Kingston Peak and Yankee Hill 4x4

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Kingston Peak and Yankee Hill 4x4

Posted: 8/27/2015 11:20:59 PM EDT

I'm looking for a good place to go offroading for the first time that is still reasonably close to Denver. From my research I found these two trail and was wondering if they would be doable for a first timer? btw I drive a stock '96 Land Cruiser. Any other advice about what to bring, or trails, or just general offroading stuff would be great too!

Posted: 8/28/2015 8:20:28 AM EDT

[#1]

Go over to http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/forum.php and hit the trail talk forum. Lots of good folks on that board.

Posted: 8/28/2015 9:48:19 AM EDT

[#2]

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Quoted:
Go over to http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/forum.php and hit the trail talk forum. Lots of good folks on that board.

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Thanks for the advice! Just made an account, hopefully it gets approved soon!

Posted: 8/28/2015 3:39:44 PM EDT

[#3]

Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

Posted: 8/28/2015 4:51:24 PM EDT

[#4]

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Quoted:
Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

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If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

Posted: 8/28/2015 4:57:39 PM EDT

[#5]

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Quoted:

If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

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Quoted:

Quoted:
Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

So until I get some more experience, I should probably stick to 3s?

Posted: 8/28/2015 8:25:30 PM EDT

[#6]

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Quoted:

So until I get some more experience, I should probably stick to 3s?

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Quoted:

Quoted:
Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

So until I get some more experience, I should probably stick to 3s?

I'm hedging my bets and speaking very conservatively. I don't want someone to come back here and be like "Dude... you said these trails were no problem and I went on one and got stuck, tore up my ride, and had a five digit tow bill to get my truck off the mountain."

Personally, I would take my bone stock F150 Fx4 screw on any trail rated 5 or under. A stock jeep on 35's I would take on any trail rated 7 or under (but drive very conservatively and perhaps bypass the harder stuff).

Posted: 8/28/2015 9:54:20 PM EDT

[#7]

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Quoted:

I'm hedging my bets and speaking very conservatively. I don't want someone to come back here and be like "Dude... you said these trails were no problem and I went on one and got stuck, tore up my ride, and had a five digit tow bill to get my truck off the mountain."

Personally, I would take my bone stock F150 Fx4 screw on any trail rated 5 or under. A stock jeep on 35's I would take on any trail rated 7 or under (but drive very conservatively and perhaps bypass the harder stuff).

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

So until I get some more experience, I should probably stick to 3s?

I'm hedging my bets and speaking very conservatively. I don't want someone to come back here and be like "Dude... you said these trails were no problem and I went on one and got stuck, tore up my ride, and had a five digit tow bill to get my truck off the mountain."

Personally, I would take my bone stock F150 Fx4 screw on any trail rated 5 or under. A stock jeep on 35's I would take on any trail rated 7 or under (but drive very conservatively and perhaps bypass the harder stuff).

I totally understand. I'd like to keep my car totally intact, but if I do screw up, it's my fault alone. I think I'll go try Kingston Peak tomorrow and I'll let you guys know how it went, good or bad. (Hopefully good)

Posted: 8/28/2015 11:50:37 PM EDT

[#8]

I live on the way to Kingston via Mammoth gulch.

IM inbound.

Posted: 8/29/2015 8:52:42 PM EDT

[#9]

Didn't quite go to plan, but nothing broke, so it was a success! I got kinda lost on Yankee Hill so I didn't make it to Kingston Peak but we did find a good shooting spot so I was glad I brought some guns and my steel target. Thanks for the advice everybody, I plan on exploring the area more in the future. And a big thanks to berto187 for offering to help me out if I needed it!

Somebody was poppin' pmags!

Goobers

Posted: 8/30/2015 2:33:29 AM EDT

[#10]

Nice, looks like the weather was beautiful

Posted: 8/31/2015 8:05:52 PM EDT

[#11]

Try Pickle Gulch sometime. It's off of 119 north of Central City, so fairly easy access from Denver. Nice trail from the standpoint that it has a couple of short, but challenging sections, and decent scenary. Worst spots can be bypassed, but are doable in stock / mildly modded jeeps so your LC should be ok. Be forewarned though, you might run into people in heavily modified rigs who are babying things a bit on this trail.

Posted: 8/31/2015 9:52:13 PM EDT

[#12]

I saw that one when I was looking for trails, looks promising! I might try it weekend after next, going to a rockies game this weekend!

Posted: 8/31/2015 10:13:13 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:

Try Pickle Gulch sometime. It's off of 119 north of Central City, so fairly easy access from Denver. Nice trail from the standpoint that it has a couple of short, but challenging sections, and decent scenary. Worst spots can be bypassed, but are doable in stock / mildly modded jeeps so your LC should be ok. Be forewarned though, you might run into people in heavily modified rigs who are babying things a bit on this trail.

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We opened that trail this spring

I have a local crew that does a lot of snow bashing in late spring. Lots of stuck trucks and winching

Posted: 9/2/2015 9:43:05 PM EDT

[#14]

Download the gps track files from Traildamage.

Use an iPhone (or ipad) app that is capable of importing the GPS track. I use GPSKit and/or GPSkitHD (for ipad).

Very helpful.

Posted: 9/2/2015 11:05:20 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:
I'm hedging my bets and speaking very conservatively. I don't want someone to come back here and be like "Dude... you said these trails were no problem and I went on one and got stuck, tore up my ride, and had a five digit tow bill to get my truck off the mountain."

Personally, I would take my bone stock F150 Fx4 screw on any trail rated 5 or under. A stock jeep on 35's I would take on any trail rated 7 or under (but drive very conservatively and perhaps bypass the harder stuff).

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

Check out Trail Damage for good info on trails.

Personally I have never done those trails before but I hear they are pretty easy.

If you are an experienced off-road driver and know your vehicle well, I would say you could take any stock 4x4 vehicle with good all-terrain tires on any trail rated by traildamage.com at a 4 or under.

Vehicles like: Stock Jeeps, Half-ton Trucks, Some 3/4 ton trucks, Tacomas, Rangers, 4Runner, Land Rover, etc.

So until I get some more experience, I should probably stick to 3s?

I'm hedging my bets and speaking very conservatively. I don't want someone to come back here and be like "Dude... you said these trails were no problem and I went on one and got stuck, tore up my ride, and had a five digit tow bill to get my truck off the mountain."

Personally, I would take my bone stock F150 Fx4 screw on any trail rated 5 or under. A stock jeep on 35's I would take on any trail rated 7 or under (but drive very conservatively and perhaps bypass the harder stuff).

There are some TD ranked 5 trails that a short bed, regular cab F150 is not going to make it through without some serious body damage, but for the most part anything under a 5-6 should be no problem for a stock FZJ80. There are also some TD trails that are rated 3-4, which haven't been updated in years, and are now more like the 8-9s

Posted: 9/3/2015 9:49:29 PM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:
Download the gps track files from Traildamage.

Use an iPhone (or ipad) app that is capable of importing the GPS track. I use GPSKit and/or GPSkitHD (for ipad).

Very helpful.

View Quote

Good idea, I'll try to get that figured out before I go next time.

Posted: 9/4/2015 12:22:52 PM EDT

[#17]

Looks like a lot of fun.

Wife and I should be getting a 4x4 in the next few months and hope to join yall up on the trails.

Posted: 9/5/2015 11:21:49 AM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:

There are some TD ranked 5 trails that a short bed, regular cab F150 is not going to make it through without some serious body damage, but for the most part anything under a 5-6 should be no problem for a stock FZJ80. There are also some TD trails that are rated 3-4, which haven't been updated in years, and are now more like the 8-9s

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Floods did a number on a lot of trails in my AO.

Hill climbs that got washed out pretty good, then beat on by people spinning tires.