Jim French

Fun trail with a couple moderate obstacles and some great views that ends at an area that has some extreme obstacles.

Did a quick run of this trail after completing the Transfer trail. Easy with some good views. There is a sign at waypoint 1 saying that white owl lake campground closed back in 2018.

2nd time using this trail as a connector to Blair Mountain and the Transfer Trail. It's long and has some traffic but the views are incredible, especially during leaf change. If you have the ability, air down, it'll make for a much more enjoyable drive. This trail has some deep corrugation.

Man, I'm really falling in love with this area. This trail is awesome. You get a great mix of technical terrain and beautiful views. Took about 2 hours to get to waypoint 16, which was mostly steep and easy shelf roads and easy unmaintained forest road. In typical Colorado fashion I got all four seasons in those 2 hours. Sunshine, rain, hail, and snow. I camped near Bowen Lake. The obstacle at waypoint 19 was much more technical than I thought it was going to be based on the pics. Having said that, it was a solid "4" in difficulty and was fun to go up. After that the trail was super muddy and sometimes covered in snow from the day before. Navigating the muddy, steep, and off camber descents was pretty exciting/challenging. Almost slid off the trail a few times. Thankfully most of the descents are short and if I had slid off the trail and gotten stuck, there were lots of options for me to winch off of or use recovery boards. (oh yeah, go prepared to self recover. I didn't see a single other vehicle while I was on this trail and there is no cell service) Some of the mud puddles were pretty deep and unavoidable, coming up past the bottom of the truck door (around 2.5' deep). Took me 2-3 hours to complete the trail from waypoint 16. As far as difficulty I'd say it's a solid 4 but only because of the obstacle at waypoint 19 and the muddy descents. Otherwise I'd say its a 3. Blair Mountain is much more challenging in my opinion due to its sections of sustained technical driving. Can not wait to combine this trail with Blair Mountain next year! Fun side note.....there were several large flocks of sheep with badass guard dogs, haha. (sorry, only took one pic towards the end of the trail.)

Fun and challenging little side trail. Seemed rarely used. I would almost say it's harder than a 4 due to some washed out and rocky sections, but I won't. It's possible I was just ready to camp at that point and was feeling fatigued from the drive from Moab and then navigating the trail in the rain/snow. I bottomed out a few times. (tacoma with 31" tires and 2" lift) I'm not sure I would chose this trail to camp on again just because it was very slow going for me (solid hour to get to waypoint 11) and there is great and more easily accessible camping off of the transfer trail. Having said that the view at the lake was beautiful and I'm glad I got to explore the area. If you're looking for a slow, rocky trail with great and secluded camping, this'll do it.

What a truly awesome overloading trail! Really fun, varied, and mild-moderately technical. Was mostly dry except for a fun amount of mud before and after the waypoint 52. All creek crossings were either dry or fairly low. Took about 6-7 hours for me to get from waypoint 1 to where I camped around waypoint 51. Found a phenomenal dispersed campsite. Incredible views, leaf change, and weather. The next day was about 4 hours to the end of the trail. I enjoyed every bit of it (except maybe the few miles of pavement going through Nucla), Don't expect this to be a "wheeling" trail. This is a mildly technical overloading trail and it's a lot of fun. I'm gonna say that this trail was barely a 3 in difficulty when I did it. Much less technical than the White Rim which is also rated a 3. I suppose if the creek crossings were high or the mud deeper it would then be a solid 3. Still going to say it's a 3 but its a pretty easy one as far as technical driving goes. Also, fall is the best time to do this trail in my opinion.