Northern Colorado Trails

So its been decades since I last 4 wheeled in NOCO and was wondering about a few trails and their conditions. I spent a lot of time in the Poudre Canyon; Seven Mile trail, Kelly Flats, White Pine (Old Flowers Rd) and Green Ridge Trail.

I know most of those trails this time of year are snowed in with major drifts. However I am wondering about dryer conditions and if any of them have become extremely technical. Kelly Flats was probably the most technical out of all of them and required a vehicle that had some agility.

I plan on teaching my son the art of off roading this summer and want to take some old familiar trails, however its been a long time.

your input would be much appreciated.

 

I've done Seven Mile and Old Flowers and a stock tacoma has no issues here. If you do those and want a little more challenge without being crazy Pole Hill Rd. out by Estes is pretty fun without being much harder. The entry is pretty rocky, but I think that's the most challenging part. Definitely check conditions and make sure the trails are open before heading out though. There's a lot more snow in the mountains this year.

 

Paging @Deathbysnusnu as probably the most overall knowledgeable person who runs said trails on the most frequent basis. I'm guessing anyway.

However, my own take/knowledge - Sevenmile is still fine generally speaking. Once in a while it has issues but those are usually taken care of. Kelly Flats is probably still the technical one with Heart Attack Hill and from what I understand even the bypass was getting kind of bad. I'm not familiar with any name or reference changes to what sections for Old Flowers, but there was severe fire damage in that area a while back - to the point that sections of the trail were through moonscape - and then the floods after didn't help. Old Flowers itself is open with some rerouting, what I always knew as 'the mudhole' is gone and the early (from the east) rutted hill is too. It's still stock friendly. West White Pine never reopened. I haven't been on Green Ridge in a while but it's still got gatekeeper mudholes at both ends as far as I know, and others along the way. Part of Crystal has been closed due to state land board lease terms, so you can't get to the top. Moody was graded a few years ago and most of the comments I see lament this. I never ran it before, but I'd equate it to Sevenmile now, aside from the quarry of course. There's others that you didn't specifically mention but I don't know if you knew or cared about.

You're already aware of snow closures, but there's also mud season extension to that as well. Ranger District status page is https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/arp/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5300963