Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · Colorado, Wyoming

Encampment River Trail

11 mi of trail, end to end · native material surface · trail No. 470 · trail class 3 · typical grade 12-20% · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse, bike

Trailhead Commissary Park Trailhead Drive there

Commissary Park Trailhead the Forest Service's write-up

The Commissary Park Traihead provides access to the Encampment River Trail and south end of the Encampment River Wilderness. The trailhead is located on Forest Road 496 and visible from the road. There are large trees remaining across the trail and a portion of the trail appears to have sluffed off in the 2014 run-off. Use caution on this trail. It is located in the Sierra Madre Range and is managed by the Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District.

This trailhead on fs.usda.gov

Purgatory Gulch Trailhead the Forest Service's write-up

season May to

The Purgatory Gulch Trailhead provides access to the Encampment River Trail and Encampment River Wilderness. High clearance 4WD vehicles are recommended and trailers cannot be turned around at the trailhead.

Dispersed camping is not allowed within 300 feet of the trailhead but is allowed along the trail as long as the camp is more than 100 feet from the trail, lakes or streams. Nearest facilities are approximately five miles north of the Purgatory/Encampment River trails junction, at the BLM Odd Fellows campground. This campground is on the Encampment River at the north access to the Encampment River Trail.

This trailhead on fs.usda.gov

Every trail in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest

All 375 trails in Medicine Bow-Routt National ForestFind a trailForest on fs.usda.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the US Forest Service's National Forest System trails layer (public domain), read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end, and the class, surface, grade and tread width are the forest's own entries where it publishes them - a forest that publishes the centreline alone has none. The trailheads and the points along the way are the Service's recreation points, and the write-ups its own recarea text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the forest's own site before you go.