Pictures of the Barrett Lake Jeep trail, which is in the Crystal Basin Recreation area off Highway 50, just south of the Rubicon on the way to Lake Tahoe.

There is a great-unspoiled pristine wilderness type area on a very narrow trail that is only open for a very limited time when the meadows dry up (mid aug this year) up until the 1st snow. Some spectacular tree, lake, and meadow views & spots all around that you don’t typically see so close up without hiking. At the end a great lake with some fantastic hiking to even more lakes plus a cool old B27 crash site.

There is a narrow gate at the beginning that I just squeezed through that keep’s off anything wider which is a good thing since its just about the width of several tree and/or rock squeezes.

Some in the group where saying the last 4 miles uphill to the lake is more difficult than the Rubicon at present time but I was skeptical of that at first. I was thinking if it where the same length as the ‘Con for those 4 miles I would agree but after wheelin’ Barrett I would say you need more ground clearance and a smaller rig in comparisons. It hasn’t been stacked, cleared, cleaned widen for the GP so its pretty pure with lots of trees roots, boulders, granite and other things that can bang up the undercarriage and hit the sheetmetal. The dirt is so fine, dust/silt like in places and you just sink in and need to lock up to keep moving. For a better idea of what the trail is like check:
http://xjzone.designermeat.com/Trails/barrett_lake/barrettlake_1.html

I had the good fortune in enjoying this trail with a cool bunch of wheelers (mostly bulit SWB…Jeeps and FJ 40's with a few chopped Toyota’s, a Zuk buggy) including Dano, Olebikers Bro with the red FJ on crawlers. Overall one of the best trails around IMO, If you go be prepared for a battle royal that sweet’s and totally worth it. My SUA rear setup took a pounding and I inverted my passenger shackle at one point on the way up which required a high lift jack to that side so I could bend the spring back in place without the weight of the truck. Not truck safe (NTS) ;-)