On my way back from Onion Valley last month I noticed a "Road Work Ahead" sign on the dirt road going to the Shepherd Pass TH. I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping that perhaps the last mile of road between the stock TH and the hiker's TH was improved to allow regular vehicles to reach it. Anyone been out there in the last month to offer comment on that? Thanks in advance...

Not sure, but I was up there in June and had no trouble getting a Ford Focus up there. It's not a wonderful road but it's not in bad shape.

Hey Bob, just dayhiked Tyndall on Saturday...the first two (give or take) miles of dirt road were recently graded. Not sure if anything else was improved (last time I was up there was May '07). Hope that helps- Ryan

Me too, me too. I saw several sports cars at the TH in 2008, including a Mustang (I didn't check to see if it still had a muffler).

I haven't been up there recently, but I was able to take my 2wd Toyota Corolla to just short of the North Fork of Bairs' Creek in early May, and to the Shepherd Pass trailhead in late June without much of a problem. I couldn't actually reach the North Fork of Bairs' Creek since there's a small hill just short of the creek that is impassable to my car.

I think the trick is to have a crappy car... But it would be nice if they graded those roads...

I was up there last July and saw a surprising number of standard 2WD cars, which surprised me. I was in a Subaru and it seemed pretty rutted for it, AWD notwithstanding. Nothing too crazy though, just had to slow up quite a bit in some spots. I guess it depends on your car and your comfort level.

As long as you don't slow down in the sandy sections, you can down the road to the trailhead in just about any type of vehicle.

I would be careful if the road has not been graded (the final section to the TH) as I had to replace the oil pan in my 2wd car after taking it up that road last Aug.

A few years ago I went down the road in a Dodge Neon I had rented while my truck was in the body shop. I'm so used to driving a truck that it was a new experience for me - I had to remember to go over the big rocks with the tires, to avoid oil pan problems. Then we hit the sand - it was just keep going and pray at that point. We made it okay.

We took the Forester yesterday which was a piece of cake. There were enough rocks in the road between the two THs that I would have had real trouble with the van. Good place to drive your beater, not your wife's car.