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3Deserts: Historically, high clearance vehicle is the safe way to go, 4wd not required. I don't think the road has changed very much recently or the frequency/ammount of vehicles going to the TH, so you risk trouble with a car. But others might tell you they made it there OK.

Wow! I went up to Split in July, and we headed up that road expecting the worse after hearing so many stories about how bad it was. We found it to be surprisingly. . . casual — about an hour each way. We did it in my Subaru wagon. Obviously road conditions can change drastically, but that is some serious damage!

A few years ago, I had to tow a 2WD Chevy truck out of the middle of that road so we could get past him. He had gotten stuck the previous night and spent the night there. We ended up giving him a ride to the TH and hiking to Split with him. Nice guy.

Yikes!!!! I was considering a drive to Red Lake and to Horton Lakes trailhead this summer. Maybe climb a near-by SPS peak. Looking at Bob's picture, I am not sure if the guy slid into a block of granite, hit a tree or something else. It would be nice to have some details on what happened or what to avoid. The only thing worse then driving on a rough, rutted road is to drive it in darkness except your headlights. It might be best to drive to the trailhead the night before climb under complete sunlight to aid navigation.

I'm guessing that Bob's car either struck a very large animal -- say a pachyderm or hogzilla -- or was struck by a meteor. Either event is unlikely to repeat, and there is a good chance the meteor will first strike and kill the giant animal.

The hood appears relatively undamaged. I wonder if he hit a low immovable object such as a granite boulder while going pretty fast.

I somehow got my VW Bus to the Red Lake trailhead in the early eighties and it wasn't easy. I had no idea what to expect and by the time I was part way down the grade that follows Fuller Creek, I was pretty committed to the journey whatever may come. (Backing up that steep hill didn't seem to be an option.) There were a lot of bumps and scrapes- the sickening sounds of metal verses rock. I checked when I reached the relatively smooth road at the bottom of the grade and there were no vital fluids leaking out into the sand. Thank goodness for that, but I knew that I'd never get my 'cracker box' back up that steep rough grade without a tow. I decided to go ahead and climb the peak and worry about getting out later- but it was hard not to worry.

My vehicle was the only one at the trailhead when I started up the 'trail'. Shortly after establishing my camp at Red Lake, I was joined by another party of 5 or 6 men and women. When I tried to commiserate with them about the difficulty of the drive in to the trail head, they just smiled and looked at each other. One of them explained that they'd come through the ranch with the locked gates that blocks easy access. How? They had the KEY TO THE GATES! Why? I don't quite remember. I think they were members of some club or organization that had somehow gotten permission to drive through the ranch. They very graciously invited me to follow them out through the ranch a couple days later after our climb up Split.

How's that for good luck?

This is just one more example of why we need traffic cameras on back-country roads.

A woman been driving that SUV?

What is that vehicle? From the picture, it doesn't look like it has much ground clearance. I don't think these new fangled SUV's can do the same thing a truck can do (especially a truck with lo and high 4WD) - they are built more like cars than trucks.

Last time I drove to the Red Lake Trailhead (early July 2010), a 2WD truck could make it to the trailhead pretty easily. Road conditions do change over time and those backcountry roads can be pretty bad when they are muddy. I gotta wonder what that person was doing and if they took the regular route or the shortcut route.

Be careful out there everyone. It doesn't hurt to walk a few extra miles (that said by someone who is happy to have lost just a mud flap when she ended up driving around aimlessly in a wash while looking for the backcountry road that disappeared recently).

KathyW wrote:What is that vehicle? From the picture, it doesn't look like it has much ground clearance.

It's a 4WD Ford Escape with decent clearance, though I don't think clearance was the problem with this incident. It's not the first time it's been in trouble.

Bob Burd wrote:It's a 4WD Ford Escape with decent clearance, though I don't think clearance was the problem with this incident. It's not the first time it's been in trouble.

Ah, the classic "unplanned oil change." Fast and easy, but it's usually cheaper to go to JiffyLube.

Poor little Escape - it probably dreams of being a truck with 4WD and skid plates when it grows up. Maybe someday there will also be a truck with 4WD on the market that gets more than 18 mpg on the average. We can all dream.

Sorry ... but don't think these guys were getting improved gas mileage ..

I wish Bob would just tell us what happened. I'm so anxious to know the truth, that I'm up at 2:37AM reading this thread.