Black Mountain road access?

Hi I was hoping I could get up to Black Mtn in order to do some solo bouldering sometime during the next few weeks. I'm unsure if the gates on Black Mtn Rd are open though and was wondering if anyone had been up there recently?

The Forest Service website has the following status:

 Black Mountain road is closed 2 miles from the highway.  The yellow post sites are unreachable by vehicle. The road is rough, high clearance vehicles always recommended. 

Jimmy
I have not been there this spring, but every year by May 1, the gate is open. Do give a call to the Idy Ranger Station (909) 382-2921 to be sure. The road is pretty bad beyond Pinewood, high clearance is increasingly the thing to have.

The distance from the gate to the Boulder Basin is 4 miles BTW.

Thanks for the tip!

I gave them a call and the gates are going to be closed until May 1st tentatively. The ranger said people were still managing to bypass them but that they made sure they were locked going forward

jimmy k wrote: Thanks for the tip!

I gave them a call and the gates are going to be closed until May 1st tentatively. The ranger said people were still managing to bypass them but that they made sure they were locked going forward

We are past May 1st

My understanding is the road is being worked on till June. And any part of Black is accessible if you use those ChevroLEGS. 

Adam Linamen wrote:

We are past May 1st

Sorry meant June 1

Sam D wrote:

I hear people bypassing the gate is quite normal at the moment.  Way to make the Forest Service’s job harder and perhaps make access an issue. Somebody cross post this to the Gram with a certain #daydreaming hashtag### so the gym people not working right now can see it. I gave up Instagram and FB for my sanity...

Guys

In winter time, the Black Mountain locked gate has been bypassed by 4 x 4 enthusiasts for years. Climbers rarely go there in the winter (when the gate is closed and snow is on the ground). It is not likely climbers who would run through the forest, knock trees down etc  to bypass the gate. Matter of fact, over the years there have been more 4 x 4 yahoos there than anyone else. Access has always been an issue because the Forest Service is very quick to close the gate in inclement weather. The problem of course is, that the potential for people getting stuck up there (and even die as happened last year) is pretty high so that might be the reason for the quick closures.

 This year is just different, because the closure seems due to some work there and extends into warm/dry weather.

Alois,
Being the temps are nice and the gate is locked seasonally late, sadly there are climbers bypassing the gate. Rangers and the Forest Service have not been all that excited in recent years that the area has seen exponentially more people due to the release of a formal guidebook. Bypassing the gate is not acceptable behavior for anyone, in this instance it is particular to climbers and it should be expressed that it is unacceptable behavior. There’s a bit of cognitive dissonance going on here. Climbers claim to want to be healthy and save the planet but can’t hike an hour?

James

Flaunting the closure rules is not cool, that's for sure. It will be those of us, who use these roads and access points into the backcountry the most, who will be affected when the FS gets ticked off and starts closing the areas permanently.

I just wanted to point out that climbers were not likely the original perpetrators of the run around the gates. The worst damage was/is done by 4x4 people.

But no doubt, climbers will get the blame if even one bouldering party is caught up there with a vehicle.

So let's not collectively do stupid things...

Any update 

I’ve heard from mulitiple people that the lower gate is still closed as of the end of last week. Also heard people are driving around the gate or hiking up.

Forest service said June 1st it would open. Easy way to know for sure is call the ranger station in Idy.

People driving around the gate is the reason why it’s taken so long for the road being repaired.

I’ve been there for the last couple days.  Nobody is driving around any gates.  Spoke to a USFS dude today when he came to unlock the gate for a grader to work on the road.  He said grading would be going on for a few days and then he thinks they’ll open the gate to the public.

matt hoffman wrote: I’ve been there for the last couple days.  Nobody is driving around any gates.  Spoke to a USFS dude today when he came to unlock the gate for a grader to work on the road.  He said grading would be going on for a few days and then he thinks they’ll open the gate to the public.

I've seen people in jeeps drive around the lower gate, even saw someone just a few weeks ago, It was super sketchy but they made it and just kept going. 

My buddy at the forest service said the gate lock was chopped recently too. 

Road closure extended until July 1st as of today from Idy Ranger Station.

The road is currently in some of the best condition I’ve seen it in. After the gate to Boulder Basin it gets a little bad but from the bottom gate to the Boulder Basin gate it’s in really good shape.

Nick Ludwig wrote: The road is currently in some of the best condition I’ve seen it in. After the gate to Boulder Basin it gets a little bad but from the bottom gate to the Boulder Basin gate it’s in really good shape.

But still formally closed? Glad to hear the road is looking good. I picked up two skid plates on it last season.