Sep 24, 2023
#3: Hermosa Park (FSR 578)
This is a long road, something like 25 miles. I only did 15 or so. The start of this trail is very close to Old Lime Creek Road, but on the other side of 550.
FSR 578 starts at the Purgatory Ski resort - you enter the restort, go up a hill, and then take a right. The road winds up the mountains on the north side of Hermosa Creek. You can see the ski runs across the valley.
It's graded and mostly well maintained. Fairly wide in most spots. There is one stream crossing that probably would give a lower-clearance vehicle problems, but I did the entire thing in 2H, even the stream - just to see if I could do it.
I had a limited amount of time, so I didn't take it all the way to the end. Actually, I missed a turn, and ended up on a somewhat rougher dirt road, but even that was easy. There was a fair amount of traffic (maybe 10 vehicles) - this is a popular place for camping and hiking (and hunting, apparently). I had to stop and let a truck pulling a camper by at one point.
As expected, the scenery was beautiful.
Wouldn’t this make a great puzzle?
There were no real challenges on this road.
My rating: Easy. A 2WD truck could do the section I drove.
I was hoping to find something a bit more challenging than these trails, but I don't have any regrets at all - they were fun drive and the scenery was fantastic.
This is a long road, something like 25 miles. I only did 15 or so. The start of this trail is very close to Old Lime Creek Road, but on the other side of 550.
FSR 578 starts at the Purgatory Ski resort - you enter the restort, go up a hill, and then take a right. The road winds up the mountains on the north side of Hermosa Creek. You can see the ski runs across the valley.
It's graded and mostly well maintained. Fairly wide in most spots. There is one stream crossing that probably would give a lower-clearance vehicle problems, but I did the entire thing in 2H, even the stream - just to see if I could do it.
I had a limited amount of time, so I didn't take it all the way to the end. Actually, I missed a turn, and ended up on a somewhat rougher dirt road, but even that was easy. There was a fair amount of traffic (maybe 10 vehicles) - this is a popular place for camping and hiking (and hunting, apparently). I had to stop and let a truck pulling a camper by at one point.
As expected, the scenery was beautiful.
Wouldn’t this make a great puzzle?
There were no real challenges on this road.
My rating: Easy. A 2WD truck could do the section I drove.
I was hoping to find something a bit more challenging than these trails, but I don't have any regrets at all - they were fun drive and the scenery was fantastic.
jimFish, Jakob1972