Road is rough and took 30 minutes. Wet day but the hike was great.

Tried to do this hike today with a friend and literally could not make it the trail head. The road is a MESS. it’s literally as if there was an isolated meteor show on the road. I drive a smaller SUV, and am very confident in my driving ability and felt it was too dangerous to take on. Unless you have a vehicle with the ability to off-road I would not recommend prioritizing this trail

We only encountered a few other groups hiking. Perfect day to hike, just the right temperature. My 6 year old ran nearly the whole trail. We will probably try and go again and make it an overnight. The road was rough coming in, which is one of the reasons we chose the hike (hoping for fewer people). We always pack garbage bags when we hike to pick up trash as we go, I was impressed we couldn’t find anything to pick up. 

Hiking Ashland Lakes trail today outside Verlot was amazing... drizzle and a very rough access road could not deter us (even though my sister tried to bail at 6AM)! There are several great trails up this way but be warned that you need a high-clearance vehicle to access all the trailheads due to huge potholes and washouts. Drive slowly. Really rough 5 mile drive off main road, though completely worth it. Trails are very well- maintained and the work crews who keep the boardwalks navigable deserve a huge shout out! Thank you for all the effort to keep this beautiful trail open. Can someone work on the access road?? 

People are not exaggerating about the condition of the road to this trailhead. I would not attempt this without a high clearance vehicle. Ridiculous amount and size of potholes along with tons of jagged rocks. Trail itself is in great condition. One downed tree that does not block the trail.