Level Up Your Adventure Readiness: 2025 Nissan Rogue Rock Creek Review

I press the hill descent control button in the center of the drive mode dial and take a deep breath before slowly letting my foot off the brake. The Nissan Rogue Rock Creek crests a peak and starts rolling down a steep path filled with chunky 2-inch diameter rock and loose sand.

The anti-lock brakes furiously buzz from one corner to the next, but the Rogue maintains a 2mph or so speed and safely makes it down a path simply known as the Tetons.

Nissan invited me to Holly Oaks ORV Park, 50 miles north of Detroit, to test its new Rogue Rock Creek trim for 2025. The Rock Creek sits right in the middle of the lineup, above the S and SV trims, but beneath the SL and Platinum. It stands out with standard all-wheel-drive, all-terrain tires, “off-road view” cameras, and a mega roof rack.

How does the Rock Creek philosophy, which I first experienced on the Pathfinder, apply to the two-row, compact crossover Rogue? Eager to learn, I headed north and said goodbye to pavement for a morning to find out.

In short: The 2025 Rock Creek edition up-levels the Nissan Rogue’s capability just enough to instill confidence to seek out a bit more adventure off the paved route. All-terrain tires are a big part of this capability, but unfortunately, the crossover SUV has no skid plates to protect undercarriage powertrain vitals. However, keep a close eye on the strategically placed camera views, and you’ll likely be fine. The Rogue provides plenty of space and reasonable comfort inside, too. Think of it like an off-road starter kit that’s also well-suited for everyday urban adventures.

2025 Nissan Rogue Rock Creek Review

What Makes a Rogue Rock Creek?

Nissan followed a very similar playbook to the Pathfinder Rock Creek here. The biggest change is a set of Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires, size 235/65R17, mounted on satin black wheels. They grip surfaces well and provide good traction for the standard all-wheel-drive to work with. Nissan charges $1,400 to swap from front- to all-wheel-drive on the other four trims.

Wildpeak tires dig in to loose-gravel and sand well enough to allow technologies like hill descent control to work when traversing steep slopes. Not to mention the off-road driving mode, which allows the powertrain to behave more appropriately for unpaved terrain. Four other drive modes come along for the ride, by the way: Sport, Eco, Auto, and Snow.  

When in off-road mode, a set of cameras mounted throughout the Rogue illuminate what’s immediately in front of and around the side of the Rogue, as long as speeds do not exceed 12 mph. And no worries if they do; they automatically come back on once speeds drop down again.

Rock Creeks also get a beefy, tube steel roof rack mounted on top, which can handle 220 pounds of stuff while traveling. And, Rogue generally offers a generous amount of cargo capacity inside — more than 31 cubic feet of space with the second row up, 74 cubic feet with the seats folded.

The roof rack also helps make the Rogue Rock Creek look the part, as does a unique black grille with silver accents just below the hood line and lava red accents at the base of the front bumper. A strip of red adds flair to each of the black wheels. And Rock Creek badging emblazons the front doors and the liftgate in back. The $425 optional Baja Storm metallic paint finishes the look nicely.

And that’s it. Nissan leaves the Rock Creek with the standard Rogue’s 8.2 inches of ground clearance. Nor did it receive any kind of skid plates to protect vital powertrain components. That limits how much extra capability you get, certainly. But it also helps make the Rock Creek feel much like a regular road-going crossover. That helps, at least theoretically, when you venture to more urban and suburban jungles.

Spacious Compact

Landing in the middle of the Rogue lineup, the Rock Creek gets a mixed bag of luxuries inside. You do get heated front seats, a power-adjusting driver’s seat, and an 8-inch center display screen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. But, SL and Platinum trims get a 12.3-inch screen with wireless phone connectivity and a digital instrument cluster, too.

Nissan offers a Rock Creek Premium package for $800 that offers several comforts, I most appreciate the wireless smartphone charger, heated steering wheel, and power-adjusting passenger front seat. But, especially considering the camera views offered in off-road mode, the 12.3-inch screen would come in handy.

Rock Creeks also get special water-repellent material on its seats called ballistic nylon, making them both harder to get dirty and easier to clean. You also see the same Lava red inside, used for accent stitching, and piano black dashboard trim. Finally, in the cargo area, Nissan added a 12V port to power your own gadgets back there. Handy.

Fundamentally, the Rogue offers a lot of space for a crossover in this class. Moreover, the second row offers adequate comfort for adults. Both rows of seats provide good levels of support. And the driver’s seat kept me planted and cozy for 2 hours of very slow, very bumpy travel. 

Plucky Powertrain

A turbocharged three-cylinder remains the one and only engine offered in the Rogue for 2025. With the help of Nissan’s variable compression technology, it produces 201 horsepower and a healthy 225 pound-feet of torque.

With just three cylinders pumping, the 1.5L emits a bit of a buzzy exhaust note. But, honestly, compared to other three-cylinder engines out there, the Nissan sounds the most refined. 

A continuously variable transmission bolts up to that 1.5L and then sends power to all four wheels. I felt nervous about off-roading with a CVT, but it behaved well. The CVT engaged quickly and provided steady power delivery, even up steep hills, with no weird surges or lags. Furthermore, the ratios seemed appropriate for all the different scenarios I threw at the Rogue, including a 12-inch deep, 100-foot-long pond I splashed through. 

Never leaving the off-road park, my top speed in the Rock Creek maybe exceeded 25 mph once. But Nissan offered me a chance to take a Rogue Platinum out on a quick interstate jaunt. Even at highway speeds, the three-cylinder kept quiet and the CVT generally behaved, providing a wide enough ratio range to get up to speed quickly, but cruise at low engine revs. And, with the Rogue weighing just under 3,750 pounds, 201 horsepower felt strong.

The Rock Creek will not feel quite as good on the interstate if it’s anything like the Pathfinder. Not only does the massive roof rack rob a bit of highway mpg, but it also adds more wind noise to the experience. All-terrain tires don’t help either. That said, you still manage 27 mpg in the city, 32 on the highway, and 29 combined. Not bad.

Off-Road Park Shenanigans

Holly Oaks off-road park combines an interesting cross-section of steep yet short hills, uneven trails with several sharp crests, and a mix of hard-packed gravel and loose sand. It throws in a few water hazards of various sizes to keep things interesting.

Some areas include deeply rutted paths. In others, you’ll find rocks of various sizes sprinkled throughout. But, generally speaking, there’s little worry of clearing jagged rocks as you go. 

This setting proved ideal for the Rogue Rock Creek and its adequate 8.2 inches of ground clearance, and moderate 19, 17.9, and 23.6 degrees of clearance for approach, breakover, and departure angles, respectively. A couple of minor scrapes of the lower front bumper occurred, otherwise it left unscathed.

Even when you reached the top of a hill and you only saw sky out of the windshield, the front camera offered a nice view of the path immediately in front. And each side camera gave a close look at what your front tires had to deal with. Nissan even imprints a yellow line on the screen to indicate how far the front tires will stick out with the steering fully locked.

None of this means you should book a trip out to the Moab. Rather, feel confident that you indeed can make it to that more remote trailhead or scenic campsite. The Rogue Rock Creek takes you one level farther off the beaten path than your average SUV. It’s like going to your favorite Indian restaurant and ordering your food medium instead of mild.

2025 Nissan Rogue Rock Creek Review: Summary

Just as the Rock Creek trims fall in the middle of the Rogue lineup, the $36,810 starting price puts it more or less in the middle of the Rogue price range. You can get an S for just over $30K, while going Platinum with all-wheel-drive puts the price tag well into the $40s.

Personally, I think $800 for the premium package is money well spent. I’d pay that for just the wireless smartphone charger and heated steering wheel. Considering the standard all-wheel drive, the robust roof rack, and the rest, it sounds like a reasonable way to get a more adventure-ready but otherwise totally normal and spacious crossover.

Mind you, apart from the better rubber, mechanically speaking, Nissan offers a stock compact two-row crossover SUV. To be fair, it does also receive a unique steering assist and shock absorber tune, but that’s largely to account for the different tires and make the Rock Creek feel similar to other Rogues.

That’s the point,: The 2025 Rogue Rock Creek remains a usable, useful, compact crossover, ready to handle child pickup at school, grocery runs, and all the usual menagerie of modern life. It also offers just enough spice to add some flavor to life when time allows.