Places to park off Magnolia Road

RunningBoulder wrote:

Are their

"there"

any places to park (and run) off magnolia road?

"Magnolia Road?"

I want to go out their

"there"

for a run but wasn't sure where to park.

I'm from New York and recently visted Boulder, making sure I ran on Magnolia while I was out there. If you are driving on Boulder Canyon Drive/ Route 119, make a left onto Magnolia. Go up several miles until the pavement ends and the dirt roads begins. There is a small "parking lot", more of a pull off, right before the pavement ends. Enjoy the road, it's awesome.

Everyone I know in Boulder parks at Eben G. Fine Park and runs from there, nobody parks on Magnolia Road. I'm told the residents who live on Mags call the sheriff when they see cars parked up there and have them towed. They don't want to turn their road into another Ward.

You'd be nuts to park at Eben G Fine and runs from there.

you'd have to run 10 miles and climb 3000 feet before you actually start running on the dirt.

Some (Jay Johnson's camp) have started parking at the west end of Magnolia (100% legal parking) and running east and then back west. The traditional run is west then east.

Most people choose to run on the dirt part which starts ~4.5 miles up from Boulder Canyon.

Traditionally people parked near the 5 mile mark. Reasonably, the residents near the 5 mile mark (Porter Ranch Rd) got tired of people defecating on their property. So they put up no parking signs and yes you'd risk being towed.

There are some suggestions:

1. shit before you leave Boulder.

2. Just above the 4 miles on the pavement, there is a large pull out on the right with an amazing view. There are no signs about parking. The county still might ticket or tow, not sure what the law is.

3. Just before the true crest of the hill, still on pavement, there is a small bulletin board on the right side. there is reasonable space to parl there and again, no signs.

4. Exactly at the crest of the hill pavement-dirt transition, there is a pull off on the left. It is an abandoned driveway, you could try that but it is risky.

5. don't stand around in the road or lie down in the road doing stretches. people drive 45 MOPH on some sections of the road.

6.run somewhere else. Magnolia is dusty, steeply crowned, washboard surface and has lots of blind curves where cars play Russian roulette.

CU and Wetmore have run the east-then-west configuration for years now, while Johnson was in their employ. They've also been running up at Gold Hill (there's a video of it on flotrack) which is higher and hillier than Mags.

I apologize to the plethora of Boulder trolls on here who like to people bad advice, but here's what you do: Just before the 5-mile marker, right after the road changes to dirt, people park on the dirt shoulder very near the gate which goes off onto property. It's no problem there, just park off the road and snugged up next to the small ditch. It's 7.1+ miles to Hwy. 72 from there.

I like the way you think, parking tickets and impound fees paid by tourists means more income for the county.

Hey, I thought I saw Bus out training a couple of weeks ago, is he back in town again?

Wetmore himself likes to run early on Saturday morning with his pooch. he parks at the bulletin board and goes west then east.

Lately, I've seen the CU team and the Vaughans running out and back on Rollins Pass Rd. It is a nicer surface than Mags, very fast on the way back (nice downhill grade). But a longer drive from Boulder. There is a porta potty available along the road in Rollinsville.

There are tons of good dirt road runs in the Nederland area.

Start in town and head up to Caribou, then out towards Mud Lake or Rainbow Lakes etc.

Physiologically it makes little sense to run at altitude, but it is beautiful.

Driving from Boulder Canyon up Magnolia there are mile markers. I have always parked on the side of the road just before the 5th mile marker (I actually pull a U-turn and park on the other side of the road b/c I feel my car is less of an intrusion that way).I feel this is a fairly popular concept because I have seen other people do the same. The 5th mile marker is shortly after Magnolia turns from asphalt to dirt (albeit very hard dirt at first), and starting at the 5th mile marker allows you to use the mile markers for the rest of the way out and back. They are not precise especially the 7th (I think) but they are still generally helpful. At this parking spot, the run starts with a decent down hill with a great view but the flip-side is that the already hard run ends with a pretty hard hill.