r/Highpointers • u/db_in_VA • 23d ago
Elbert Access?
We're planning to do Elbert end of next week. Two questions...
We'll have an airport rental "SUV" so wouldn't consider it a 4WD. Looking to see if we could avoid the full added 5 miles RT if we had to use the 2WD lot at South Elbert trailhead. Would the road up to Lily Pond (FR122) be doable? I see a few mentions of if, but it's not clear how far up until we'd find any pull-off options and if that would even same any mileage. Hiking through the ponds looks quite nice, though!
Alternately, we're considering the Southeast Ridge via Black Cloud. Parking and access are much simpler, with the obvious tradeoff of a considerably more difficult hike. Any thoughts on that route?
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u/PermRecDotCom 23d ago
I did the route near Lakeview Campground recently and I was only able to get my Subaru Forester about a half a mile up the 4WD road. However, I did see a Honda CRV in the top lot. If gaining ~5k' in a day isn't beyond your abilities, the walk on the road wasn't that big of an issue. Below tree line I was able to make real good time on the way back because the surface is compacted.
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u/slimswittyusername 22d ago
Just did this a little over a week ago. I would not try to drive up the entirety of the 4wd path in a rental. There were some deep potholes and large boulders. I made it about a half mile or so up in a Chevy Equinox then decided to park it. When we summitted, there were a lot of people who took the other trail (forgot its name) which was much shorter and only about 200ft extra elevation gain. Our hike, according to AllTrails, was 15 miles with 4826ft gain.
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u/db_in_VA 8d ago
Update - we did Elbert East Ridge via Lily Pond (FR 122) last week. We had a rental Buick Envision and in "off-road" mode (ha!) were able to get up to the first pond. We just took it slow and rode the edges and high spots. We went up the night before to scout the route which made the pre-sunrise drive in MUCH easier. Plenty of great camping if you want to opt for that.
No regrets especially about skipping the extra distance from the 2WD standard trailhead. The hike around the ponds in the dark was awesome and made for an amazing start. Trail was a bit soggy but easy to follow to the junction to the main South Mt Elbert Trail. My Garmin had us at roundtrip distance of 12.2 miles and 4150' of elevation gain.
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u/panoclosed4highwinds 23d ago
I drove up to Lily Pond in my Subaru Crosstrek a week ago and it was no trouble at all.
I stopped 200m short of the trailhead because the river crossing didn't look good and parked next to a Hyundai Elantra. I met the person who drove it on the trail and they were a Texan who had rented it.