Trail Ridge Road

Trail Overview

Trail Ridge Road is an easy, windy, single-width Forest Service gravel and dirt road that takes you up and around the Baker Lake area. It is a mostly well maintained dirt road with minimal potholes, a few small water run offs and gorgeous views. You do need to cross the dam in order to get to this section of the trail. In summer time, this can be a popular trail as it is easily accessible. There are multiple pull offs available for dispersed camping including but not limited to a few with absolutely amazing views of mount baker that are so close you could almost reach out and grab it. Sadly on this particular day, the clouds were mostly in the way. I ran this trail in the early fall, however I have recently been informed that due to the super soggy winter with heavy snow and rain, part of this trail *may* be blocked by a landslide and boulder. I personally have not been back up at this time to investigate the validity of that claim. I would recommend this trail in spring/summer/fall time periods as it does get large amounts of snow in the winter.

Difficulty

I gave this trail a 2 rating because while 90% of it is very easily traversed, there are a few tricky spots (small but intense inclines) to get to some of the camping areas. This trail is also unmaintained in the winter and I would give it a harder rating due to the sheer amount of snow it accumulates.

Technical Rating