Colorado Trip Report-Pics

[alpinhi]

Well I must say the Unlimited Ruby is the Jeep of Jeeps IMO. I drug a pop up camper out to CO for our annual trip. We spent 12 days wheeling the back country of the state. We started out in Taylor Park were we met some friends. My buddy John is a big Toyota guy so he was wheeling a 97 FJ-80 LandCrusier with a 3" OME lift, factory lockers and full floating axles, and bunch of extras. We ran Taylor Pass, Tin Cup, Old Tin Cup, Itallion Creek and a slew of fire and forest service roads.
Coming down Old Tincup





Top of Tincup Pass

Lake near the summit of Taylor Pass

Part of Taylor requires driving a half mile up a stream. This was dropping down into the stream. Can you spot the sniper?


Shelf road on the backside of Taylor

Itallion Creek



Wildlife veiwing trips after dinner each night.

Nice Mule Deer

4 Bull Elk

John hit the Creek alittle hard and stalled out.

The Unlimited had no probs though

After 5 days of wheeling with our friends it was time for the wife and I to head down to our old stomping grounds in Lake City CO. Down here we ran Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass, Stoney Pass Corkscrew Gulch, Hurricane Pass, Californa Pass, and the always fun narrow offcamber and steep Mineral Creek. The last night before we left to come home it rained very heavy on the south side of Engineer mountian. All we had on our side was a light shower and cold temps. We decided that we were going to go over to Ouray for lunch and shopping for our last day via Engineer and Mineral Creek. On the return trip we would break off Mineral Creek and go up the always challenging Poughkipsie Gulch then sneak back on Cinnamon to get back. We started out early and were on Engineer by 8:00 am. By the time we reached the summit we still had not seen any Jeeps coming up the other side from Ouray or Silverton. We continued down the switch backs and jumped on Mineral Creek still not seeing anyone else. I finally ran into a group of large 4x4 ATVs who informed me of the heavy rain the night before. The trail had been washed out and there were some small rock slides on it. I decided to head on down and atleast look at it. The first rockslide I came across was the worst. The trail had washed out on the drop side of 600 ft or so with a pile of rocks on top of it. After about 30 min. of shoveling and moving rocks I thought I couild get across. The wife was so scared she didnt get any pics. I did take a pic of it before I went across and ofcourse it does no justice at all. Anyway we made it down to some washouts about a mile from Ouray and there were all the rental Jeeps. They looked like grid lock traffic stuck in the washouts. The only way for me to get through was to winch some of them out to get by. Needless to say we didnt come back up this way, we ended up going back on Corkscrew to Lake City.
Summit of Engineer

New sign at the start on Mineral Creek

Hairy rockslide on Mineral Creek.

Small Washout

Winching out a rental Jeep

I love the history of the mines and ghost towns all along the trails. If you have ever been to Silverton Im sure you have seen the ore cars still hanging on the cables. We took a little know steep side trail off of Stony Pass to the Tram house where the cars picked up there load.





They Jeep got us there and back safely with few probs. I have to give credit where it is due also, that Toyota was a heck of a offroad machine to. Take care.
Travis

[tag]

Great pictures and story. That is pretty country out there. Man I need a vacation.

[treeofliberty]

Nice pictures Travis. I'm in heaven everytime we stay up there. How was Poughkipsie Gulch? I've read so much about it, but have never taken the time to run that trail. The trail guides talk like its death-defying, which I find hard to believe, given how easy all the other trails in that area are.

[alpinhi]

Well I wouldnt call it death defying but its fun speacially if its wet. Its the most difficult technical wise for the area. The trail is not long by any means. It is more difficult to run it up from Mineral Creek to Californa pass just becasue your going up. This is the direction I ran it. You need atleast 33" tires IMO if you dont have lockers to run it without stacking rocks. We did not get to run it this year becasue I did not head back that way. The last time I ran was in 2002 I think, I attempted it in 2004 but found the trail was closed halfway up. There is one real offcamber spot and a number of ledges that you have to climb. If I remeber right they were about 24" tall and I dont remeber any steep drops. (over 100 ft) The most dangerous trail is Black Bear with the drops and tightness of the trail. This is my favorite trail of all though becasue of the challenge plus the unreal sceanery. Imogene is getting tougher right up behind Black Bear also. With a mildly built Jeep experinced driver and common sense this trail can be safely driven. Hope this helps I will try to find my pics of it and post em.
Travis

[treeofliberty]

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to give it a try on our next visit.

You're a tease, you know. On our last trip, in mid-July, Black Bear and Imogene were both still snowed in. Maybe next time.

[alpinhi]

Yup I know what you mean. My wife and I got married in Lake City last July on the 15th. They were still both closed then, I think we were probably there at the sametime. Let me know when your gonna be up there next summer and maybe we can catchup with each other. Pughkipise would be a good one to play on.
Travis

[treeofliberty]

That would be great! I'd love to go back up there, and that would just be a bonus.

Yes, we were up there at that time. I really wanted to run Black Bear. Maybe next year.