San Diego BS Thread.

I always take S grade and stop by the general store. Had no issues. Planning to go again either today or later this week when the new snow comes

 

Haven't been up Nate Harrison Grade in 40+ years, I'm sure it's better than it used to be when it was not maintained. At the top of the grade is a trail that is now closed because too many people would hike down and not be able to make it back up.....Hummingbird Falls.

 

Going back up to Palomar tomorrow morning for the new snow, anyone interested in tagging along is welcome

 

Have a great day! Think the road to Doan Pond and campground will be open?

 

I doubt it but I'll go check it out. I gather they're trying to minimize the amount of people up on the mountain, so it would make sense to only plow main roads for essential travel

 

They were closed today, though if you wanted I guess you could park in the main area and go by foot.

Snow melted quite a bit. No one had chains and I didn't even need 4wd til I got near the park entrance. The locals told me to enjoy it while I can, they very rarely get this much snow at once.

 

Anyone got any leads on a driver side fender flare for a second gen? High winds in the high desert took mine from me.

 

Was a beautiful drive, so glad I was headed south though. Man that traffic looked horrible.

 

Wow look at that snow level

 

Great photo!

 

Thanks!! Was a beautiful drive.

 

I thought you were going to take the Nate Harrison Grade up, not the main road.

 

I haven't been up Nate Harrison since it was potholed, rutted and full of boulders. It's fairly well graded now? I would imagine with the snow it's not drivable in my 2wd Tacoma?
And if one were to make it all the way up, I don't remember where it comes out? (It's been almost 50 years since I've gone up Nate Harrison) Is that part of the Park closed now with the snow? If you made it up now there would be no exit from the park, one would have to turn around and come back down?

 

There were small SUVs where we had to turn around about 2 miles from the top. Im sure they had 4WD though. It’s not too bad except it can be a little rutted out towards the top. It takes you into the park and from there you can drive back down or go out of the park if you want. I’ve even come up South Grade and at the park entrance mentioned I wanted to just drive down Nate Harrison and they let me in, no fees. It was passable last weekend, we didn’t make it to the top due to the stuck 4R but some cars got through before it happened and said they drove in from the park.

 

Thank you for the time and response

 

Similar I went up about 4 weeks ago. They had graded it from the previous storms. I think a 2WD Tacoma could handle it fine. I put it is 4WH on some of the sandy sections and 4WH on the steeper sections just to get the gears some action and to stay in practice on the steps to do 4WH and 4WL. I just don't get out on stuff enough to get in the 10 miles of 4WD per month that Toyota recommends to keep the gears lubrictated so I used it as an excuse even though prob not needed.

At the time the last mile or so was slushy snow/mud.

It is a fun easy trail when dry.

There is one really small technical offshoot about 1/3 of the way up that requires a very steep descent over a sharp ridge. When we went by a Porsche Cayenne was about to it and the guy took it at a slight angle instead of straight down, I am assuming because he may have gotten stuck hi-centered (is that the right term?). Anyway, we stopped and watched, guy came about one slightly harder brake tap from flipping over. I thought for sure I was going to be using my GMRS radio to call for help (not sure if we had cell signal there or not). If he had rolled, he very well may have rolled over the edge on the other side.

 

Wow! If you go up again, take some photos of the "hairy" parts of the road up. I'm sure a few people besides me would like to see what it looks like at best or worst conditions. Appreciate it...

 

This is what the top of Nate Harrison looked like on Sunday. Over a foot of layered (loose on top of packed icy snow) ~18' deep in some spots. Somebody took a stab at going down it and stopped about 800' in.

Also: Per the road maintenance crew, when there is snow on the ground, that whole area is closed to vehicles. We hung out there for a couple of hours to eat lunch, hang out and let the kids play, a few more trucks showed up and joined us.

Plow guys came along and were not exactly polite about telling us to leave immediately. As we were leaving we passed CHP coming the other way (not sure if they called the cops on us or not but).

 

looks awesome, so much snow i'll bet the kids had fun

i did the grade last summer and there are definitely some very exposed sections of the trail that sliding off of would have big time consequences - not surprised they 'close' it when there's snow on the ground

 

Have done the grade several times when it wasn't snowing and did it in shitty mud once. Yeah, there are some spots that are super sketch. Thing is, they were saying the entire road from the park entrance back to the trailhead was closed, not just the trail.