Lead King Basin Trailhead

Posted On: 9/16/2022 By: swesleyc7
Info: Attached photos representative of the trailhead road.

Posted On: 9/13/2022 By: 5ClimbingCooneys
Info: Drove to about 10,800' on the Lost Trail Creek road in a stock Nissan Xterra to attempt Roach's 20.A1V route for Hagerman Peak. Road is in "good" condition and the avalanche area is no longer of any concern. (NOTE: the road Roach mentions to start that hike is marked as private). Overall, for folks looking for information about the character of the road, the lower portion of the road is fairly rocky with plenty of loose rocks that you have to drive over--anything from baseball to cantaloupe size rocks rolling around, but no big ledges. I lightly scraped bottom once due to bad wheel placement, but in most places clearance isn't a problem for off-road capable trucks and SUVs like 4Runners, Jeeps, Tacomas, etc. Lower clearance crossover SUVs will struggle with this road. The biggest clearance issues come from the large erosion control berms that have been plowed into the road. Even in a short wheelbase SUV with 10" of clearance, I was dragging my empty tow hitch down the back side of some of those. Luckily they're just dirt. The farther up you go, the smoother the road gets until it's mostly smooth and covered in 1-2" of moon dust like powder. This makes the upper switchbacks rather loose. Hopefully the coming rains will help pack that down, but it'll be loose and sloppy if you're up there when those hit. It's definitely a slow affair. It look me about an hour to get from Marble to the high point of the road at around 10,800', but I don't like to bounce around a lot and damage my vehicle unnecessarily, so I took it slow and steady, mostly in 4-low. People in more dedicated off-road vehicles could easily go faster. There was lots of fall hunting traffic up there, so more trucks than normal. Luckily most of the hunters are nice and courteous. It's the occasional self-entitled off-roader you have to watch out for. On two occasions, I was put into a dangerous situation by oncoming drivers who were completely lacking in courtesy. The first incident was while I was driving uphill at night. The oncoming truck was traveling downhill and did not stop. There was a private drive a short distance behind me they must have assumed I could pull into, but in the dark with their headlights shining in my face, I couldn't see it very well and nearly tipped my vehicle trying to hurriedly back into it at an awkward angle. Lesson in that case: if the other vehicle starts backing up, please WAIT, dim your lights so the reversing party can see better, and give them time to safely pull aside before passing. The second incident came when I had just descended one of the steeper, rockier sections surrounded by willows on each side and no pullouts. The oncoming vehicle (traveling uphill) had just passed a pullout about 30' back on relatively flat ground, but kept trying to force me backwards uphill. I stopped and got out and pointed out there was nowhere for me go and I might not be able to successfully reverse up what I'd just come down. He said it didn't matter and that I HAD to yield. I asked him if there was anywhere he could go and he didn't even look; he just told me I HAD to back up and let him by. My only option was to pull off on the side of one of the erosion berms about 200 yards back with one wheel hanging over the air above the creek. So just a reminder to all who drive these roads: in Colorado, while uphill traffic generally has the right of way, there are exceptions and some measure of courtesy is even written into the law. Here's the official text: "On narrow mountain highways with turnouts having a grade of six percent or more, ascending vehicles shall have the right-of-way over descending vehicles, except where it is more practicable for the ascending vehicle to return to a turnout." I've met far too many people up on these narrow roads lately that ignore the content after the last comma. If you're the closer vehicle to a turnout and can safely get there, even if traveling uphill, please practice courtesy and back down. Also, don't be a jerk and just keep driving right at people. Give them time to pull over!

Posted On: 9/7/2022 By: ochres
Info: Headed up to Lead King Basin TH from Marble to do the S-Ridge in a stock 4Runner with AT tires. Road from Marble to the TH wasn't anything too harrowing, though there are sections where I would hate to meet a vehicle going in the opposite direction. There are quite a few very narrow shelf roads without any pullouts, one particular section has drop offs on both sides (marked by white posts on either side)...a little hairy and we were glad the 4Runner wasn't any wider, but no serious rock obstacles to navigate. A few tight switchbacks that might be challenging in a longer wheelbase. A Jeep, Tacoma, 4Runner, and a Honda Pilot at the TH. We took the road back to Crystal on the way down. VERY rough rocky road with one notable rock obstacle immediately after you pass the Crested Butte junction. Scraped a bit, but could probably be avoided with a good spotter. Wouldn't hurt to have rock sliders and skid plates. Would NOT recommend this road with stock all-season tires, as there are some pretty sharp rocks that could pop your tire. Road from Crystal Mill back to Marble could probably be done in a crossover with some clearance, AT tires, and a good driver. Had we not been trying to get to a climbing crag near Crystal, I'd probably opt to go back the way we came from to avoid the rough ride. Would not recommend doing this in wet conditions.

Posted On: 7/25/2022 By: downishardest
Info: 4wd road was easily passable in my UTV, although it came really close to tipping a couple times. Saw several trucks that made it up.

Posted On: 7/17/2022 By: zootloopz
Info: Ended up driving the upper road in my access cab 4x4 Tacoma long bed. This was one of the narrowest roads Ive driven so far in my cent/bicent journey. There were a couple times I was concerned about making sure a wheel didnt slide off the side of the shelf road near creek erosion in shitty shale, as well as tight switchbacks and many logs trimmed with some excess left poking into the road. Some stretches of easy driving between some tougher obstacles. Very few pullouts or places to pass. Not a road Id like to repeat tbh. But I did end up making it without issue, and my buddy made it about halfway in his Subaru. The obstruction mentioned in the last comment is no longer present.

Posted On: 6/2/2022 By: butcher213
Info: Upper route to Lead King is impassable to my stock 4runner, due to logs blocking a quarter of the road, at about mile 2.7, measured from the reservoir/lake. Below this, the road is fairly muddy, but I was able to get through with some momentum. See photo.

Posted On: 5/5/2022 By: Skimo95
Info: Attempted the loop today, stopped shy due to uncertain snow conditions in the afternoon. Looks like youre able to get up the high path, just prior to the creek crossing (if theres parking). Someone stashed a sled just after, and looks like drove up to the switchbacks which cross the creek. Id give it until the end of the month unless youre skinning/experienced sled. Early morning would most likely be no issue on the approach avy wise, go at your own discretion. Next time Ill probably scope the Crystal road in a friends high clearance 4x4 first. Beautiful day, parking at LKB/Crystal split dry. P.S Bill pictures have to be rotated if taken vertical, hire a high school IT kid to make your life easier ;)

Posted On: 11/4/2023 By: Ssgustafson
Info: The northern part of the loop to LKB TH is IMO a 4 /6 on the road difficulty scale. The avalanche site was easily passable.

Posted On: 8/29/2021 By: oorg
Info: The road to the trailhead was much less rough that I expected. We made it without any issues in our stock Tacoma. The switchbacks are tight and narrow and passing opportunities are limited. Large 4WD vehicles will probably have issues with the switchbacks and passing other vehicles. Heading to the trailhead, we looped clockwise (stayed left). We returned the same path since it sounded like the road past the Crystal Mill was more rough.

Posted On: 9/1/2021 By: soundchaser2112
Info: The upper road is a semi-aggressive trailhead all around that could be completed by most 4x4 SUVs. If it rains at all you will have a much much harder time. Trucks and long wheel base vehicles need some extra height to clear the bumps. There is also a shallow stream crossing

Posted On: 8/16/2021 By: Skimo95
Info: Hagerman is in great shape. Permits proposed for next season

Posted On: 9/16/2021 By: Dan_Suitor
Info: The avalanche area is a non-issue. If you can make it to where the avalanche is, you can easily make it through the path cut through the debris. I returned via the Crystal River portion of the loop. Between the trailhead and the mill is much rougher that the Lead King portion of the loop. I made it in my 3/4 ton extended cab pickup with off-road package. Banged the frame a few times and had to back out when came head-to-head with another vehicle. It is very narrow with few areas to pass.

Posted On: 11/10/2020 By: Barnold41
Info: Road was clear driving in Friday night (11/6), but snow covered for much of the way driving out around 3PM on Saturday (11/7). Careful maneuvers with high clearance is key to get all the way to the TH, and we were the only ones up there. Not sure how much longer this will be open.

Posted On: 10/28/2020 By: tdawg012
Info: 2002 stock tacoma trd had no issue navigating the avy section nor the tight switchbacks on the high road (fs315). Road was maybe too dry. Took~45min to 1hr to get from Marble to Geneva Lake TH. As others have theorized, doing this road in a hard downpour or soon after several monsoon storms would make some of the excessively shaley switchbacks spooky at best and no-go at worst. Didn't encounter any traffic either direction thankfully. There are scattered pull-offs throughout but they aren't entirely predictable...make a mental note of where they are when you go in case you need to pass or be passed. Low road was tempting but previous descriptions were enough to keep me from investigating..that said, several vehicles (I recall a newer Tundra) descended lower road while I was there.

Posted On: 10/10/2020 By: daway8
Info: Lots of different opinions on the road to this trailhead. As someone who made it to 10,200ft on the Lake Como road in his Jeep Renegade (8.7"clearance) I can say even the upper, "easy" route (FR315 i.e. Lost Trail Road - as opposed to looping down to Crystal) is a a fairly serious 4WD road. No major obstacles like on the Lake Como road and nothing that my Renegade couldn't handle but several sections that made me uncomfortable including several hairpin switchbacks where the dirt was scooped out at an odd angle such that you could potentially end up significantly off camber depending on your line (these were more of an issue on the return to Marble when I had to go down them - going up on the way to Lead King Basin wasn't bad but I think 4LO probably helped with that). The avy debris was almost a total non-issue except for one chunk of roots stuck right in the middle of the uphill section - had some real brief tire spin in 4LO before I popped up over those. Lots of very, very narrow sections including on rough uphill segments where meeting someone going the other way would be problematic. I imagine this road would be much worse when wet (and might have seemed a little less dramatic had I not done it in the dark both ways). The route through Crystal is reportedly much worse.