Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · Colorado, Wyoming
Purgatory Gulch
0.6 mi of trail, end to end · native material surface · trail No. 477 · trail class 3 · typical grade 12-20% · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse, bike
Trailhead Purgatory Gulch Trailhead Drive there
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
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.
