From the stoplight at US 285, drive west on County Road 306 for 12.2 miles. There the pavement meets a gate, and there's a pullout on the right where snowmobile trailers will soon be parking. For a few more weeks that gate stays open, and the road keeps climbing past Denny Creek, over the Continental Divide above 12,000 feet, and down into Gunnison County. Sometime in early November a Chaffee County Road & Bridge crew will swing it shut.
People call that the day Cottonwood Pass closes, and for cars it is. From the gate up, the road becomes one of the few snowcat-groomed winter routes in the southern Arkansas Valley, and it stays that way until spring.
Hunters set the closing date
Chaffee County's Road & Bridge Department has a written policy for the pass, and the policy says more about elk hunters than about snow:
In the fall gates are open so hunters can access the area... Three days after the close of hunting season, the gates are closed but not locked. The Road and Bridge Department will go to the top of the pass after that three days to check for vehicles and people. The gates will be locked after all is clear.
So the gate shuts in steps:
- The gates stay open through the fall hunts. If snow falls before November 1, the county plows to the top of the pass, but main collector roads come first. That means CR 306 may not get plowed until the first or second day of a storm.
- The gates are closed but left unlocked, so anyone still up high can get out.
- A crew drives to the summit to look for leftover vehicles and people.
- The gates are locked once the road is clear.
Last year, Ark Valley Voice reported on October 29, 2025 that Chaffee and Gunnison counties would close the pass at 9 a.m. on Monday, November 3. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife's 2025–2029 big game season structure, the second combined deer and elk rifle season ended November 2, 2025, the day before. The third and fourth rifle seasons were still to come, so the gate doesn't wait for every hunter in the state to finish.
CPW lists these combined rifle dates for 2026:
- First season (elk, with optional deer): October 14 to 18
- Second season: October 24 to November 1
- Third season: November 7 to 15
- Fourth season: November 18 to 22
The second season opens Saturday, October 24. If you want one more drive to the summit this year, the coming weekends are your last chance, and you'll be sharing the road with hunters. Last year's exact closing time showed up in local news less than a week before the gate shut. Keep an eye on the county's page and the local papers through late October.
Above the gate, the road gets groomed
The county stops maintaining CR 306 past Denny Creek Trailhead from November 1 to June 15, and the only motor vehicles allowed beyond that point are snowmobiles and snowcats.
The Buena Vista Snowdrifters Snowmobile Club lists Eastside Cottonwood Pass on its trail map and sends riders to unload and park at Denny Creek Trailhead. The club describes more than 300 groomed trail miles on both sides of the Divide. The grooming costs real money. In its 2025–26 snowmobile grant recommendations, CPW recommended $16,069 for the Buena Vista club to repair the tracks on its 2010 and 2011 PB400 groomers. The club had asked for $16,070.
Skiers and snowshoers get that grooming too. Skinny Skis and Snowshoes, Nate Porter and Nathan Ward's guide to Upper Arkansas Valley winter trails, describes Cottonwood Pass Road to Ptarmigan Creek Road as "a groomed trail wide as the summer highway and sometimes as smooth." It calls it "the only good place to skate near Buena Vista and Salida." The guide's advice for skiers who would rather not hear sleds is to come on weekdays, when snowmobile traffic is much lighter. The route climbs through trees and turns south up Ptarmigan Creek toward treeline, where the peaks open up.
Grooming depends on machines and snow. Groomers break down and wait for parts, and some seasons the club can't groom some of its areas at all. Check the club's own updates before you load up the car on a winter morning.
The trails that start at the gate
The Forest Service's Salida Ranger District page lists snowmobiling and cross-country skiing as the Cottonwood Pass area's winter uses. It names six trails off the corridor: Ptarmigan Lake #1444, Lost Lake #1532, Kroenke Lake #1448, Horn Fork Basin #1449, Browns Pass #1442 and Hartenstein Lake #1443.
Denny Creek is the one you can reach from the parking area by the gate. The Forest Service's Denny Creek Trailhead page puts Hartenstein Lake 2.3 miles from the trailhead and says to expect heavy snow from November through June. In the same guidebook, the Denny Creek to Hartenstein Lake route is about a six-mile round trip on snowshoes or skis. It starts on the north side of the parking area by the gate and is harder to follow when nobody has broken trail yet.
The groomed road and the Hartenstein trail feel very different. On the road, a snowcat has already done the work and other people pass by all day. On Denny Creek you break your own trail, and after a fresh storm you may be finding it as you go.
The county's policy also explains why a car past the gate is a bad idea:
Violators are warned that road conditions are not suitable for travel. The cost of rescue of persons or vehicles shall be borne by the violator.
The Ark Valley Voice closure notice says the same for people on foot or skis. Anyone going up CR 306 in winter does so at their own risk, with no maintenance and difficult access for emergency crews.
Below the gate, the hot springs stay open
Everything between town and the gate keeps going after the pass closes. The two Forest Service campgrounds up the road have already finished their season. Collegiate Peaks Campground and Cottonwood Lake Campground, which sits off CR 306 on the CR 344 spur, both list a May to September season, with opening and closing dates set by the weather.
Cottonwood Hot Springs Inn & Spa doesn't run on a summer schedule. Its website lists soaking every day of the week from 8 a.m. to midnight and says it takes walk-ins, without separate winter hours. Overnight guests in the lodge or cabins get soaking with their stay. Check current hours before you go, but on a January afternoon, the usual winter day on CR 306 is a morning on the groomed road above the gate and a soak on the way back down.
Spring
The gate opens again on the county's schedule. Signs at the gate say June 15, but the policy says Road & Bridge tries to open the pass before Memorial Day if snowfall allows. This year it beat the signs by more than three weeks. On May 12, Road & Bridge said it expected the pass to open by about 5 p.m. on May 21, 2026, working with Gunnison County Public Works. Gunnison County doesn't remove snow on its side of the pass, so the opening date also depends on how much snow is left on the west side.
The CR 306 Road & Bridge number in the 2025 notice was 719-539-4591.
From the first week of November until late May, the gate at mile 12.2 marks where Buena Vista's winter backcountry starts.
Many of my clients bought here for the back roads, and Cottonwood Pass in winter is one of the best of them. If you're thinking about a property somewhere along the CR 306 corridor and want to know what owning there looks like in January, I'm happy to talk it through. Contact Mary Kale.
