Bald Mountain Gulch

One of my favorite trails in the Buena Vista area. Bald Mountain Gulch is in good shape. There were several groups of trucks, motorcycles, and ATV/Side-by-sides using the trail today. I saw three different groups camping.

Ran this from the south end with a couple Tacoma's and a group of Tundra's (one being a DC longbed). All were lifted and didn't have any issues. Trail was really easy after that first rocky pass.

I enjoyed this trail, great scenery, moderately challenging in spots

I led a small group from Overland Bound Buena Vista June Jam accessing Bald Mountain Loop from the north side on 6/28 and then a new group from the south end on 6/29. Much of the trail follows a sandy wash. The rock features near the south end I suspect serve a good gatekeeper function. We had one truck follow us in up to the first little rocky spot to discontinue after that. Most of the trail is doable in 2wd, but use 4wd to be safe on the rock features. The parking at the south end on a summer weekend was crowded. The parking area at the north end was pretty vacant.

Traveled this a few times the last couple days. No problem in stock full size. Mostly doable in 2WD, but I kept it in 4-lo just for gearing. Road was in good condition with a few cattle supporting us.

Snowy but passable for most rigs. Really nice and warm weather this weekend started melting a bunch of the snow and made sections down to dirt really muddy.

Updated links, added photos and camping suggestions at waypoints. Bald Mountain Gulch combined with the Loop is a favorite in this area southeast of Buena Vista.

We did a small portion of this trail after coming down 185D. We camped on the ridge and beautiful weather which was perfect for a night of camping.

On our way to Buena Vista we decided to get off pavement and onto some dirt. This is a super easy road that I have yet to drive on a clear day. Even on an overcast day the views of the Collegiate Peaks are amazing!

Because of the weather, most of the off-road trails along the front range are closed. There are a number of trails in the Buena Vista area are currently open. When the trailsoffroad.com crew had a Meetup gathering in Buena Vista, I decided to take advantage of the trail availability in the area. Bald Mountain Gulch was in great shape. Because there has been very little snow in the immediate area, the trail was mostly dry.

Drove the Bald Mountain Gulch Road (FS Road 300) late in June to update the original status from the prior summer. This is a really fun trail either direction, and the Bald Mountain Loop was extraordinary. There's lots of sites along this route for primitive camping--my favorites are near the northeastern trailhead and then the "camping ridge". Little traffic observed this weekend, mostly quads/ATVs and UTVs.

I wanted to do a trail not to far from Denver, and in an area that wasn’t effected by the Front Range’s bad weather system that was happening. Being a fairly gentle trail I felt comfortable doing this if it snowed or rained where I wouldn’t risk sliding into trouble. This trail allows you a little more off-road action if you are planning on doing Bald Mountain Loop or Chinaman Gulch. Bald Mountain Gulch connects you directly to Bald Mountain Loop, as well as Bassam Park Road, and 185D, which is a spur off the Black Dumps trail. By taking this trail you cut off a good ten miles of 285, the main paved road in the area. If you take this trail from East to West you arrive just south of Johnson Corners, where you can be at the Chinaman Gulch or Carnage Canyon trailhead within 5 minutes. I found the trail to be more stoic and aesthetically pleasing running it from East to West where I had great views of the Collegiate Peak. As you arrive at the high point of the trail at 9,400’ you get a great view looking down at farmland and the Collegiate Peaks. From there you wind down through woods of conifers, aspens and other hardwoods. Towards the end you get to go through some really interesting rock formations that the trail winds through. At the western end you travel down the steepest part where the views are even better and finally end up at the trailhead which is also shared parking for the popular Browns Canyon hike.