Sullivan Mountain Trail

This is a dirt-based forest road with rock along most of the trail. It is extremely bumpy and slow-moving. The trail has lots of two-track areas and is one lane wide in most places, with room to pass. The trail gradually climbs over 2,600 feet in elevation over 7.7 miles to the top of Sullivan Mountain, where the old lookout tower still stands. There are ruts and washouts up to a foot deep, and a couple of sections where major washout has occurred and has left large deposits of dirt and rock on the trail. As you travel over one of the washout sections, you will be off camber near an edge, but it is wide enough for any vehicle type to get through. The final two switchbacks lead you up to the tower, but it is rocky and rutted with large boulders, making a high-clearance 4x4 necessary to reach the top/tower. The views are out of this world, and you can see for miles and miles to snow-capped peaks in the distance and down to Sullivan Lake. Camping is allowed along this entire trail, and once at the top, it is flat and wide enough for a couple of rigs to car camp. The tower is no longer staffed, and only the bottom 2 levels of stairs remain, so you cannot enter the tower or access the catwalk. The nearest services are over an hour away in Metaline Falls, so travel prepared and have a spare and a tire repair kit as you traverse the rocky terrain. Cell phone service was decent at the top but weak along most of the trail, and there are no amenities along the trail.