Ryan Boudreau

the north end is still seasonally closed, but the southern end is open a little ways. Made it 2.8 miles from the red cone trailhead right where the trail drop down in the creek at the tailings pile. Deep snow covering the trail there makes it impossible to go any farther.

Trail is now open and passable till waypoint 7 and the 2 campsites located up there. (They are marked by the way so they are legal). I missed the turn to go up to waypoint 8, but remember seeing that turn. I didn't have the map downloaded so I thought that was a turn up to a campsite as it's not well marked. But it was dry. We busted through the avalanche and several other drifts near the top. In a couple days you won't even know we made first tracks today. Road was dry and snow free most of the way.

seasonal gate is open. No idea on conditions, just passed the gate on the way down the highway

Spoke to Clear Creek Ranger today and the trail is still closed due to Elk Calving.

The trail is open and plowed all the way through and all county visitation restrictions have been lifted.

The trail is open and plowed all the way through and all county visitation restrictions have been lifted.

The trail is open and plowed all the way through and all county visitation restrictions have been lifted.

Trail is clear all the way to the city. Schofield is snow packed and impassable.

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

Still closed by the Park Service due to Covid. Slated to open June 3rd

Trail is now open, but snow packed and impassable all the way around.

Trail is now open for the season per the Forest Service.

Big snow drift between waypoints 7 and 8 make the trail impassable

Unlike other reviews below, I officially reached out to the Forest Service rangers and asked about the mud season closures, as others have been lifted. FS responded that Slaughterhouse is indeed open for the season.

The seasonal closure for this area has been lifted and the gate is now open. However, there is still a lot of snow on the ground on the higher elevations in the area and it has created extremely wet and muddy conditions, just to get to the trail. I imagine along the trail is the same as I was not able to get my dirtbike across a large mudhole, so I explored by foot

Really cool and unique trail. Probably not great in the middle of summer as I imagine it's hot and dusty, but this was a great spring trip.

Although super easy, this is a really cool canyon to drive through, with some killer views, and great camp spots.

My absolute favorite trail in Grand Junction! This trail changes everytime I run it. Obstacles that were difficult the last time are now easy, and obstacles that were easy are now difficult. It is also a good trail for newer wheelers who want to start getting into harder terrain as they can attempt the obstacles they want, and bail out if they find themselves in over their heads. I fully recommend making the trail an in and back out drive instead of looping all the way around, even if your vehicle is road worthy.

Great trail to add in combination with Billings. Really it's just adding one more big obstacle to your day, but it's definitely worth checking out if you are running big tires. Don't go in there if you are on 35s.

A great trail for the hardcore wheeler. The sign at the start says 35s, and I can only imagine how long the trail will take on that size tire. Be sure to have rocker protection and a winch also.

Knew the trail would be impassable, but wanted to check it out anyway and see what the snow conditions were like. This latest storm dumped a good amount of fresh snow on the trail. Only made it to waypoint 5. The uphill switchback there was extremely icy and difficult. One rig made it around that corner, but immediately the snow becomes very off camber leaning you off the trail. We opted to turn around instead of attempting to continue.

Made it just shy of a mile, not too far past the split with Democrat. The trail was busy with snowshoeing enthusiasts. The snow wasn't too deep, but was definitely icy in spots for the mile we traveled. After that, the trail begins climbing up hill and the snow got extremely deep and impassable, even on 42s.

Made it just shy of a mile along the trail, and it was an extremely hard, fought for mile. About 10" of fresh snow, deeper in some drifts, on top of a hard, frozen layer, made traction extremely difficult. But totally fun!

Ran the trail in the opposite direction of this guide, from Herman to Rampart. Trail had not been attempted since the latest snow, so we were making fresh tracks. We had a group of 8 with us. Just past the camp site at wp5, about 1.5 miles in, as the trail parallels Ensign Gulch, it becomes extremely dangerous. There was fresh snow on top, but a solid layer of ice under that and it leans off camber to the downhill side. I was lead and fell off the trail in a spot that appears to be a common spot for this due to the number of trees scarred by winch lines. We were able to get me back on the trail, but the next guy fell off also in the same spot. And then again 10 feet later. In the meantime, another member of our group fell off the trail about 200 yards behind us and kept falling off as he attempted to continue towards us. 6 members of the group turned around. The 2 of us up front self recovered a few times but eventually got out of the gulch. From there it was snow packed and fairly deep, but easily manageable. Super nice scenery along this trail. I wouldn't recommend it for current travel though, and if you attempt, you should have chains on all 4 tires, a working winch, and good recovery skills.

Used this road to get over to Rampart and Balanced Rock. It was snow packed the entire way. The eastern side was very tracked out and just hard packed snow pretty much the entire way up. It was very icy in the morning too. After the second gate, there were less tracks and the snow was much deeper. Still passable, just significantly different than the eastern side out of town. Made our way back down this in the evening after dark. It was again pretty icy coming back down into town, but the flat section at the beginning had thawed a lot during the day leaving behind a lot of slush and muddy water holes. Great views of the city at night! And the views of Pikes Peak during the day were great too!

Ran the trail with a group of 8. No one had been down the trail since the last snow. The snow was pretty deep in spots, but passable for our crew. We made it all the way to the end, but coming back up turned out to be a little bit of a struggle. Under the fresh snow was a solid layer of ice, so a couple of the climbs out were tough for rigs without two lockers. Chains would likely be helpful on this trail. Great snow run though for groups.

This trail does not have any type of seasonal closure. It is open all year long according to all Forest Service resources I could find and checked with. So we headed up to see what the conditions were like. With my LJ on 40s and a TJ on 37s, we made it 1.3 miles from the Forest boundary which is a little bit before this track begins. Officially we made it just past the restoration area at waypoint 3. The trail is consistantly snow packed and icy from the start. The center of the trail is hard packed and really soft on the sides. Both of us winched a couple of times just to get where we did. We turned around because the trail was beginning to climb and the snow conditions weren't allowing any further progress. Although open, the terrain makes this trail very difficult to run in the snow. It is also extremely popular and busy with cross country skiers, who didn't appear to appreciate we were on the trail. In my opinion, leave this trail to them. It's just not a worthy winter wheeling spot.

The FS has been doing a ton of mediation work along this trail to keep users on the trail, and yet there were still off trail tracks in area. Please keep your machine on the trail. Iron Clads is surprisingly dry. Getting to the playground there was one stretch of uphill snow that was extremely icy, but with momentum from the bottom it wasn't a big deal. Please refrain from creating a new path through the trees to get up the hill. The playground area was bone dry! The loop around the top was mostly snow packed and extremely icy on both ends. Use caution.

Trail to the seasonal gate was surprisingly dry. No fresh snow appears to have fallen in awhile. The road was mostly dry with patches of snow/ice and some muddy water holes. The closer to the gate, the more snow. A lot of UTV rentals on the trail! A lot of recreational shooters on nearby spur roads also!

Trail is under seasonal closure until 5/15

Trail was very well traveled and tracked out by a lot of previous users. The snow was hard packed on the trail and icy pretty much throughout. A few nice camp spots along the road. Wellington Lake was busy with ice fisherman.

What a difference a couple dry weeks make. Unlike Patrick's update, it was hard to find snow yesterday. Ran the majority of the trail in 2wd as most of the snow has melted off. The north half is totally dry. As I worked south, hard packed icy snow was found in a few of the curves that see shade almost all day. Once on the Tarryall side, there is more snow in the area and off the trail, but on trail everything was tracked down to dirt or just hard packed. The views of Pikes Peak were awesome today! A note on this guide, it's very hard to read and follow. It would be better if the intersections were described on where they go instead of just naming them. I can obviously see that on a map. Not very helpful.

Made it 2.5 miles in, just past the first switchback. Snow is deep and soft. Past a group of stockish toyotas that were struggling a lot and only made it half the distance we did, even in our tracks.

Trail is now closed for the season

Trail is now closed for the season