Melmont Ghost Town — Saturday, May. 3, 2025

In case you have not heard the news, the 100-year-old Fairfax Bridge on SR 165 over the Carbonado River is closed to all traffic. Out of a mixture of boredom and curiosity I decided to investigate just how close I could get to the Melmont Ghost Town trailhead (which was never really much of a trailhead). I had no intention of setting foot in the bridge, but I remembered numerous points along SR 165 that looked like one could pickup the Foothills Trail well before the bridge. How close could I get?

Not that close. The road is thoroughly blocked 2.6 miles from the Fairfax Bridge with no immediate parking or access to the trail. Some cursory investigation reveals you can indeed find the Foothills Trail in Carbonado if you park in the gravel lot near the town entrance and the Carbonado Community Church, which would put you about 3 miles from the bridge and the start of the Melmont Ghost Town hike. So you’d have to want to see the ghost town pretty badly and frankly “ghost town” is a bit of a stretch for the ruins of a couple old walls and foundations. But the hike has sentimental value for me and it’s a shame it will be inaccessible for the foreseeable future, unless one is willing to tack on an additional 6 miles to their round trip.