South Colony Lakes Trailhead

Posted On: 7/29/2025 By: nutella262
Info: Agree with other comments that the road is in pretty rough shape beyond the 2WD TH. Not Nellie Creek bad but maybe comparable to Castle Creek minus the stream crossing. Able to do with stock 4Runner - impressed someone got up with a Subaru outback.

Posted On: 7/20/2025 By: jgregory
Info: The 4WD trailhead is very rough and has deteriorated in the past few years. If you care about your vehicle or do not have a capable 4WD, high-clearance vehicle, plan to use the 2WD trailhead. There are signs saying "No Overnight Parking", but enforcement seemed questionable at best. You may get lucky and be able to hitch a ride with someone from the 2WD to the 4WD, but don't count on it!

Posted On: 7/8/2025 By: 8000too
Info: Lower trailhead has "No Parking" signs posted. Does anyone have more info on this?

Posted On: 7/7/2025 By: davidclimbs
Info: Drove up to the 4WD trailhead on 7/4, road is pretty rough and I saw lots of vehicles have to deal with more than they bargained for. Looking back at previous posts it seems that the road has gotten worse this year. Made it up in a moded Xterra. Lower and upper lots were full either way for the holiday.

Posted On: 5/19/2025 By: mmontello1
Info: Summer conditions to Upper Trailhead.

Posted On: 2/4/2025 By: JasonCrane
Info: Smooth, easy drive to lower 2WD trailhead from Westcliffe. Completely dry road conditions. There's a very rough patch of dirt & rock near the start of the 4WD, but road conditions improve & appears either OHV or high clearance vehicles have packed down the snow & are making their way to S Colony Lakes without much issue. There's a fallen tree that vehicles seem to have been able to circumvent. Note - I only hiked from the lower 2WD trailhead at ~8,800 feet to the Rainbow Trail junction.

Posted On: 1/23/2025 By: markf
Info: road is smooth and dry to the 2WD trailhead; it looks like ATVs are getting past the Rainbow Trail and probably to the upper S Colony Lake TH.

Posted On: 12/28/2024 By: daway8
Info: Road to 2WD lot still dry but snow and ice patches start a quarter mile after that. Within half a mile afterwards, already signs of vehicles getting stuck. Beyond that the road was a messy mix of snow, ice and various vehicles leaving various signs of distress. Some snowmobiles or such made it all the way to the 4WD TH and even beyond to the old 4WD TH. This made walking up the road much easier, but there were abundant patches of ice to watch for, with a couple being thin enough to punch through. Large tree recently downed across road just past the current 4WD TH which seems to have fallen at some point after the snowmobiles made tracks beyond.

Posted On: 12/8/2024 By: daniel_a34
Info: 2wd trailhead and road leading to it has no snow, truck got stuck in 14" of snow on the road a couple hundred yards after the 2wd trailhead. Some snowcat type vehicle with tracks (and maybe a snowmobile or two) has made it up to the 4wd trailhead, seemingly without difficulty.

Posted On: 11/21/2024 By: bigfoot1
Info: The road is dry to the 2wd trailhead, unplowed past that. I was the only car at the 2wd lot at 830 and 1600 (Thursday). Furthest car tracks got up to (37.98533, -105.4945) and a really nice, decked out 4 runner was parked about 0.2 miles further up the road. Seemed like they tried to go further but couldn't make it up that first hill so they backed down. Got stuck behind a bunch of cows on 119 on the way out lol

Posted On: 11/14/2024 By: greenschist
Info: The road to the lower 2WD trailhead is plowed and clear. The first incline above 2WD parking is a mix of ice, snow drifts, and rocks. Once you get in the forest the snow is continuous to the upper trailhead, averaging at least a foot deep. At least one person has driven beyond the lower parking. From their tracks I can tell they had a high clearance 4WD with big tires. They stopped at one of the first campsites beyond the private property. I wouldn't try to do what they did without a similar vehicle and probably some chains. Their tire tracks are pretty icy in many places. Another storm could make anything beyond the lower lot inaccessible. If you're approaching this TH from the North, Google Maps may try to send you right to southbound Colony Lane and directly to the parking. The last mile or so of this road is not plowed, and the last half mile is holding deep untracked snow. I started slipping immediately, even with 4WD and good tires. If you end up on Colony Lane, you can a take a left on Marble Rd, a right on Colfax, then follow the standard directions. There's a wooden sign on the Colony Lane/Marble Rd intersection saying "Easy National Forest Access" telling you to do just that. Bring snowshoes if you want to hike the road into the basin. I tried to snowshoe to South Colony Lakes, but ran out of time and energy before treeline. I broke trail from the NFS boundary on the road (end of the tire tracks) to the Wilderness boundary. From there I had trouble getting over deadfall in snowshoes, since it was my first time using them. Sorry if my trench is sloppy.

Posted On: 9/29/2024 By: rchacon
Info: Drove in a stock 4Runner with AT tires. Definitely a four-wheel-drive road I would not take a Subaru, even a Wilderness Edition. Road was comparable to Nellie Creek. Saw other 4Runners, Wranglers, Tacomas, and full size trucks at the trail head. Would not recommend anything stock thats not similar.

Posted On: 9/29/2024 By: mmontello1
Info: Definitely been better, but still not really much worse than normal. Most of the "newer" obstacles seemed to be between mile 1-2.

Posted On: 9/11/2024 By: daway8
Info: If you're a hard core 4WD enthusiast who seeks out roads purely for the challenge, with no other goal in mind, you'll likely be bored by this road. But if you're a 14er hiker who rarely does 4WD roads except as a means to an end of reaching a trailhead then this road might terrify you. There are no obstacles, per se, in terms of anything like the Jaws obstacles on the road going up to Lake Como. But there are some impressive ruts, dips, jutting rocks etc. With 4Runner or better clearance most of the road can be easily handled just by driving really, really slow. But there were a couple spots where I was obliged to very carefully pick a line between ruts and dips. Saw a couple Subarus up there but that's probably pushing it clearance-wise unless you're a really experienced and confident driver.

Posted On: 9/1/2024 By: MaryinColorado
Info: Third and final time up the road this season. WOW, has it deteriorated fast! Would I take anything with less than 4Runner/Jeep clearance up? No. No, I would not. Even the initial washout obstacle has gotten much deeper over the past month. I just don't think it's worth the risk. To the truck that hauled a U-Haul trailer up (??!!), kudos to you, but what the heck?! Also, to whoever lost a piece of their vehicle on the road, it's still there in case you want to retrieve it... Remember, just because you see certain vehicles at a trailhead does NOT mean they made it without damage! Grains of salt, folks.