How to access Black Velvet during renovation of the Late Night parking lot

I've done the alternate route in my 1993 front-wheel drive Subaru Legacy for years and only got stuck once in the creek bed. A little fancy work with the jack - no problem. You just need to drive a little... aggressively.

I would not advise doing the approach in the early morning dark unless you have driven the route prior.

As for access on March 20. Vegastradguy is right it is a government contract. There will be no access through May at least.

Will be down early in May. Am wondering if the 2wd access is improving, deteriorating or unnecessary. Thanks! We'll be renting something to get out there.

Also, has the road been closed constantly or is there a chance you could get through when they aren't working?

sqwirll wrote:Also, has the road been closed constantly or is there a chance you could get through when they aren't working?

Closed.

Take a look at Jed's map (posted on his profile). The entrance marked as 2x4 is pretty mellow, really, for all but the lowest clearance cars. We drove it out last week and noted several rental cars parked at the lots accessing Windy Peak (as well as a camper/trailer rig). Its in good enough shape for most cars if you're a reasonable driver, but, you'd need to decide if the fine print which says to not take the car off pavement is worth the risk to your pocketbook if you got two flats or high centered and needed a tow (or did damage to the rental).

Note that this 2-wheel drive entrance is about .3 mile past the 4X4 entrance (and will be the next right turn past that exit, the 4X4 exit being just past the construction site also on the right). Start by crossing the cattle guard then follow a creek bed southwest parallelling 160 for a short ways before the road swings back to the northeast (towards Windy Peak) which eventually starts losing elevation the further along you go. Easy to scout in the daylight and then doable in the dark.

Wow! The alternate route, as far as Windy Peak, is in much better condition than it used to be, and now has lots of little signposts showing you the way.

I'd say its easier getting to Windy Peak than it ever has been!

Thanks for the beta.

sqwirll wrote:Thanks for the beta.

ditto

The drive in is no problem with a high-clearance vehicle, and is posted with vertical route designator signs at every turn. There are a few spots that could be trouble for an ordinary sedan, especially a steep and slightly soft hill past the the Windy Canyon parking areas that requires that you gun the engine to get up, thereby losing some control of how you are positioning the vehicle. Of course, I'm not sure this would be a problem for a sedan because I didn't have one, and I did see one sedan (not rented) in the BV parking area. Every other vehicle I saw out there had high clearance.

We stayed at Arizona Charlie's and from there went West on Charleston, then South on Rainbow to Rte 160. (Because of developments, not every N-S street goes all the way through to 160, even if your map says it does.) In the early morning with no traffic, driving the speed limit on pavement and the dirt roads very conservatively (rented SUV), I think it took a touch more than an hour, maybe 1:15, from AC's parking lot to BV parking area. I did scout the route in the daylight before driving in in the dark.

The entrance you want is the third possibility. The first is the original way into BV Canyon, now closed and easy to spot because of parked construction vehicles. After that, there are, I think, three gates with cattle crossings, but one of these three does not have a paved entry and was always closed. The first gate past the closed original entrance that has a paved entry is the 4X4 route. The second gate with a paved entry is the 2X4 route into BV Canyon and Windy Canyon. This has a designator pole with BV canyon on it and a "no firearms" sign next to it. This gate is fairly far along 160, and you do start to have the feeling you've driven too far.

I want to thank Lisa Buchina, John "snafu" Mueller, Eric Larson, and David Krebs for helping out the BLM by installing the carsonite signs that now give people direction to BV at each key junction. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

I drove the alternative access the last weekend and it is starting to get pretty bet up. You almost need 4X4 to get through now. I noticed that someone ripped a big hole in their oil pan. So be careful.

Any update on an expected completion date?

Wow, Jed. That was us. We went up it in my Jeep (4 x 4) on Sunday and hit something that we later thought punctured the oil pan. Actually, the rock damaged the tubes that feed transmission fluid to the pump! So that wasn't oil but we were lucky to get out to the gas station and get the Jeep towed to the shop.

The roads are still rockier than I would like, but that keeps the traffic down, and that's a good thing.

As of April 10, the parking lot is paved and the contractor is still waiting to build the acceleration and deceleration lanes on Hwy 160. NDOT is giving the BLM contractor the run around to get the permits to build the lanes.
The BLM is still expecting the completion to the end of May or Mid June.
Marc I am glad to hear that you were able to make it to the gas station. As I drove the road I wondered how much it would cost to tow a vehicle out of there.

I just talked with two climbers who got stuck on the alternative access. The route is so rough due to the high use and way to many drivers spinning the tires that I do not think it is wise to access BV, either option, without a 4X4.

Jed, there seems to be an alternative to the alternative. In fact, the designator-signed way does not follow the route you posted in your map, and Greg Barnes has driven your posted route (rather than the signed route) and pronounced it fit for 2 X 4's. Your original route avoids the bad hill that has become a problem.

There's information on this in a thread on SuperTopo, supertopo.com/climbing/thre…;tn=0, including a map I posted there from Google Earth with the designator-signed route and Greg's alternative, which is really the route you posted originally.

The map can be viewed on SuperTopo or at
usera.imagecave.com/rgold/R…

The red portion that includes the Windy Canyon parking turnouts is the way the designator-signs go; the bad hill is marked on the map. The green route is your original route and the route Greg Barnes tried and found passable

Thanks for all the updates and links, keep em coming!

Just to clarify - the straight way (not going towards Windy Peak at that one intersection) is fit for high clearance 2wd, but even moderate-to-high clearance vehicles will have to be very careful. It's basically just lots of rocks, but nothing steep or ditched out. So it may take a while to crawl around the rocks, but you won't spin your tires or be unable to climb a section.

Even with that alternative, I wouldn't recommend that any of my friends who actually care about their car drive into BVC right now unless they have really high clearance, either a 4x4 or a 2wd high-clearance pickup. Watch out if you fly in and plan on renting a SUV - a lot of modern SUVs are just glorified minivans and have no real clearance.

OK I am sorry but I have to voice some opinions about this BV detour.

1st off; don't even think about taking a 2wd vehicle all the way out the "2wd road to the BV trail head! Some poor unfortunate soul tried to take a Toyota Matrix out there.... Riped the oil pan off on the "bad hill" then proceeded to drive all the rest of the way to the trail head. The Matrix is still beached there. Also DON'T take the 4wd road unless you have a Unimog. We had the use of Jorge Urioste's 1974 Dodge Power Wagon and even in that monster rig the 4wd route would have been way stoopid!

2nd; that detour route is a terrible idea in the first place. Another BLM abortion in action. This is NOT the way to 'reduce' impact! It is the way to inconvenience climbers.

3rd; the reason for the all of this BS of road closure and way over sized paved parking lot is to cater to the wealthy equestrian set. They were pissy because they couldn't turn their luxury horse trailers around.
So now there is a spanking new paved lot complete with multiple loops, landscaping and curbs! All to keep the horse heads happy.

The enormous lot is done the road is still closed and climbers still have to take an abomination of a detour to get to the BV with no end in site.

Lets get real, climbers are a renegade and slightly anarchist user group but their impact (bolts and all) is marginal. However The equestrian set is the single most dectructive user group at the Red Rocks. Their wanton disregard of environmental concerns have destroyed multiple delicate riparian water holes. And yet they are wealthy and politically connected so they get their way. The choices were upgrading the crappy camp ground or paving the desert for horse trailers. Look who wins and who looses.

This is total horse crap! A hard edged letter campaign to the Bureau of land mismanagement is more than overdue. It is well past time for the climbers user group to speak up forcefully in their own advocacy!

Phil, how do you (or anyone out there) suggest to approach the BV trailhead? Are all the 'alternative' roads totally unpassable even with a 4WD? I'm planning to visit late May to play in BV and the access beta posted seems to be mixed. Cheers.

My two-hundredths of a dollar:

Just back from Black Velvet and dealing with the access issues. Rgold's map is spot-on and you can definitely access with a regular 2wd rental piece of junk (if you don't want to spring for the SUV). Just keep it really slow, keep your center high, maybe stop and scope out any tough sections, and don't hang your arm out the window unless you want a cactus bitch-slap.

We followed both ways (bad hill and not) in a tiny Chevy box and had zero problems...until my douchebag partner left the lights on and exposed the useless electrical system.

All said, probably easier to either avoid BVC altogether or spend on an SUV (Jeep/Toyota). Just remember that driving an SUV doesn't mean you can drive like a regular road; keep it slow and you'll be fine.

Hardly anyone out there right now, so enjoy it while it lasts.