping trying to find a good line between waypoints 11-13. Waypoint 13 is quite scenic but it is almost a u-turn to stay on the correct trail. It was fun to watch a few more built rigs tackle the 175.31 section while I figured out where I needed to go. It did not get easy again until waypoint 15. In all I would think hard about bringing a stock truck to this area unless you don't mind beating up the undercarriage.

Tried this in the dead of winter and was impassable. Came back in June and it was lovely. I feel like it might have been a 4 at times but it really wasn't too bad.

There has been some wear and tear on this trail. Probably some wash out as well. If you are stock, you're going to need EXCELLENT wheel placement and skids. There are three or four really hairy spots now.

Did a night run to try and catch sunset from the top of the hill. Ran it in reverse starting in Central City and running towards St Mary's. Trail has dried out significantly with the heat this last week. A couple of mud puddles remain but didn't see any snow on the actual trail. I do think there are some areas that are a bit more than a three these days. Had no issues in my Rubicon with a 3 inch lift and 35s but it did have quite a few diff catching boulders if you are paying attention.

The direct route is open and passable although some of the surrounding offshoot trails still have some deep drifts on them. Some decently sized mud puddles too!

Completely passable although there are still snow patches and water holes left as of Memorial Day weekend. Since this has gotten more chewed up over the years, it is more technical and I believe the difficulty rating is lower than it should be. I was still able to get through in a stock JK but needed a spot to prevent scraping in a few places towards the middle.

Completely passable

Biased on recent reviews I had low expectations but we made it all the way through no problem. There was tracks all the way through. Snow depth varies from 6”-18”. Traveled from Central City to Alice. FJ on 35s 15psi.

Multiple reports are stating this trail is now impassable for the season. If you wish to go "snow wheeling", be sure to never go alone, have proper recovery gear, sleeping bags, emergency supplies, extra food, and water.

Ran it from Central City heading towards St. Mary's. Made it to Waypoint 15 and decided to turn around. It's gotten very icy up there with a layer of snow covering the ice. The climb from Waypoint 16 to 15 had a few sections of sheet ice. The climb out from Waypoint 15 was tried with front and rear lockers and still slid back down. You could make it with several attempts but it is very icy towards the top of the climb so you'll have a long way to slide back. We decided to call it and head back towards Central City through Pisgah Road.

We took the Pisgah (Columbine Cutoff) up to the Yankee Hill trail, starting outside Central City. Most of the trail was pretty easy, except for a few parts: - There's a relatively deep mud hole between Waypoints 16 and 17 that has a pretty steep ice shelf on one side. Coming down the ice shelf (entering the mud hole from the south), you risk smacking your rear bumper, which might result in damage to stock vehicles. Coming back up the ice shelf (entering the mud hole from the north), you'll want to favor the left line, opposite of what I'm doing in the attached video ;-). Users have also created an illegal bypass around the mud hole - please avoid and stay the trail! - The steep hill between Waypoints 14 and 15 (just northwest of Waypoint 15, after the large clearing) is very snowpacked and icy. I'd avoid trying to climb up this (again, heading uphill to the northwest) without chains. Even with front/rear lockers and great tread on my tires, this hill was impossible to climb without going off the trail, so we turned around and headed down Miner's Ridge. Going down the hill (heading southeast), I'd drop 'er in to low gear and crawl very slowly - it'd be super easy to start sliding and lose control.

Stage 3 fire restrictions have been lifted as of 6am, 11/10/20. The forest is no longer fully closed. Areas within fire perimeters remain closed. See closure maps here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/arp/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD844558 Expect winter conditions on trails. Some trails may be impassable due to snow.

Due to extreme fire danger, the National Forest Service has temporarily closed all National Forest land in Clear Creek, Jefferson, Gilpin, Boulder, and Larimer counties. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/arp/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD831612

Took this in my stock renegade trailhawk, started in Central City. I'm not the biggest fan of the style of directions from this site, but we only got off the main trail once and it luckily it just naturally met back up with Yankee (I think this was around marker 8?). Not too busy, weather wasn't bad but very windy and when we reached the top around 1pm, it was snowing heavily and seemed to get heavier as time went on. Overall we had a blast and due to my limitations, only came away with a few scuffs from getting too close to trees when having to avoid bigger obstacles.

Took this from the west side all the way to miners gulch trail. Pretty easy trail. Was likely near my 10th time. Air down and disconnect if you can. And go to the top of the hill for sure..

Loved it! Took the trail east to west from central city in my 2010 Tacoma dcsb with 3” lift and 31” KO2s. It was an accurate 3, except I accidentally took 175.31 between wp 13-12 and that was a 5-6. Do not take that shortcut without 4lo, lift, and 33” tires...I made it though no scrapes or damage, but wouldn’t have been able to without the lifted suspension.

Ran this in a stock 2015 4 door Jeep Wrangler. We started at St Mary's and ran to Central City. I would recommend starting in Central City as we were going downhill most of the time. It is pretty rocky so I would recommend airing down for a smoother ride. Overall a fun trail. We drug the skid plate once but just needed to slow down a bit.

We had a great time. There was plenty of mud and enough minor obstacles to keep it interesting. Many donuts were done in the loose dirt clearings.

Ran from St. Mary's side. Bit rocky on the mine road of that side but otherwise a fine ride. Not too crowded until you get to the Central City side with OHVs.

This was our 1st time off roading in our stock 4 door 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL Sport and it was really fun. It is super rocky and I did bottom out a couple of time, just needed to go slower in some areas. We missed a trail sign once and ended up going the wrong way, but it was worth it with great views and harder obstacles, sliding toward the drop off a little which was sketchy, but survived. I would recommend this for any first timer. It was well worth the trip.

Busy trail late morning. No trouble in stock JLUR, conditions were mostly dry.

Nice long trail to take back to Central City. A few notes: -It can get busy after 9 a.m. mostly ATVs and dirt bikes -Its easy to get lost. Take note of the trail markers, you don't want to take a wrong turn and take a more technical route than what you planned for. -We were in a stock TRD off road 4Runner and there were a few spots where we had trouble getting around large rocks. -AIR DOWN! It really made a difference for us. -There's a fun obstacle at waypoint 13; pick your line CAREFULLY. I would personally consider this closer to 3-4. The last third or so is smoothed out dirt as it's a residential area

Fully open and not nearly as busy as I expected it to be today. Nice scenery and great views up top. Occasional medium sized rocks and deeper ruts but nothing crazy. FYI there is a popular spot to shoot guns on this trail but Clear Creek County does have a ban on shooting with their current fire ban.

My son and I did the trail on Tuesday, west to east in a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. We were aired down to 20 psi but didn't use 4-Low. The Trailhawk has air suspension, Off-Road 1 (~9" clearance), Off-Road 2 (~10" clearance). We were in OR1 the majority. Some snow (frozen) in upper parts of the trail, little water but mostly dry. The trail didn't seem to have anything meeting the level 4 rating so I think it is rated correctly. The section 12-14 is more challenging, probably more so if you are climbing (east to west run). The vehicle has rock rails and additional skid plates (Chief Products). We hit lightly in a few places but you probably could have picked safer routes to avoid scraping. The trail was closed (county barricade) at waypoint 20. We were using GIA GPS so no issues. We took Old Stage Road which merges back to York Gulch Road and eventually joins Fall River Road. Great GPX file for directions, good day to be out wheeling.

After getting stopped by deep snow on Rainbow Raod and Bald Mountain Lane we decided to see how far we could push our stock rigs up Yankee Hill. We started from the top of York Gulch (Waypoint 20) heading east to west. The road was plowed for the first 1.8 miles giving access to the private residences in the area, although the blowing wind had covered parts of the road with a few inches of powder and drifted in a few others up to about a foot. When we got to the end of the plowed area, there were tracks from a few days early, parcially filled in by the wind, proceeding along the trail. We were chained up so we continued on, following older tracks. The going was somewhat challenging since the vehicle that had made the tracks was apperently significantly bigger than our stock rigs. We made it to the large, open area at Waypoint 17, taking about 2 hours to go the just over a quarter mile. There was lots of multiple attempts, strapping and digging involved. At one point we had all 3 of our rigs buried to the frame rails but, with a lot of hard work and a little help from a nice guy in a lifted Tacoma, we made it out before dark and headed home. I was too busy shoveling and hooking up straps to get pictures of the worst stucks. Bigger rigs equipped for serous snow bashing should be able to make it much further than we did.

The Alice/Saint Mary’s side is impassable with about 3’ of snow. However the central city side is well traveled until waypoint 14. After that there are definitely some deep spots but still some what passable.

In stock JK sport on street tires, only traveled from Alice to glacier overlook and Yankee hill loop. Snow covered width of trail in some places but I was never stuck. Not sure what the condition on the rest of the trail towards central city is. Had no problem running full length late in the summer but could see how snow coverage would cause issues at some parts of the trail with my vehicle.

I agree entirely with David's assessment. It's NOT as easy as the trail pictures and write up has made it out to believe. We did it in a stock 4Runner SR5. It was super rocky, and there were times where we're strattling deep washouts, and the rocks were constant for most of the run. It was absolutely worth it, but this should not be considered easy and beginners might want to warm up somewhere else first.

The trail has changed since the heavy rain storms. Their is a section near miners gulch, the spot with the large rock obstacles and the tippy go around spot. That has changed a significant amount in how challenging it is. In no way is this trail a 3 anymore. That spot is probably a 6 or 7. If you want to avoid that section but want to do a decent part of the trail. Start at Cumberland and go up that way. As the previous person said that section isnt moderate. I have done this trail 6 times this year and the section 12-14 area has progressively become more challenging from erosion.

Ran this trail in reverse starting on the Central City side. There is a section of tail between section 12 - 14 that appears to be much rougher than the moderate rating. This might be due washout with all the rain we've seen in Colorado. We took 2-door Jeep Wrangler, Ram Rebel 1500 and stock 4-runner without too much issue. The 4-runner rubbed his under belly a lot more than he liked :) Overall fun trail with some technical sections that are good for learning.

Ran this as our first trail on a week long trip through CO in an FJ Crusier with 3" lift and 33" tires. It was a little more trail then I anticipated on the Yankee Hill side, but well worth it. We took the waypoints in reverse, starting in Central City. We had so much fun, the rest of the trip we measured all other trails by this one. It was the Monday after 4th of July but only saw a couple of side by sides and a motorcycle.

This was the second time I ran this trail this year. Really enjoyable trail. Did it in a lifted Tundra with 35's, and no sliders. Didn't have one issue. Any full size truck that has a decent lift will not have any problem on this trail. I plan on returning in August to camp at the top!

Great trail - went in a lifted/35" tire 2018 JKU Rubicon and had no issues end-to-end that required usage of my winch - if you're in a stock Jeep or equivalent, there might be a few spots that you could scratch up the under carriage if you weren't cognizant of your angles going over/around rocks. Went in from Idaho Springs side and exited the other side of the trail @ Central City. Trail was mainly dry, couple of places where there was some ruts/puddles with less than a couple of feet of standing water. Great views and a very enjoyable experience!

Fun trail for stock vehicles with 4-low and decent clearance. Did it with a stock 4runner and Colorado and only touched the skid plates a couple of times. Started from the Central City end, which is a great direction to run the trail, ending with the amazing views near James Peak and St Mary's before dropping down into the St Mary's Glacier area, where you can continue on other trails if you want. Trail conditions were great, just a few puddles. Deepest puddle was ~20"

No issues. Super fun. Overall fun trail. Some loose rocks. Can be done in a Stock 2013 Gx460 without the running boards.

Ran this trail from the Central City side, all the way through to Alice with no issues. There's a bit of snow here and there on the side of the trail, but nothing that would cause a problem, and it was a super fun ride. There are a few sections that are getting pretty rocky and rutted out, but I saw a stock Tacoma and 4Runner tackle them with no issues.

love this area, never had a bad day exploring around here. Cant wait for the roads to open this year!!!!!!

Ran this backwards from Central City to Yankee Hill today, including the Yankee Hill loop. Great fun, a handful of drifts close to and on Yankee Hill. All in all, great fun. Ran my '18 JLUR, 3.5" lift on 38's and with another '16 JKUR 3.5" lift on 35's, met up with another guy on a '17 rig as well.

Ran this from Central City way. We came up Forest Service Road 738.1 and then linked up with Yankee Hill Rd. Lots of awesome 12”deep mud / water holes and exposed rocks and dirt. Made it all the way to just before the hill climb itself before the snow got deep. Many drivers were saying that making it through to St. Mary’s was not an option. I can’t say because we turned around at FSR 175.3H. My buddy was in a 4Runner with a 2.5”lift and 33s and open diffs. He only had to winch out of a deep snow rut once.

Really fun trail to run in the snow. Couldn’t make it all the way to the top without winching a decent amount (waypoint 14 was where the snow started getting really deep) and decided to turn around. Fun day!

I ran Yankee Hill on New Year's Day and had a blast! Most of the trail was passable, though the actual "hill" presented something of a challenge. I had snow chains on my rear tires and probably didn't need them, but better safe than sorry. As others have said before, definitely do NOT go out on this network during the winter alone, and make sure you've got warm clothing/blankets/food/water in the event anything goes south. I'd also make sure you've got good, rated recovery points and some basic recovery gear (kinetic rope and soft or bow shackles are a good start).

Took a trip from the Central City side, once again the hill after the shooting area was very slick and you really had to pick the perfect line. Watched one Jeep hammering skinny petal on that hill until something broke and he backed down to do a trail repair, also saw 4 RZR's that didn't leave proper spacing when attempting a hill and ended up with some vehicle damage. One of our group was having engine trouble so we headed back the way we came, although we did hear of others making it through to St. Mary's. If you are going to attempt do NOT go alone, and remember road conditions can easily change midday as areas melt & refreeze.

Ran this yesterday and we were able to go all the way thru and did the actual hill (Yankee hill) also..... just a few other jeeps out and almost 50 degrees out

Ran this trail today with a few other vehicles. Ranging from a stock 4Runner to lifted Tacoma’s, some with 33” and a locker to open diff. All aired down. We made it from one end to the other but I wound not recommend doing it solo unless you a winch and plan on shoveling snow. The rocky uphill @ the shooting area was icy and if you don’t get the line perfect you’ll slide down. The next major uphill was snow packed but easy to get up. As we got past the half way point we ran across 2 snow drifts. The first one was easy to get through but the second got every vehicle stuck. Locked and a lot of skinny peddle may get you through it, but good change you will have to get winched or pulled out of it.

Post-snowfall review! 2000 Frontier (3" lift) 2001 4Runner (no lift) 2004 4Runner V8 (no lift) We ran this trail from the Central City side and ended in St. Mary's. The Central city side has a lot of sections with hard-pack snow, ice, and mud, although the trail is very dry in some areas. The St. Mary's side is pretty much snow free. Play-ground/shooting area at WP16 was clear and dry. We couldn't make it UP the hill between WP12 and WP11 due to snow/ice. We could have easily winched it, but we decided to take the Yankee Hill Cutoff Trail and it was more enjoyable anyways. WP1-WP7 were essentially snow free and would be easy going either direction. Overall the trail was very passable in a stock rig. Chatted with a couple in a sock 5th Gen 4Runner near WP12 and they hadn't had any trouble climbing Yankee from St. Mary's with stock tires, no lift. Saw quite a few dirt bikes, atv's, and side-by-sides up there and they were passing most section with no issues.

I tried this trail but had to turn around When the tail started to get very rocky and I was on limited time and had to make sure I could get back into Denver. I liked the views very much. But I have a hard time with this rating on this trail. I am pretty new to off-roading with my 4Runner. This is probably my 4th trail. Seeing the rating of max 3 made me think this was a pretty easy trail. There were areas that were just completely boulders and rocks you had to drive over with some very large rocks mixed in. I hit bottom a few times barely moving on some areas. I probably would have kept going but I was by myself and lost cell service and had to get back at a set time and if the trail had continued to be as bumpy then I would have been late. Like the area and the views But being new I had a hard time seeing this as a max 3.

Just went up and over from Central City to Alice. Surprised to get back on this site and see that it suggests 4WD but a 2WD would make this trail. Very loose, rocky and rutted out in most places. Some of the easier go arounds still required some skill and tire placement. I drive a lifted frontier and it made it no problem. Fun trail

This trail was a blast. I have a stock 15 4Runner trail and made it through the 175.1 route without stopping. It definitely got a little tricky close to Central City and a lift would have made it much easier. With some skill you can have a blast with a stock vehicle. The mud puddles at the top was also a nice little bonus!

This was mellow ride with plenty of beautiful sites. My family and I had no problems on the trail with our stock height ZJ ('93 Grand Cherokee). The mountains still had a little bit of snow on them but none on the trails. Went Yankee hill to Central City stopping for pictures and food breaks along the way. The track took us around 4 hours with all of our stops. There's a fire ban so we weren't able to cook like planned.

Ran eastbound and trail's clear. A bit of snow still around on the mountains, but not near the trail...

Snow on the Alice side at the start of Yankee, passable with good tires. Clear up top then more snow going down to the Central City side.

Trail was impassable with deep snow and we had to help another jeep out who was stuck. We also got stuck in the process.

Free of snow the entire route. No condition changes vs 2016.

Clear from the St. Marys side trailhead. Plenty of rigs were out bashing the remaining snowdrifts down.

We decided to escape the city and run Yankee Hill from Central City. The road from Central City headed west to St. Mary’s Glacier was dry, wet and muddy in some places. Some mud pools on the trail about 1 foot deep, the weather was beautiful. Sunny but a chilly 46 degrees. Not much snow until you reached the base of Yankee Hill. We were by ourselves and noticed a lot of snow. We decided to go for it. The trail is rated easy to moderate. Well, this became a fun adrenaline filled day as we headed up the steep incline to the overlook. The snow ruts on the trail were deep and hard packed, this was the time to give it a little gas and get through these snow packed ruts or get stuck. If you do not have a high clearance vehicle, you will most likely get stuck in the deep ruts and have to winch out. We made it mid-way to the top right before the overlook, then there was SNOW, SNOW and deeper SNOW. We decided to give it a shot and tried to make it over the hump to the overlook, but the snow was just too deep. Had to back down and head back to Central City. Overall a fantastic day but unfortunately did not get to take photos of St. Mary’s glacier. We did not see any full size vehicles coming from the west side at St. Mary’s glacier, so we were assuming there was a lot of snow on the other side and vehicles were not making it over. We ran into several Arctic Cats at the bottom of Overlook as we backed down and stopped to chat for a minute, they stated do not take that trail any further or we will be winching out for 1 to 2 hours. YEP we listened and headed back down. This is a fun trail that is close to town.

Traveled the trail from waypoint 22 to 16. Previous vehicles that were in the area said they were unable to get up the hill to waypoint 15 due to the lack of momentum. The ruts were packed most of the way, the road near the houses was plowed. The area at this point is accessible by vehicles with a minimal lift and good winter tires.

no fresh snow, packed powder in most areas. none of the ice hills were slippery. we all spent most of our time in awd. finally used 4wd getting through the drifts to the playground and playing on the main drift. hard crust on top of the powder from the wind. really no issues walking on top of the snow, but made it a bit harder for rigs drying to get through drifts. didn't go all the way to yankee hill as we had to take off and get back to town, nor did we explore any of the quarry area. too many atvs up there. we headed for the deep stuff to get away from them...it was like rush hour in the city.

We got a little group together to go and explore the beautiful fall leave changes. We started out in Central City and went up to Yankee Hill. This was the first time I had run the trail. It was a pretty active trail that day. There were a lot of people in the parking area with UTV's or just people exploring the nearby graveyard. We aired down and set off. Almost instantly the trees were the beautiful golden color we were hoping to see. Our pace was pretty good even with all the dirt bike, ATV, UTV, and vehicle traffic. There were also a good amount of people shooting in some areas. We arrived at a big open area which has a large "poser rock" in the middle of it. A few people tried their hand at it. One guy drove too far forward and high centered himself onto it. It made for some funny pictures as he had to get yanked off by another truck. The weather was interesting too as it was fairly warm, I only needed a light hoodie, and it was sunny and snowing! Pretty weird to have the sun lighting up all the golden leaves but snowing at the same time! We decided to stop just off to the side of this large open area to have lunch. Crazy enough, as I'm eating a sandwich, I look up and see a Razr UTV tumbling through the air! They attempted to do a sharp turn in the open area and ended up rolling a few times. We believe afterward that a lower ball joint broke and that's what sent them tumbling. Luckily everybody was OK and we flipped it back onto it's wheels. Unfortunately with the LBJ broken they were done for the day. We continued up the trail after eating and it was all pretty straight forward. We had some new people with us on the run and they did well! A couple in the group made it up Yankee Hill without issue. It was around 32 degrees at Yankee Hill. The views were amazing. After taking some pictures we headed back down the way we came up from Central City. It was a fun day!

We ran the trail on 2/21/16, and it was a sunny warm day for being February. We ran the trail in reverse from the route described here. We started in Central City and ran Yankee Hill all the way over to Alice. We started at the parking lot at waypoint 22, and then actually took 739.1 to waypoint 18. This section of trail was pretty snow free and what snow we did run into had been well traveled and packed down. Between waypoints 18 and 12 the trail was snow packed, but nothing too extremely deep. There were plenty of other vehicles on the trail from ATVs to other smaller Jeeps and pickups. Near waypoint 11 we did run into one very large drift blocking the main path on the trail. This drift took a lot of busting and winching with our 3 vehicles on 42'' tires, 40'' tires, and 37'' tires. There was a bypass, but I am unsure if it was a legal or illegal bypass. After this point, halfway between waypoints 8 and 7, there is a steep uphill climb that had a very large snowfield across it. It had been very well traveled so there was really no issue at this time because there had not been any fresh snow in at least a week or 2. With fresh snow, this hill climb will be a very big challenge. One on top above tree line, there was very little snow, the trail was mostly dry. We continued down the main trail towards Alice. When we reached waypoint 1 where the trail crosses under the powerlines, the snow had returned with a vengeance. It was extremely deep and soft in this location. It had no issue swallowing up a set of 40'' tires. One vehicle got stuck and required a lot of digging and winching in order to get him free from the grip on the snow. There were a few stock SUVs trying to come up this part of the trail also that just kept getting denied by the snow. Once we finally got out of this stretch, the road once again became dry. Because of the conditions we saw, I would only recommend this trail be ran in reverse order like we ran it, from Central City to Alice.