Chinaman's Gulch: Buena Vista's Rock-Crawling Proving Ground

Some trails sell you on the scenery. Chinaman’s Gulch sells you on the obstacles. This is a short, mean little loop in the dry hills southeast of Buena Vista that has almost nothing in the way of postcard views and almost everything in the way of ledges, boulders, and off-camber climbs that will make you earn every foot. It is one of the best rock-crawling proving grounds on Colorado’s Front Range side of the Sawatch, and it has been humbling modified rigs for decades. If you want a trail that is all substance and no filler, this is the one.

Heads up on the name before we go further. The trail has been officially renamed Yansing Gulch by the managing agency, though the off-road community still overwhelmingly calls it Chinaman Gulch, and most maps, guidebooks, and GPS tracks still list it under the old name. You will see both. We use the historic name here because that is what people say at the staging area and type into their nav apps, but know that the BLM signage and newer maps say Yansing.

What this trail actually is

Chinaman’s Gulch is a roughly 7-mile loop of BLM 4WD road (trails 6043 and 6044) sitting in the rocky, pinyon-dotted hills between Johnson Village and the Arkansas River, managed by the Bureau of Land Management out of the Royal Gorge Field Office in Cañon City. It rates Difficult, and it shares a trailhead and its first stretch of trail with Carnage Canyon, a nationally recognized Extreme trail that peels off to the right early in the run. That shared start is important: a lot of first-timers wander up expecting a moderate afternoon and get a reality check inside the first half mile.

The elevation only runs from about 7,800 feet at the trailhead to roughly 8,900 feet at the high point, so this is not an alpine run. You are not chasing a 12,000-foot pass or a ghost town on a shelf road. What you are doing is threading a rig through a series of named rock obstacles, each with its own personality, most with multiple lines that range from merely difficult to genuinely brutal. The trail is traditionally run counterclockwise, because the obstacles are more fun and challenging in that direction, and because the single-lane sections leave no room to pass an oncoming vehicle. Run it the way everyone else runs it.

The other thing that sets this place apart is the season. Because it sits low and dry and gets minimal snow, Chinaman’s Gulch is a legitimate winter wheeling destination. When the high passes are buried under fifteen feet of snow and closed until July, this trail is often bare and runnable in January. That makes it one of the most valuable trails in central Colorado for anyone who does not want to hang up the keys for six months.

Getting to the trailhead

From Buena Vista, head south on US-24 toward the junction with US-285. Take US-24 E / US-285 N (they run together here) and go about a mile, then turn right onto Chaffee County Road 301. Follow CR 301 for roughly a mile and a half, then turn left onto a gravel road and go about a third of a mile to the large Carnage Canyon / Chinaman Gulch trailhead. Some directions route you in via CR 300 past the Ruby Mountain area instead. Either way you are aiming for the same big staging area east of Johnson Village.

The staging area is a real one. It is large, it has a porta potty, and there is room for dry camping and for trailers to turn around. There are two gates on the way in that you are required to close behind you. This is not optional courtesy. The land beyond the gates includes grazing leases and the trail’s continued access depends on wheelers being the kind of visitors that ranchers and the BLM do not have to fight with. Close the gates.

Because the trail is short and close to town, most people run it as a day trip, sometimes even a half day if their group moves well. But “short” is deceptive here. The obstacles create bottlenecks, and a big group can turn a 7-mile loop into a full eight-hour day while everyone takes their turn and spots each other through the hard lines. Budget four to five hours as a baseline, more if you are running with a crowd or planning to play on the optional lines.

The obstacles, in order

This is the heart of the trail, so let us walk it the way you will drive it, counterclockwise from the staging area.

From the trailhead you head north along a fence line on BLM 6043, an easy two-track that lulls you for about a quarter mile before the trail turns north again and gets rocky in a hurry. You climb a rough chute that ends in a ledge on a right-hand curve, and that is the first obstacle of the Rock Garden. The Rock Garden is really a series: past that first ledge the trail keeps climbing over rock and ledges before delivering the second Rock Garden obstacle, a sharp ridge fin with a knob in the center, pinched narrow by larger rocks on either side. This whole section is a good early gauge of whether you and your rig are having a good day.

Past the Rock Garden you reach a wide intersection. The road to the right is the exit from Carnage Canyon. If you want to see what the extreme option looks like, this is where you would peer down it, but to stay on Chinaman’s you keep left, where BLM 6044 begins, and drop downhill toward the gulch itself.

The trail winds down through some rocky sections, crosses a dry wash, and climbs a short hill. Near the top a spur breaks left to an overlook of the Arkansas River valley, which is one of the few genuinely scenic pauses on the trail and worth the two minutes. Continue down and you hit Chinaman Gulch proper, where the road climbing away in front of you is the loop’s exit. You will come back to this spot later. For now, turn right and head up the gulch.

A short way up you pass the Rock Pile, a large set of boulders along the side of the wash that some drivers climb for fun and others simply drive past. It is an optional play spot, not a required line. Keep heading up the wide wash as it narrows into the trees and brings you to the trail’s signature obstacle: the Whale’s Tail (you will also see it written Whale Rock or Whale Tail). This is a rock ledge with several different approaches and no true bypass. It is the photo op of the trail, the one everyone stops to watch, and the one that chews up rigs that pick the wrong line. Take your time, get a spotter, and pick your approach before you commit.

Past the Whale’s Tail the wash stays tight as you work up over smaller obstacles and between the trees. The trail opens into a flatter area, weaves through pinyon pines, and delivers the next named obstacle, the Stairs, a stacked-ledge climb that does have a bypass to the left if you need it. Beyond the Stairs come a few more small obstacles before you reach the Chute, a slot in a rock outcrop with a few large boulders to negotiate on the climb. The Chute is tight, technical, and satisfying to clean.

After the Chute the trail heads west and climbs slightly, then swings south and starts down, getting challenging again on the descent. You come out into an open area with a wide curve and, finally, a real view of the mountains to the west, the Collegiate Peaks stacking up on the horizon. From here you drop back down to the Chinaman Gulch intersection, cross the gulch, and climb back out the way you came in, then descend through the Rock Garden one more time to the trailhead. One more obstacle deserves a mention on the descent side: the Waterfall, a tricky short climb up a rutted V-notch ledge that some route descriptions place on the way back down toward the creek bottom. Whichever direction you hit it, it is a legitimate obstacle, not a formality.

The Carnage Canyon question

You cannot write honestly about this trailhead without talking about Carnage Canyon, the Extreme trail that shares the parking lot and the first stretch of trail. Carnage is a different animal entirely. It is barely over a mile long and it can take a club several hours to get through. It is built for radically modified crawlers: minimum 35-inch tires, lockers front and rear, and a driver who expects to winch, often, and to leave with body damage. The BLM literally asks you to carry and use a spill kit if you attempt it, because broken rigs leak fluids and this is a showcase area for keeping extreme wheeling responsible.

The point for most readers is simple. Chinaman’s Gulch is a hard trail that a well-built rig and a skilled driver can complete and enjoy. Carnage Canyon is a trail that breaks things on purpose. Do not accidentally end up on Carnage because you missed a turn. Know which one you signed up for, and if you are eyeing Carnage, go with people who have run it and can spot you.

The rig you actually need

Chinaman’s Gulch is not a stock-SUV trail. The community consensus, and the guidebooks, are consistent: this is best suited for modified vehicles with large tires, lockers, and skid plates. Here is an honest minimum.

Tires: 33s are the practical floor, and plenty of people who have run it on 33s say the trail looked rough on their rigs afterward and recommend 35s. If you are on stock all-terrains, this is not your trail yet.

Traction: at least a rear locker, ideally lockers both ends. The ledges and off-camber climbs punish open diffs, and you will find yourself with a tire in the air on more than one obstacle.

Protection: rock sliders and good skid plates are required, not optional. The trail is full of ledges and boulders that will find your rockers and your undercarriage. High clearance is a given.

Recovery: bring a spotter, straps, and ideally a winch. Even on Chinaman’s proper, the harder lines have consequences, and having someone out of the truck reading your tires is the difference between cleaning an obstacle and stuffing a wheel into a hole. Never run this trail solo.

The trail also keeps deteriorating year over year, which longtime visitors mention often. What was a 4.0 obstacle a decade ago may be meaner now. Treat every trip report you read as a floor, not a ceiling, on the difficulty.

Permits, fees, and rules

There is no permit and no fee to run Chinaman’s Gulch. It is BLM land, and the 4WD roads (6043 and 6044) are designated routes open to motorized use. That said, a few rules matter here more than most places.

Stay on established routes. This is stated plainly by both the BLM and the local guidebooks. The area’s continued open status depends on wheelers not cutting new lines or widening obstacles. When an obstacle has a bypass, the bypass is part of the designated route; going cross-country around it is not.

Close the gates. Both of them, on the way in and as needed. Access runs through leased land and the BLM has been through name-change and land-use scrutiny here. Do not be the reason it gets harder to run.

Pack out everything, including broken parts. Carnage Canyon in particular is a place where rigs shed pieces, and the whole area’s reputation rides on it staying clean. If you attempt Carnage, carry a spill kit and use it.

For current conditions, closures, or any access changes, the managing office is the BLM Royal Gorge Field Office in Cañon City, 719-269-8500. Call them, not a forum, if you need the official word on whether something is open.

Best season

This is the trail’s secret weapon. Chinaman’s Gulch is runnable year round in most conditions, and it is one of the premier winter wheeling spots in central Colorado precisely because it sits low and dry and gets minimal snow. When the Alpine Loop and Engineer and the rest of the high country are locked under snow, this trail is often bare rock and open for business.

The classic season is April through November, with summer and early fall being the most popular. Heavy snow can occasionally close it, and the ground can get greasy after a good storm, so check conditions in the shoulder seasons. But the fact that you can realistically wheel here in January is exactly why so many Front Range and central Colorado crews keep it in the rotation all year. It is not a scenic trail and it is not a mellow one, but it is almost always open, and that counts for a lot.

Stewardship

Chinaman’s Gulch has already been through the wringer on land-use and naming scrutiny, and its future as an open trail is not guaranteed. Trails like this stay open because the people who run them act right. That means staying on the designated route, using existing bypasses instead of carving new ones, closing the gates, packing out every scrap including the parts your rig leaves behind, and carrying a spill kit on Carnage. Tread Lightly is not a slogan here, it is the price of admission.

This is a working landscape with grazing leases, a real ranching history, and an agency that watches how the area gets used. Treat it that way. Run it clean, respect the crews waiting their turn at the Whale’s Tail, help spot the rig behind you, and leave the place looking like nobody was there. That is how a mean little loop southeast of Buena Vista stays open for the next generation of wheelers who want a trail that is all obstacle and no filler.