Elk Mountain

Took my Jeep up easy drive! It is about a 4 hour drive up and down. We were going pretty quick. Nice trail!

Pretty easy until the last couple hundred feet.

Entrance to Elk Mountain Trail from 63 closed. The entire area is fenced off with signs posted about mine reclamation work. May be able to connect further up if 645 is accessible, I did not explore that far and instead continued up 63 to iron gate campground.

Trail is currently open and is covered in 3 to 8 inches of snow all the way to the Summit. Most four-wheel-drive vehicles with proper tires will make the summit however all-wheel-drive and lower clearance. Vehicles will not make it as there are sections that have been washed out. Aspen trees are starting to fall and some other minor obstacles that can be taken care of with a winch or a chainsaw.

Me and my wife took a RAV4 down this road in the Santa Fe national Forest, and we were looking to ride this trail and explore, however, once we got there, we were really disappointed to see that there was some sort of like construction fat cones that they put in roads that are being under construction or something the gate was closed anyhow, and we couldn’t do the mini adventure, however, this was closer to two weeks ago, so I do not know as of February 24 ,2026 if the trail has reopened or not. Also, there was snow along the way and some decent patches of mud combined with snow along the road that led to the trailhead, i’m not sure if that and weather changes had forced the closing . I’m not sure but hopefully it opens up soon or is already open.

Dusty at the bottom and muddy at the top.

Patches of snow and ice, some mud, dusty in the dry sections. Heavy snow pack a few miles from the end around the 10,700-11,000ft mark.

The majority of this trail is closed with a locked gate after the first camp sites. A couple of spots with pretty deep mud and some snow with ruts. Vehicle was a Subaru Outback Wilderness.