Yankee Hill to Central City

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.

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

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

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.