Unlike other treasure hunts in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, you must find the Poisonous Trail in the wilderness. As the name suggests, it makes for one hell of a treasure hunt, but it is absolutely worth the trouble as it rewards you generously.
The Poisonous Trail Treasure Hunt Overview:
Number of Maps: 3
Reward: 4 Gold Bars ($2,000)
What you will read here:
How to Start the Poisonous Trail Treasure Hunt in RDR2
All the way north of Valentine, in the West Grizzlies, above the M of Ambarino on the map, there’s a small lake called Cairn Lake. Go into the lodge there. Under the bed, there’s a lockbox that contains your first map of the Poisonous Trail Treasure Hunt.
The Poisonous Trail Map 1 Treasure Location
To get to the location of the first Poisonous Trail Map, travel north of Rhodes to where the map reads SCARLETT.
Between the R and the L, you can find a rock formation that looks like a human face. There’s a burned-out tree near this rock that you can interact with to retrieve the second map of this treasure hunt.
The Poisonous Trail Map 2 Treasure Location
For the location of the second Poisonous Trail map, you need to go west of Van Horn Trading Post. This is practically south of Elysian Pool and east of Emerald Ranch, all the way near Van Horn.
When you get to the vicinity shown in the picture, look for an abandoned tower you can climb. Get up there and see what the fuss is all about.
Look around to find the snake-like geoglyph. In the center of the coiled spiral part, there is a hole where you can find your third map.
The Poisonous Trail Map 3 Treasure Location
Now that you have the third and final map of the Poisonous Trail treasure hunt, be prepared for the infamous cave part of this expedition.
WARNING: I highly recommend that you save your game before venturing into the cave. There’s a tricky jump in there that could easily get you killed if you’re not careful enough.
With that out of the way, go north of Elysian Pool and straight into the waterfall to enter the cave.
Light up your lantern and be ready. The following video clearly shows how to proceed to finally get this hefty reward of 4 gold bars.
I have another pro tip for you: when you finally get your hands on those shiny four gold bars, you don’t actually have to go back the way you came from. The Elysian Pool cave navigation is already frustrating, let alone having to actually retrace your steps in there. Just save your game manually and then reload it. Voila. Now you’re out and about, and also four gold bars richer.
To be honest, I can say confidently that the Poisonous Trail is the hardest of the treasure hunts. That’s due to the infamous cave navigation and the tricky jump you have to make. If you fail, you will die and have to reload.
