The road to the Barlow Pass trailhead is completely open and snow free. Barlow Pass trailhead is paved and snow free, accessible by any car. Road closed after Barlow Pass, when it becomes unpaved.
Plenty of parking when we got there, the actual trailhead parking was over half empty and there was plenty of street parking (10:30 am, predicted cloudy w/ rain but turned actually partly sunny). Bathrooms at trailhead are open, I didn't check but there is a sign saying the bathrooms at the campgrounds near Monte Cristo is still closed.
The only really complicated part of this trail is the river crossing. Right before the crossing the trail can not be the clearest and there's a few smaller stream crossings. The actual river crossing it's self has changed since I last went here early July last year.
Before there was a main huge log over the river with a few smaller logs crossing the big one, but not many. Now the main log is a a foot or two from the shore of the river making a small puddle between the log and river which is easy to cross. There must've been some serious floods this winter as the amount of smaller logs and branches over the main log increased by at least triple. There's a main area where a lot of the logs gathered that pretty easy to get over.
The flood also broke the main log and it's now in two pieces. The main log is also a lot closer to water and if the river comes any higher the first part of the bridge could be covered.
To get over the area which is broken in two it's easier to get off of the main log onto the rock/sand bar, walk around another fallen log, and get back onto the main log after, using the broken area as a step up.
Either the river is a lot higher now or this amount of blockage in the river cause a make shift dam and caused the river to be rerouted because there's still two more small stream crossings after the big river crossing. It can be confusing here but there's a pretty well beaten path that's also marked by little orange ties in the trees.
After this section it's smooth sailing, almost completely flat, easy to walk on gravel road.
There's some small patches of snow in a section which is also annoying snow free because the path is large river rocks. Most patches of snow are small and some are completely avoidable, by the time we were coming back the snow was turning to slush.
No more snow past the river rock area except for some at Monte Cristo, both at the lower part of town and the higher part.
Overall a great hike, especially if you're looking for something on the easier side but still get some distance in.
Totals: 9.7 miles, 797 ft. elevation gain, 3:44:43 moving time, 3:54:12 total time.
Comments
Alisse on Monte Cristo Ghost Town
This is so helpful! I was considering biking in this way but it looks like carrying a bike over all that would be rather difficult. Thank you for the details and photos!
Posted by:
Alisse on Jun 10, 2022 04:07 PM
Alisse on Monte Cristo Ghost Town
This is so helpful! I was considering biking in this way but it looks like carrying a bike over all that would be rather difficult. Thank you for the details and photos!
Posted by:
Alisse on Jun 10, 2022 04:08 PM