Hey Guys,

So in 2016 I've decided to drive out west and spend 1-2 weeks exploring Colorado. I'll spend a few days in a hotel in Denver but I'd like to spend much of the trip hiking, exploring the wilderness, and working on a few photography projects that I have.


1) Time to go: Initially I was leaning on late April/early May but after doing some research it stills looks like there will be a lot of snow in the higher elevations. As a result I've pushed it back to be from June to early September. I'd like to avoid other tourists and deep snow (I have experience with cold temperatures but relatively little with the white powdery stuff).

2) Where to camp with RTT: During the time I'm not in Denver I'm planning on camping out in my roof top tent. I saw another thread that mentioned driving on the tundra is a no-no so what do you guys recommend if a campground is not near? Here in GA I can pretty much pull off of any road, camp out, and not really worry about it as long as I don't leave anything behind.

3) Scenic Trails and Forest Service Roads (Hiking or Driving): I consider myself an experienced hiker but I've never hiked outside of the Appalachians so I don't know what that experience is worth in the Rockies. For driving - what trails can you recommend for a non-lifted 4runner? I have 4x4 and ATs.


For what it's worth I'm planning this trip as if I'm going alone. I could very well have more people/cars tag along but I'm not going to cancel this trip if they flake out.

I recommend the 4X4 trail Northern Colorado book

Trail Guide Books (CO, N.CO, Moab, AZ, or CA) - Nisstec Lifts: Nissan Lift Kits: XTerra Lift Kits, Frontier Lift Kits, Titan Lift Kits, Nissan Truck Lift Kits

I have all of CO and have found them incredibly useful... they have pictures, GPS details, tough obstacles that you can expect, and what sort of mods you will need on these trails.

Asking for recommended trails is difficult because everybody has their favorite trail... but in this book you can choose your own.


Or you can hit up traildamage.com for some useful information

if you end up south of Denver in the springs there is i cool trail with plenty of hiking/biking/rock climbing and other stuff at garden of the gods. I think its called rampart range road or something like that. I actually drove it in like 08 or 09 in my 2 wheel drive extera so the drive is real mellow but the scenes are super rad.

Rampart range is fun... goes all the way from garden of the gods to Monument @ Mt. Hermon... it's been awhile, I need to take that drive again soon

If you want to get above treeline, you will need to wait until late June. This year is also shaping up to be a big snow year. April and May we are still getting snow in Denver. This past year we had snow on Mother's Day (May 10th). September is a perfect time of year in that all the tourists are gone and it is usually great weather. 3rd week of September is typical for when the aspens are changing and hitting their peak.

Look at Traildamage.com for trails along with the guides someone recommended above. You really need to make sure you come out with at least one other person and another vehicle. Traveling alone in the backcountry is not a good idea in case you have mechanical issues or other problems.

Colorado has a tremendous amount of dispersed camping (e.g. no official campground, but areas where people pull off the forest service roads and camp. I almost never stay in the official campgrounds as they tend to be crowded, hard to find spots and can be reserved by others ahead of time.

Try not to makee new roads/trails for camp spots and pack out all your trash. On alpine tundra (above treeline), do not just blaze a new trail/campspot on pristine alpine tundra. The places I would recommend are further out from Denver and the front range. Check out around Aspen/Crested Butte/Buena Vista and down in the San Juans (Ouray, Silverton, Telluride).

Feel free to PM me and I can make specific recommendations. Few people want to recommend their coveted places on the WORLD WIDE web.

Oh yeah like SilvFx said if you can get out towards Ouray or Silverton not really sure about what trails are out there but near the blue mesa reservoir is beautiful. rode the million dollar highway on my motorcycle and it was amazing

i disagree... i would stay away from places like Ouray....remember... he plans on making a SOLO trip out there (i saw nothing in his sig about a winch or a lift even)... closer areas to assistance (Boulder / Lyons area, and GoG / Rampart has plenty of trails, views, and camping areas. I have seen guys on 35s with a winch get stuck pretty good in those remote areas especially San Juan trails.

that way, worse case scenario, he gets into a jam, one of us here in the metro area can go help him out.

also, reading his post, he has little experiences with snow wheeling... before I came out to CO, I was an East Coast Guy (Virginia Beach) and wheeling out there and wheeling here is a whole different skill / style...


side note: gingervitis, if youre looking for some good material on CO camping hit up Stay The Trail Colorado - Stay The Trail and / or https://www.treadlightly.org/

feel free to PM me if you have any questions... I have those CO trails books that I recommended to you in my earlier post, feel free to stop by if you'd like to borrow them when you get in to town.... I can post a screen shot from those books, on the trails that SilvFX mentioned, they recommend rock sliders / etc...

I hope this helps! Safe Wheeling!

Oh yeah, see I had no idea the only times I was out that way was on two wheels. like I said not sure about the trails out there but the drive around the area is amazing. and yea co is for sure different from the east coast. i came there from the east coast and learned fast that just because its 80 0r 90 in the springs its a hell of a lot colder up pikes peak or every year we rode to the top of mt evens on motorcycles and it is crazy to have to stop and put on jackets and gloves and all that gear before riding up and seeing plenty of snow on the ground, and its july or august.

I had a 2014 Yamaha Bolt 950, and a couple of my other buddies with bikes wanted to go on a cruise to Estes Park... it was like 75* here in Aurora, and I put a light jacket on and wondered why they were all in heavy jackets.... until we got there and it was 50* haha

that's a lesson that you only have to learn one time.

I'm not planning on having a winch or lift by the time I head west. I will have all terrain tires, hand tools (shovel, axe, etc.), some straps, and beer.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Keep it coming!

Plenty of stuff in San Juans and near Aspen/Crested Butte/Buena Vista that wont require winch or lift. OP will just need to choose wisely and keep in mind that trail ratings can vary dramatically depending on weather conditions. I did also suggest that he find someone else to go with him and bring another vehicle. But if he is on the well traveled routes in summer or early fall there are plenty of others out there to help him.


I have both of the Trail Guide books referenced by mr. projekt (there are two for Colorado - Northern and Other [southern and central]). Note, I use them for offroad motorcycling riding, but I have found the descriptions and obstacles to be accruate.
You can also see most of these listed trails listed on TrailDamage.com with ratings and pay close attention to those. Sometimes the road conditions can deteriorate from year to year due to erosion, rockfall, etc, so keep that in mind when reading older reviews. A couple examples I can think of are that Imogene Pass used to be a real ballbuster and Engineer Pass was relatively easy (as viewed from a dirt bike perspective). Nowadays, Imogene is fairly well maintained and Engineer Pass looked pretty challenging for a 4 wheeler when we rode it in 2014.

Trail Damage is a solid sight... but that's also why I suggested Stay the Trail... you can contact them for current trail conditions / recommendations from professionals.

since they are in charge of helping the forest service keep the trails maintained, they would know about current conditions that would make a trail easier or more challenging.

My experience with Stay The Trail Colorado - Stay The Trail is that is a good educational site for all offroading including motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs and to a lesser extent licensed (plated) four wheel drive offroaders.

The "Where to Go" section is good for locating offroading opportunities for unlicensed vehicles and it also contains the Motor Vehicle Use Maps that are the golden source as to what is legal to ride and where. We use it all the time for our dirtbiking to make sure the single tracks we ride are available to motorcycles, and where we might expect to encounter ATVs/UTVs and where we might encounter all vehicle types.

I am dubious that using the contact page to get in touch with people would yield any information about road/trail conditions. You would be better off contacting the local national forest or BLM office that is indicated on the MVUM materials.

Not a knock on the stay the trail website and mission as I think it is very good. But their function is not to stay up on conditions....only working with NSFS and BLM as to what offroading opportunities are available for the various vehicle types and educating people about how to use responsibly.