Mt. Kit Carson Loop Road

Park a car at the Lower Loop Road Trailhead to use as a shuttle, and drive a second car to the Cooks Cabin Trailhead. The Loop Road was closed to all but authorized vehicles in 1995. It runs generally downhill passing the CCC camp, around the base of both Day Mountain and Mt. Kit Carson and crosses a logged area owned by Boise Cascade where there are good views to the north. It also passes a gated connector road leading down to the Blanchard Creek Road (Trail 183), and further south it passes the Day Mountain Road (2.5 miles to park boundary gate). After a short climb over Smith Gap (where there is a toilet and picnic table), it descends through a beautiful old-growth cedar-hemlock forest to the lower trailhead. There are several streamside picnic tables along the route.