Saddleback Mountain Main Divide Road updates and pics

I'd heard recent rumblings that Main Divide Road had been re-opened, allowing access to the top. Yesterday morning, I checked the Cleveland National Forrest conditions page and it indicated that the road was open. We headed out through Silverado and the gate was open. There was a light rain and we had a great ride up the mountain. It was snowing at the top. There were two other Jeeps up there. We headed down to the Helicopter pad and there was about six inches of snow. Perfect for a snowball fight and to build a snowman. The kids had a blast. We then headed down south to the 4X4 "play area" and messed around a bit. Down this side it was all virgin snow and we had some fun in 2WD.

Last summer, I had been told by a Ranger that they were doing a lot of work to clean the roads up and smooth everything out. I can confirm that the Rangers have been very busy. And not all in a good way. The did the normal maintenance of smoothing out the main road and building up safety berms etc. The bad part is that they have installed a lot of steel barriers and closed some of the best off-shoots. The one that sux the most is the steep trail that went up from the "staging area". I call it the staging area, but I think it may also be called Maple Springs, where Maple Springs Road, Main Divide Road and Harding Truck Trail come together. That was a fun trail. The thin trail (North West of the staging area has also been closed also. There's a pic of the closed "fun trail" below, and you can see some of the steel barriers (what a waste of money).

Now for the goocher. Unbenounced to us, the Rangers close the mountain when it rains. We had passed and got a wave from a Sheriff on the way up. And though it had been raining for two days the Silverado gate was accidentally left open. So we had a great ride up, play time, lunch and drive down, only to find the gate locked. The two other Jeeps pulled up behind us within ten minutes. They had driven to both the Corona and Ortega gates and confirmed that they were both locked also. No cell service at the Silverado Gate, so we had to hit one of the locals up to use a land line to call the Rangers in San Diego. They dispatched a Ranger to open the gate. It took about an hour and a half, but we didn't really care. We got a chance to air up and hang out for a while.

Pics;









Road from towers to Heli-pad