Snowies or Grand Lake?

Looking at going West next week. We've been to the snowies (about 12 years ago) but another guy mentioned looking at Grand Lake area but I don't know anything about it. We've been out west renting and bringing our sleds. This trip will be with our trail sleds. Wondering if anyone here has some input.

Our group considered going out west but it seems you have to go way out west to hit descent snow.

It's a hike but I think it's the only way we're going to ride this year. Was also looking at Quebec but conditions are just ok there and I'd rather not spend the travel time and extra money to go that way if conditions aren't up to normal there.

My brother was in the snowies a couple weeks ago and was very happy with conditions off trail. Not best ever, also not disapointed at all. Said he would go back. Personally going to West yellowstone midweek and reports look good. Cant ride them here and cant ride um in summer. Good luck

Snowies were getting hammered with snow all last week. Plenty of snow, grooming can be spotty though, they usually only groom once maybe twice a week. HIGHLY suggest not to trail ride during the weekend there as they get hammered with traffic.

We booked at the snowies. Will arrive Wednesday night. Hopefully that gives them time to clean things up after the holiday weekend. We'll split our time on and off trail. With 137s obviously we aren't doing the true mountain riding but we had a good time out there about a decade ago on all 121s.

Just returned from the Snowies last night. Snow is excellent. They finally started getting hammered the past couple of weeks. It was pretty bad prior to that. I would not recommend it for mostly trail riding.... Groomers only go out at night, so with the amount of traffic they had this past w/e the trails were wooped out really, really bad. Never been to Grand Lake, but do follow their FB group (Grand Lake Trailgroomers, Inc.) and they look to do a really good job with grooming. CO locals typically recommend Grand Lake for anyone looking for mostly trail riding.

I was in the Snowies last week. They received a bunch of snow while I was there. The trails to the South and West were excellent. The trails in and around Libby Flats, Lake Marie, and main corridor to Albany were beat up every day with the amount of off trail riders trying to get to the good snow.

Just got back yesterday. Rode Thursday - Sunday. Stayed at the old corral. They got around 6" in Centennial the night we arrived so we rode up every day instead of trailering as most everyone else did (which makes sense as it's about 7 miles up which wouldn't be too fun on long track sleds). By the end of our stay the snow in Centennial was all but gone but they have a lot on the hill with more coming today.

Was pleasantly surprised at the condition of the trails. Expected the worst especially with the number of sleds and trailers parked on the hill. There were some rough spots but for the most part was pretty good and even excellent in a lot of areas. You can't expect the main areas going over a mountain to be smooth.

On Thursday we rode mostly untouched nongroomed trails - which was kind of crazy as there was probably 3 foot plus of fresh on top of them. On Friday we got off the trails more but also tried to be near tracks so we could cut back on them when getting our trail sleds stuck. Saturday we rode mostly groomed trails to the South. We were kind of worn out at that point from being stuck and the altitude so it was a nice break. Then Sunday we kind of went all over and surprisingly found a couple ungroomed trails that no one had touched yet. By then anything you could see from the trails was tracked up.

Really glad we went. Haven't added everything up but I think whatever we normally spend on sled gas and oil probably went into the truck instead so that probably evened out. Either way it's the only trip I got to go on this year. Would definitely go back but it's a hike for us so probably not every year.

600_RMK_144 said:

Just returned from the Snowies last night. Snow is excellent. They finally started getting hammered the past couple of weeks. It was pretty bad prior to that. I would not recommend it for mostly trail riding.... Groomers only go out at night, so with the amount of traffic they had this past w/e the trails were wooped out really, really bad. Never been to Grand Lake, but do follow their FB group (Grand Lake Trailgroomers, Inc.) and they look to do a really good job with grooming. CO locals typically recommend Grand Lake for anyone looking for mostly trail riding.

Click to expand...

I think we may try out Grand Lake next time we drag the trail sleds out that way. If money wasn't an issue I'd probably fly and rent. But was pleasantly suprised how the trails were at the Snowies, at least off the main paths by the parking area.