Wheeler Geological Area... Can I make it?

[Mguilicutty]

I am heading out to Denver in a couple of weeks for work in my bone stock 08 Limited V8 that I've recently acquired. After working a couple of days, I plan to take the rest of the week off and hit some trails and do some hiking and camping.

I'd really like to get to Wheeler Geological Area near Creede. Has anyone been there recently and if so, in your opinion, will a stock 08 Limited V8 be able to handle this trail? It is in good shape and is running very street biased tires. Creede is about 4 hours in the wrong direction for me, so I'd hate to make my way there just to find out the trail is too much for the truck. The forest service is making it sound bad...

Thanks!

 

[RonJR]

It's been 30+ years since I've been to Wheeler, but I remember it as being a pretty cool place. We hiked in from the non-4wd trailhead; as I recall that was about 6 miles one way, with not too much elevation gain/loss. I had some friends do it later that same year via the 4wd road, with basically stock ca 1980's vehicles. They described it as a very long day - it's 26 miles of bad road round trip. The biggest issue they had was some muddy spots that were somewhat challenging.

Traildamage.com rates the trail as a 3 (out of 10), which puts it within the capability of a stock 4th gen. However, their data is 9 years old, so who knows what it looks like today. They also mentioned the mud.

I don't know exactly what your time frame of a "couple of weeks" means, but we've had a ton of snow in Colorado this winter. The Wheeler area is around 11,000 feet elevation; I would be highly doubtful the road will melt out before mid July at best, and then it will stay muddy for several more weeks.

I would suggest driving to the non-4wd trailhead, camp, get an early start next day, throw some micro spikes in your pack for snow crossings, and hike in.