Chinns Lake

One spot where ice made it tricky after the turn off from the fork in the road; Chin’s or Fall Res. Overall an easy road minus the ice. Lots of private land along the road. The hike at the end of the road should be the main draw. At the end of the road you only have about a mile and 800’ gain to get up above 12k. Bring a trash bag and help leave it better than you found it.

Mostly easy trail for my 1991 Ranger with 4" lift. Short drive to the lake. some snow and ice but barely any traction loss with new tires. Fully open on 10/25/25

The trail had a lot of little puddles from the recent rain. The road remains in good shape though.

Pretty chill drive. Most high clearance 4x4 can make it. Subarus and Rav4 and things like that might have a harder time with a few taller obstacles but if you’re an experienced driver and okay with some potential scraping you should be alright. The lakes are beautiful with plenty of camping right on the water especially if you’re willing to hike in your stuff a little bit. There is currently a fire ban with multiple signs alerting to it so respect our forests.

The trail was open, it had got extremely easy now, I definitely would give it a 2 on the difficulty rating. There was a bunch of people out camping, there is a fire ban in place in clear creek county and a bunch of out of state people ignoring the fire ban. This is one of the many reasons Coloradans don’t like out of state people. Do better people, don’t burn down our mountains!

The trail is listed as 3.7 miles and the first 2.5 miles is a nice wide dirt road. There is a fork at 2.5 and Chinns Lake is the left fork on 174.1D. Fall River Reservoir is the rght fork. The last 1.2 miles is rough rocky going but only a few larger boulders to navigate. Driving past Chinns to Sherwin lake is a short but rough 1/2 mile. Rain on and off made it more challenging. Only 2 other vehicles at the lake yesterday.

Too many people camping and hiking. Several people were parking on trail, and in no trespassing areas, private property. This is what gets our trails shut down permanently Colorado!

trail starts off fairly smooth till your about a qtr in. after it starts to get rocky with a 1 lane road, occasional passing spots. driving a jeep gladiator on 37" with a 2.5 lift did it like nothing. however there were some spots that you def need clearance. I was surprised to see Ford escapes, and small suvs, cars out there blow my mind how some made it with out popping pans. but its doable with the type of vehicles I saw at the lake. be prepared to find a lake full of vehicles and people camping tho.

This is more accurately a 3 and potentially a 2, there were multiple rav4S and Subaru foresters all the way at the top parking lot, but past that it does get a little rough with some larger (3.5) rocks for like the last eighth of a mile which you could just hike instead. It’s very pretty and lots of great hiking and stuff to do around, but also quite busy and was hard to find a spot to park at the top mid weekday

pick up your trash

Trail is obstructed at the last 300’ or so. Waist deep hard pack snow.

Still Snow drift, seems like the snow is almost gone though. Probably 8 cars parked at the top where the snow is. We decided not to try to work through the snow at the last section before lakes. Hopefully in another week or two It’s clear. Not sure what the move would be if there was two way traffic on the last section to Chinns lake. Someone would be backing up for awhile.

Deep snow at last part of trail, can’t drive to the lake. Lots of people on trail as well as camping.