Gold Mountain Trail is a 12.4 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Big Bear City, California that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as difficult. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from March until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail.
Trail is primarily used by off road drivers. There are a couple spots you you definitely need more than stock clearance and rear lockers are helpful. Half way through there’s a nice V’d rock drop that plays with your mind more than your rig. All in all very fun moderate trail which can be made more difficult if you want it to be. This will also drop you into John Bull. Scenic views of Big Bear Lake and you end up in Holcomb Valley, which is great for camping.
February 11, 2021Beautiful 4x4 road but I hiked it. I went 2.5 miles up and back. It’s a steep climb but you end up with views of Gorgonia and all of Bear Valley. Most of the mountain is South facing so the snow had melted and gave us good ground to hike on. I brought my dog and never saw any other people.
January 18, 2021NOT for amateurs!!!
January 3, 2021Ran this many times and finally did it in the last snow storm. 2013 Tacoma on 33’s no lockers. Just pick the right line and you should be okay. Generally enough traffic you could get help if you need it
November 13, 2020WTH WAS THAT. Sooo hard we turned around and came back down after about a mile and half so scary!!! Do not come unless you’ve been off-roading many times I had 50 heart attacks lol
October 31, 2020Great trail.....not easy!!
October 24, 2020Ouch
October 11, 2020Hard! But fun trail. Lots of loose rocks, off-road vehicles, and exposure. But if you have enough water & snacks, it’s a great challenge!
August 17, 2020Made it 2003 4runner .. center locker only, which is pretty useless still. Ironman 4x4 Nitro lift with 285 75r16 (33”). No sliders but I’d totally recommend it. I did have skids that I made use of. Definitely challenging but made it all the way. I had a good spotter.. no way I’d make it without my spotter
August 6, 2020Did an out and back route from 3N16 (aka Holcome Valley Rd). There was easy parking for several cars right at our trailhead. A street vehicle can get to our trailhead if you have 6 or more inches of clearance on your vehicle, and just be careful. To drive our hike, you do need a legit OHV with some capability (especially near the peak). Other than rockiness, there is nothing very tricky about the climb. It is relentlessly uphill, but nothing crazy. Our track was all double track. I'm told going the PCT hiking route from Hwy 18 is basically single track. I also see no OHV route from Hwy 18 to the peak except for the South easterly entrance to the peak, which is open. Of course you can use the entrance on 3N16 to get to the peak. There is currently no OHV entrance near Doble campground area. To start your hike from that area, you have to hike the PCT route, beginning near the dump (where there is a large parking area just outside the dump entrance).
June 9, 2020Good trail to start learning how to rock crawl. Some challenging spots but theres always a hard and easy choice to get around the obstacles. Get there early to avoid traffic jams.
May 9, 2020Great fun. We with friends in Jeeps, and would never try this alone. Appropriately rated as hard. We went from Gold Mountain to Little John Bull. The route on the trail description must have been made by hikers as the “Loop” doesn’t exist for off road driving.
April 14, 2020February 22, 2020February 19, 2020First time on this trail. Amazing run with good friends. 94 Jeep Wrangler, 2” lift with 31s, open diff. Mud and water on the trail. Snow on the north side. Needed a tug on one the waterfall as the slick wet rocks and holes stopped my progress should be able to do this when it is drier. Got to do this again.
January 25, 202008 Tundra Crewmax 3" + 1" lift with 35" tires Beautiful day with highs in the 60s, made it up the first obstacle using the far left line, got hung up on second obstacle trying to drive the middle line, ended up going to the left to get up, third obstacle made it up no problems. On the down hill, shaded side of the mountain was full of snow, very beautiful.
November 16, 2019Great off road trail. First time wheeling on my used JK rubicon. The Jeep handled all obstacles with only two areas of slight undercarriage scrapes. Jeep has 35’ with a 2” lift and bald tires. Defiantly need a spotter and you’ll be fine. Will do it again.
October 23, 2019Hiked to the top, super rocky trail, but great views from the top. Didn’t run into anyone (hiked on a weekday).
October 13, 2019Such a fun trail, the sound of bones crushing while you drive over the rocks is awesome. Only a couple technical obstacles nothing to extreme. Easy with 35's, stock doable too.
October 12, 2019September 14, 2019September 5, 2019Good ground clearance is a must. Very nice trail to test you vehicles abilities. Very popular and well traveled. You will meet others on the trail.
September 1, 2019I would reccomend this trail to someone with a bit of offroad experience. theres about 4 or 5 technical spots where it takes a bit of work and good driver skill to get thru. other than that the rest is fire trail and is beautiful and scenic.
September 1, 2019Good rock climbing!
August 31, 2019Made it all the way through with a stock Rubicon but could have used some more clearance in areas, Luckily I ran into a group that let me follow behind and gave me some assistance in some areas. Might try this trail again when I get bigger tires
August 24, 2019Did not make it the whole way, but willing to give it another try later.
