Porphyry Gulch

One of the most beautiful places I have ever neen. There was a comfortably spaced stream of visitors. We used the Black Bear Pass cutoff on the return trip. I recommend starting on the Black Bear Pass road if you want to air down. The two major road obstacles are the steepness on small loose rock and narrow shelf sections.

Very scenic drive up a fairly easy to light moderate trail. Car is AWD with stock ground clearance and a set of fairly aggressive all terrains. A few areas where there is a decent change in height front to back/side to side which made the AWD system work a bit and even had to change the line once to make the car get through. I would say overall, it’s a fairly novice level trail with any sort of 4wd or AWD vehicle.

Was able to drive up to the last mile. Snow obstructing. Could go around but would be off trail. Hiked to the rest of the way to Gold King