It was pouring down rain, and here I was strapping the gas tank to the roof and loading my things up in South Carolina, preparing for another cross-country trip, seemingly after just finishing my Moab trip just a few months ago. I had put together a plan of sorts to go to Colorado and spend the week off roading and exploring the Colorado backcountry, but I didn’t have the time to put nearly the planning hours into this trip that I did for my Moab trip. An unexpected week paid off meant I had an unexpected opportunity to do something cool. Sure, I could have just sat at home and “relaxed” all weekend, but where’s the fun in that?

I got everything loaded into the 4Runner, and off I went. My first stop would be at my parent’s house in Alabama to spend two nights, change my oil, rotate my tires, and finish prepping for my trip. Mileage leaving South Carolina:

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After arriving at home late on Friday night I got up on Saturday and changed my oil and rotated my tires. I shook the suspension components and checked the other fluids. She was ready to go. No other steps required. This is a Toyota after all, Let’s go Places!

Day 1

The plan was to go shopping Sunday morning for food, and hit the road around 1:00 PM or so. I wanted to get to Oklahoma City before I stopped. Fast forward a few hours and it’s 3:30 PM and I’m on my way to the store… I finally got on the road at 5:30 PM. Destination: Unknown.

I was going to drive until I got tired or found a good place to stop. I made it out of Alabama in pretty good time, but unfortunately my next state was Mississippi. You know the Alabama motto, “Thank God for Mississippi!” This slogan held true, as I wanted to get out of Mississippi as fast as I could. The sunset in Mississippi wasn’t bad, but I knew this wouldn’t hold a candle to anything I was about to witness.

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After finally clearing the Tennessee state line things didn’t get much better. I was in Memphis. I hate big cities, and Memphis is a big city. Good thing is it was already after 9:00 PM so traffic wasn’t too bad and I was in Arkansas in no time. Here’s a picture of the Arkansas state line! It’s as clear as the bodies of water in this part of the country…

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Driving through Arkansas was great, super flat and almost no elevation meant even my heavy 4Runner with 33’s and 4.10’s could easily cruise without downshifting. A friend called me as I was going through Arkansas so we caught up with each other over the phone, shared camping stories, and 2 hours later I was nearly through Arkansas. Now it was around midnight, and I ran into some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever experienced while driving. There was inches of water standing or running across the interstate. This is what I was driving through.

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After I cleared that mess I was able to get back to a good cruising speed, and started to think about where I would be stopping for the night. I had initially planned on camping at one of two state parks on the east side of Oklahoma City, but I kept seeing lightning to the south-west, so I figured it would not be ideal to be sleeping in a tent in case a storm would roll through. That’s not how I wanted this trip to start. So instead I just kept driving.

Eventually I got to that magically point where you’re really the only one on the interstate. This is my favorite time to drive. I just kept driving until it was about 3 AM. I figured at this point I should probably stop, even though I really wasn’t tired. Part of me wanted to push to Amarillo and be able to play “Amarillo by Morning” as I came into town, but I decided a few hours of sleep would be good… I drove another 20 miles until I found an exit that claimed to have a Best Western. Wrong. I exited and then realized the hotel was another 15 miles on a side road. Nope. I kept driving.

At nearly 4 AM I finally found another exit with civilization. I wasn’t going to pay for a hotel, but merely sleep in their parking lot. I exited and found a Holiday Inn Express that was well lit and looked like a safe place for me to sleep in the 4Runner for a few hours. I rearranged my belongings, cracked the windows, laid my seat back and took the headrest out and I had a make shift bed.

Day 2

At 7 AM I woke up to one of the loudest birds I’ve ever heard. It was similar to the heard of Turkey’s that tried to maul our group when we were camping in Moab, but this was one bird causing all this ruckus as he was fighting a 5th gen 4Runner.

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I have no idea what this bird was, but I followed it around the parking lot for a bit trying to get a decent picture, watched it try and pick a fight with a Harley’s chrome tailpipe, and chase every bird in a 100 yard radius away.
Now it was about 7:30 AM, and time to get on the road. I had driven more than halfway last night so that was a plus. Only 10 hours to go to Colorado Springs, my first stop. My friend that rode with me from Alabama to Moab wasn’t able to join me on the drive to Colorado due to prior engagements, but he was able to leave his car at my apartment in Greenville Monday morning and fly to Colorado Springs. His flight was scheduled to get in around 8:30 PM and I was scheduled to be there around 5:30 PM so I was going to have some time to kill. I got through Oklahoma City pretty quick, and then it was onto Texas.

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I lived in Texas for a few years as a child, but never really crossed across the Panhandle so this was new territory for me. I stopped, grabbed a couple pictures at the state line, and noticed some wild watermelons growing. They seemed to be everywhere after I noticed them.

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The 4Runner struggled to maintain the 75 MPH speed limits through Texas in OD, so I switched OD off and just cruised in 3rd gear for a good bit of the distance through Texas. I guess I was climbing in elevation as well as driving into a headwind. If you picked someone up and stuck them in Texas I think they’d be able to tell they’re in Texas. Everything is bigger there, it’s so open, everyone drives a truck with a brush guard, and it just has a Texas vibe to it.

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After finishing up the long journey through Texas I finally hit New Mexico. The reflection from the 4Runner as I pulled up the sign gave an interesting look to the sign.

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I gassed up in New Mexico (mistake, gas was way cheaper in Texas) and continued onwards. Eventually I ended up driving towards a storm that had a good bit of lightning in it. I was able to grab a few lighting shots, as well as some of the generally scenery.

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And over here it doesn’t even look like it’s storming…

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This one came out the best.

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New Mexico definitely keeps up with their speed limits more than any of the other states I had passed through. At one point I saw an i8 being chased by an F150 cop. I’m not sure exactly what was going on, but I had the impression the i8 was trying to outrun him…

After the storm cleared I crept closer and closer to the Rocky Mountains, than I start noticing this weird looking mountain to my right. It looked like a volcano I thought, but that seemed silly. Then I saw a sign for Mount Cauplin Volcano, next right. I got hard on the brakes and made the next right. I was curious and had time to kill. His flight was now delayed to 9:00 PM. Thanks Atlanta.

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First, I stopped on the way to the volcano to ask some locals for directions.

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With their help, I eventually made it. I figured I’d be able to drive right up it since I could see the road going up the volcano from the main highway, but I was wrong. There was a little shack there that wanted $7 to drive to the top and they told me it would be at least a 20-minute wait as they had met their quota on the number of cars that could be up there. I said no thanks, I’ve got better things to do and left. Maybe on the way back I could stop back in there I thought, but at the current point in time it didn’t seem worth it. Kinda a rip off…

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Just a few more hours to go and I would be in Colorado Springs.

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As I ventured further north the Rocky Mountains started to come into view.
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Then all of a sudden, the Interstate started to climb at a pretty steep grade, and then bam. I had made it to Colorado! Under 24 hours to go from Alabama to Colorado. I think that’s pretty good time.

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I still had about 2 hours to go to Colorado Springs, but it was also only about 3:00 PM. So I had time to kill somewhere, doing something. I passed through Pueblo, and then stopped at a rest stop to figure out what my game plan was. I had marked a few trails near Colorado Springs that I thought I could try if I had the time, and I decided Mount Baldy would be a good option.

I set the GPS in that direction, and off I went. Colorado Springs was around 5,000 feet above sea level, and the road going to Mount Baldy quickly went from paved to dirt, and from 5,000 feet to much higher. But not before you pass through a nice neighborhood on your way to the trailhead…

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Gaining elevation over Colorado Springs.

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The washboards were a little rough without airing down…

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I didn’t think I’d actually be able to make it to the top of Mount Baldy before I had to turn around and head back to the airport. I came around a bend in the road and there was no one but me out there at the time. Suddenly I straighten the wheels back out and I hear this loud bang that sounded like a gunshot. I had no idea what was going on.

My first though was I blew a tire, but the 4Runner was still driving fine and if I blew one of my ST Maxx’s on this dirt road I would have been ashamed of their ability. My second though was gun shots. Then all of a sudden, I hear another one, and it scared me to death again. I still wasn’t sure what was going on, but I wasn’t going to stop. I kept going, a little quicker than I was before…

I drove a little further and then came to a stop to try and figure out what was going on. I turned around and saw the one potato chip bag behind me were about 3 times the size the normally are, and totally inflated. Like high pressure inflated… Apparently the rapid elevation change caused them to swell up major, and even start exploding as I started climbing. I had climbed about 4,000 feet in 45 minutes or so, but I never expected that to happen… Relieved that I was not being shot at and the truck wasn’t falling apart, I continued on my way up. Another bag popped a couple minutes later, and scared me once again, but at least I knew what it was.

Bad picture, but it kinda shows the swelling.

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About 7 PM I came to this stunning overlook, looking out over the city of Colorado Springs. It was quite a view. A group of guys asked me to take their picture, so I did. Then the one turned to me and said “I’m from Alabama. We don’t have anything like this down there.” I said “Me too! Where are you from?” He said Mobile, and I said Huntsville. He was for some reason stunned that I didn’t know anyone from Mobile, but he didn’t seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed. They went their way and I went mine.

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I climbed up a short steep trail to get a better vantage point, and was completely winded and could taste iron/blood in my mouth (common thing if I go for a run which I never do) but I had only gone a few hundred feet. This elevation stuff is no joke…

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I caught my breath and headed back to the truck. I hurried down the mountain, at one point passing a Jeep Cherokee packed full inside with people and with 4 people riding on the roof. Safety first kids! After arriving at the airport, I took a sink shower and picked up my friend. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed off towards the San Isabel Mountains.
We camped near the Fourmile Area the first night, the moon was bright when we arrived, but we were exhausted and went straight to bed.

Day 3

Being baked alive in our tents was not spectacular. It was a little chilly at night so we had on long pants, sweatshirt, and sleeping bags. In the morning, our tents turned into little greenhouses that just trapped the heat and made things miserable, until you got out and the temperature was perfect and there wasn’t even a touch of humidity in the air. The view was alright, I mean it’s no Mississippi.

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We rode the trail a little bit around the Fourmile Area, but eventually headed towards Beuna Vista, CO. We stopped here, gassed up and grabbed a few supplies (local beer), and headed towards Mount Princeton.

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Our first real trail in Colorado sorta. This trail was way busier than I expected, but it was alright. It was pretty tight in some places, and some people don’t seem to understand the concept of uphill traffic has right of way, and pulling off, slowing down, or stopping to let traffic pass or move over. They just keep driving at you assuming you’ll get out of the way.
The higher we got the less Honda Pilots and Rav4s we saw. At one point, I had to turn around and back down a very tight switchback because of a Jeep that didn’t seem to want to stop after he saw me coming… He narrowly squeezed by, but he made it. Then pretty close to the summit there was a Ford Explorer. Like the new CUV unibody things. Basically, a minivan. We had just come out of a very narrow area with nowhere to pull over. I could see a place wide enough to park 3 vehicles but this guy would not back up. I continued to drive at him because I had nowhere to go and he threw his hands in the air. I could now see he had ripped both his running boards off and they were bungee strapped to the car. I got out and asked him to back up to the clear space. It wasn’t hard. Literally a straight shot, nothing challenging at all. “I’ll try” was his response… He certainly tried. It took him several minutes and holding the steering wheel straight seemed to be a challenge for him, but there was eventually enough space for me to squeeze by.

Thankfully the rest of the journey was clear with no more traffic, and we made it up to the summit. Welcome to Colorado!

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We ate lunch up here, admiring the views, and taking in the scenery. Not a bad way to celebrate the 4th of July.

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I heard a strange hissing noise coming from the truck so I opened the gas tank and let that vent. I guess the pressure changes messed with that too, just like the chip bags. Afterwards we decided we should get moving onto our next stop, Tincup Pass.

On the way down we got stuck behind a Honda Pilot so it was slow going. We finally got back to pavement and set our sights towards the ghost town of St. Elmo. We got there and popped into the little store to ask about Tincup Pass. The man working there said the pass was still snowed in at 6 miles in, but just barely. He said the views are great once you crest the tree line, so we decided we’d see how far we could make it. He had also mentioned a man who spent the last week camping up there, and he had spotted several moose and elk.

The first several miles of the trail you’re still below the tree line, so there isn’t much big scenery to see, but it’s still pretty and a very fun trail.

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We stopped at all of the clearings like this, to look around and see if there were any moose or elk lurking around. We kept getting closer and closer to the 6 mile point the man told us the snow was at and I was beginning to worry that we would never crest the tree line.

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And then we did, and he was right. It was beautiful.

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Unfortunately, not much farther past this we found the snow. There was almost enough space for the 4Runner in my opinion, and I contemplated trying to get through it, but decided to not risk it. I was wide enough for ATVs I thought but the group in front of us chose to turn around. We parked the 4Runner and decided to walk the couple hundred yards to the pass.

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As we walked away from the 4Runner towards the pass a couple UTVs pulled up behind us. These could have made it through as well in my opinion, it wasn’t that bad, but instead these morons decided to drive back around to a different part of the switch backs heading up to the pass and try a shortcut that some other brainiac UTV riders had used before.

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Now this is definitely illegal, and these people should know this. I was not happy to see these people destroying such a beautiful place because they were too stupid to know how to do anything other than put their right foot down on the gas pedal. This tool in the orange one would make it about 20 yards spin his tires for 10 seconds, then back up and try again, just faster. I yelled down to them something like “You aren’t supposed to do that!”, but I wasn’t that nice. They stopped looked at me and said something I couldn’t hear. Another man walking to the pass said “They better hope a ranger doesn’t show up.” I really wish a ranger had showed up, or I had cell signal and could have called the ranger’s office.

Here's a few pictures of the idiots themselves. If you happen to know them do us all a favor, let them know they’re idiots.

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People like this are also the reason I do not like UTVs or their owners. I’m sure some of them are good people, but it seems like 95% of them are just rich morons with no respect for the environment or other people.
We got back in the 4Runner and started heading back towards St. Elmo. Things were starting to look a little stormy…

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With the weather looking a little rough, and it getting late in the day we decided to start making our way towards the San Juan area. Even the paved roads in that part of Colorado are fun. Lots of ups and downs, and windy roads. We passed over Monarch Pass, once again crossing over the continental divide.

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We pushed through driving through some beautiful country. We stopped and gassed up in Gunnison, Colorado as the sun was starting to get low. They were preparing for their 4th of July activities, but we didn’t have time to stay. I cleaned the windshield here as I always do when I get gas, and not 25 miles down the road there were more bugs on the windshield than I had ever seen in such a short amount of time.

The sun set, and we continued onward, now getting closer to our final destination. We started descending out of the mountains into a valley of sorts, when we start seeing fireworks off in the distance. We were approaching Montrose, CO and got to watch their entire 4th of July fireworks show during our descent on Highway 80. That was pretty neat.

We stopped in Montrose, cleaned the windshield, grabbed food and tried to beat the crowds leaving the firework show. We did pretty good beating them, and were out of there in no time, headed towards Ouray. Traffic in Ouray heading towards Silverton was non-existent. Traffic going north out of Ouray was horrendous. They were stopped for miles…

We passed by all the people with their cars shut off and lights off, and got on the million dollar highway. Now I knew we were where I wanted to be. Even though it was dark you could still see how breathtaking the area would be, and how dangerous even the paved roads in this area can be.

We camped off towards Clear Lake Trail this night, just north of Silverton. We passed several pay sites, or sites right off the road that just would not do. A small side road appeared that we ventured down and dead ended in a large flat area, right along a creek, with mountains all around, and an old mining structure near. This would do.

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Pretty neat what a little photo editing will do.

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I’m really liking the amber flood lights on the front bumper. They’re excellent for setting up camp. Not obscenely bright so it doesn’t hurt your eyes, but plenty of light to cook dinner, set up tents, and get a fire going with.

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This was the highest elevation I had camped at yet.

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Day 4

Sheltered in the shade of the valley we weren’t roasted alive in the tents. I unzipped my tent to this.

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Having not showered in a few days and camping right next to a crystal clear creek that was obviously snow melt run off I decided to take this opportunity to take a shower/bath. That water was COLD. Not that I wasn’t expecting it, but after less than a minute in it my legs were numb. Probably not the best idea to get into water this cold at 10, 568 feet above sea level as a flat lander, but it was nice to feel clean again.

After I regained feeling in my extremities I aired down for the first time on this trip, and off we went. Knowing we would be here for a few days it was worth it to air down, and the ride was soooo much better. Should have done it before, but I didn’t want to air back up. The weather looked perfect today, so we were going to head into Silverton and do the Alpine loop. I was pretty excited!

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We got started on the road towards Animas Forks, which starts out smooth, but gets pretty rough as you go further. We were following an ATV, going right at the speed limit. The ATV stopped when there was another ATV and pickup stopped in the road and the rider got off and started walking towards us. I realized now he was a ranger and was thinking “What did I do wrong?” I rolled the window down and he said “Just a friendly reminder, the speed limit here is 15 mph. Well maybe you can go a little faster, but 15 mph.” With a quick yessir we were on our way. This wouldn’t be the first time we would see him.

Now we were on the first trail of the day, Engineer Pass.

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We started up the trail, taking in the amazing scenery. We took our time, not going fast or anything. Then a mile or two into the trail that ranger comes flying by us on his ATV. Alright…

There was a lot of traffic coming downhill at this part of the trail so I pulled off and let them go by while we stopped to catch our breath, from the altitude and the scenery…

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They cleared out and we started to make our way up. There was a full-size Chevy coming down the trail. Not sure how he was going to fair through some of the tighter areas, but that’s not my concern. The 4Runner handled it with ease.

We stopped at this large amount of snow to get a picture next to the 4Runner. Unknowingly this would be nothing compared to what we would see later.

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Still climbing at a good rate I saw another ATV coming up behind me so I pulled over to let him pass. It was another Ranger. And he once again stopped at my window… I rolled it down and he says “Roll Tide!” and drives off. No matter how hard I try I can’t get away from Alabama…

We made it to the top, and waited for the Jeeps to leave. It was just us for a brief moment so I pulled up next to the sign and got my obligatory picture. And a few more.

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An older couple was up there in a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee. I asked if they were from around here, and he said they were form Dallas, but they had been coming up here for 35 years. I figured he knew a little about the area so I asked him some questions about Cinnamon Pass and American Basin. We were having a nice conversation about the scenery and such when his wife walks up and says “When he dies I’m gonna spread his ashes up here.”

Uhmmm. Nice to meet you too…

They went back down the Lake City side, and we stayed at the top to eat lunch. A young couple pulled up and asked us to take their picture. We probably left a great impression of Alabama, my friend was wrist deep in a salsa jar and I had just closed the peanut butter and had the spoon we used to spread it in my mouth. I asked if they wanted me to move my truck and they said no. They probably wanted to get away from us redneck folk.

They went back down the Lake City side as well. We got back in the truck and headed down. Just a few minutes down the trail we got stuck behind the older couple and the younger couple as well. The old man had told me he couldn’t figure out the 4-wheel drive in his new Jeep and he was going about 2 mph downhill. They were nice enough to pull off and let the younger couple and us pass, and then the younger couple let us pass as they were in a stock Jeep Cherokee.

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We made our way down headed towards Schafer Gulch. I figured we’d go explore it a little. We got to a creek crossing that I was having trouble seeing how deep it was. Then two ATV’s pulled up behind us. It was the two rangers from earlier. They asked if there was a problem, I said no, just trying to see how deep it is. They pulled closer and the one said “You want to go first or me first, Tim?!” Tim replied “You’ve got the diff lock, you go first! I’ve got the winch so I can pull this Toyota through.” So off the first one went, followed by Tim. They were nice enough to wait on the other end to make sure I made it through, which I did no problem. I gave them a thumbs up and off they went. Here’s a little video of them crossing.

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I ended up following them a pretty good ways down the trail. It was a nice trail, good scenery, and a little rougher and more challenging then engineer pass. A few tight switch backs and some off-camber stuff cut into the trail from water runoff.

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After a few miles, we decided to turn around. Looking at the GPS it looked like this trail took you back towards the beginning of Engineer Pass which we didn’t have time to do. We had a lot of ground to cover today. Crossing the creek again.

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We finished up Engineer Pass, got on pavement in Lake City for a couple miles, and then it was back to dirt on Cinnamon Pass. The weather was starting to do afternoon Colorado things again so we didn’t stop as much to take pictures, but did manage to get a few.

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We took the turn off for American Basin, which is also where Handies Peak is. I had read this was one of the easiest 14ers to summit in Colorado, so I was thinking it would be a couple hours to go up and down. The weather wasn’t looking great, but we still had what we thought would be enough daylight so we parked and started to get ready.

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There was one Tacoma parked there, and I could see them walking down towards their truck. I figured I’d ask their opinion on whether or not it was doable today. He had some hiking stickers on his truck so I figured he would be knowledgeable. I walked up to them to ask a few questions and then it started to rain lightly. After talking to him and him telling us it took them 6 hours to go to the top and back I figured it would be best that we just continue on Cinnamon Pass, rather than get stuck somewhere on the mountain with fading light and storms rolling in.

And roll in they did. We left American Basin and started up the switchbacks up to the top of Cinnamon Pass. Before reaching the pass I had to stop and get a picture next to the “snowplow” they use to clear these trails...

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And take a couple pictures of some more Marmots. These were interesting little creatures. Never seen them before, we don’t have them down south. We had no idea what they were until reading a sign at American Basin.

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I also thought this was pretty interesting and we saw it everywhere in Colorado. The water running underneath the snow melting it, but leaves the top part of it. Making a snow bridge of sorts. We saw some that were much larger going over full blown creeks, but it’s easy to see what I’m talking about in this picture.

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Finally, we crested the pass, right as the rain started to come down. It started as a light sprinkle, but turned into a pretty good rain. I snapped a few more pictures and hopped in the truck, ready to begin our descent down Cinnamon pass. I only got a few pictures coming down Cinnamon Pass since it was raining.

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Don’t eat the pink snow.

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We got to the bottom and the rain had cleared out. We sat in Animas Forks for a while, trying to figure out our plans for the rest of the day and where we would be camping. We picked a spot off one of the trails near Silverton, I can’t remember the name now, but it’s in the Charles Wells book. The next stop was Silverton, we needed a couple things from the grocery store and wanted to stop by a souvenir shop to grab a T-shirt. We were browsing through the shirts when I heard someone talking to the owner about a trail opening for the first time today. While paying I asked what trail they were talking about and he said the lady had told him Imogene Pass had opened up today! Those plans we made at Animas Forks, throw them out the window. Imogene Pass was back on the itinerary. I had lost hope that this one would be open after all the reading I did about the huge snows this year and how the Telluride side of these passes seems to take forever to get plowed. I had even called Ranger offices during my drive up to Colorado and they all seemed pessimistic that it would be opened this week.

We left the store and popped in at the general store there in town. After a quick review of the map I figured the best course of action would be to camp near Ophir Pass and take that over into Telluride and then get on Imogene in Telluride and ride it back over towards Ouray/Silverton.

Leaving Silverton I gassed up and probably had the worst gas mileage I think I had recorded yet. Closer to 5 MPG than 10 MPG… All that 4Lo action really does a number on your gas mileage. We set our sights towards Ophir Pass, keeping it slow on pavement since I wasn’t going to air up for a few miles of pavement.

We pulled off near a power station where there was supposed to be a camp site, which there was but it was close to the road and didn’t have the views we wanted. Moab and the Rockies have made me into a campsite elitist of sorts, only the best will do. So we drove a little further and got onto Ophir Pass. We drove a couple miles up, when there was a tight trail going off to the left. Seemed like a decent place to explore. We pulled in and it took us into a very tight switchback that was a little tricky because the road had a ditch cut into it from the runoff, but the 4Runner pulled through no problem. We passed two campsites hoping the higher we went, the better the views would get. Then we came across a 2nd Gen Tacoma parked off to the side, no people anywhere near though. I drove another hundred yards or so, through some nasty swampy mud, only to realize the road dead ended there. So now I backed through the mud and all the way out until it was wide enough to turn around.

We took a short side road that took us back to Ophir Pass and went a little further, finding another side road that would have had spectacular views, but there was no space on this road. I felt like I was driving a semi-truck down this road, but nope, just my little 3rd Gen 4Runner. After a while of going down roads like this part of you says, “Turn around, there won’t be anything” but another part of you says “Keep going, there will be something spectacular.”

Unfortunately, there was nothing spectacular. It dead ended at private property, which meant I now had the joy to turn around on this road. This was one of those times I truly appreciated the size of the 3rd gen.
We had lost pretty much all light at this point and decided the second spot we passed earlier was our best option. Up and through the tight switch back again and we were there. We set up camp, made dinner, had a few beers, looking up the entire time, admiring the beauty that surrounded us from all sides at nearly 11,500 feet.

Day 5

We hadn’t picked too bad of a site after all…

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Making breakfast in the crisp and refreshing Rocky Mountain air we continued to admire the surroundings. With Unner packed up and ready for today’s adventure we continued on Ophir Pass.

This trail was really not much of a trail more like a very rough gravel road, as evidenced by the Nissan Versa we passed on the way to the pass. We reached the top, and the views down into the valley were astounding.

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After this point the trail got much rougher, no way a versa was making it down this, unless you pushed it off the edge… There is no passing room on this side of the trail, only a few pull off spots. We got stuck here waiting for a few jeeps to make their way up. That was OK though, we had an OK view…

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We made it down off the really rocky section and the road levelled out some more. We passed through the tiny town of Ophir, noting how everyone had an insane amount of firewood stockpiled already. Then the road turned into something I was more used to seeing. Red dirt and muddy water… Unfortunately my pictures seem to be lacking on this trip, I need to remember to take more next time.

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We got on the highway for a few miles, going into Telluride. We stopped at the grocery store there, got some more water and got back in the 4Runner. The weather was starting to not look so great already and it was still fairly early in the day. I wasn’t going to let some cloud cover keep me from running Imogene Pass though.

The beginning of the pass had A LOT of traffic. All the tour guide companies were bringing their morning load of tourists down from the pass I suppose. Then we got stuck behind a Jeep that was completely decked out, but driving quite slow. He eventually pulled over and let us pass, as did another jeep we came up on. Now there was no one in front of us, and we were climbing fast.
Looking down over Telluride, and over towards Black Bear Pass. Another trail I was REALLY hoping would be open before I had to leave.

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Coming around this tight turn I was greeted by a JK. I pulled to the inside to let them pass on the outside, but they just kept coming. While we figured out how to get around this the people I passed earlier pulled right up on me. Great… We eventually got the people behind me to pull off to leave them just enough space to squeeze through. This neat tunnel was right past where this happened. I wanted to grab a picture from inside the tunnel, but since there were people behind me I just pushed through.

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Weather not looking great over towards Black Bear Pass.

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Some old mining area, getting close to the pass.

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I think I’ve got all that.

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The weather moving in towards us. And what the weather looked like in the direction we were going. The weather did add a pretty neat effect to some of the pictures though.

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And then suddenly I was in the biggest snow I’d ever seen. This is what they had plowed just the day before, and I’m still not sure how you go about plowing 20+ feet of snow. This was seriously cool to drive through.

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Keeping an eye on the weather, definitely don’t want to be at the summit when these storms roll through. I’d rather not be a lighting rod…

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The roads here are incredibly steep, not like Fins n Things, but the road can stay like this for several hundred yards. The pass is in sight now though.

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Boom!

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Looking towards Telluride.

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And back towards Ouray.

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It’s amazingly beautiful looking down from the top here, but it was also incredibly cold. The wind was wiping probably close to 40 MPH, plus it was pretty cold up there. The wind chill must have been in the 20’s. I couldn’t feel my ears after being outside for just a few minutes. In July…

Lots of other people pulled up to the sign now, so we headed out. I turned the heat on at this point too. A first for me in July… We drove a couple hundred yards and saw a little side shoot that went off to an overlook.

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A few glamour shots of the 4Runner.

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And some more pictures of the weather that was knocking on our door at this point. We were probably the only ones stupid enough to be on the mountain with the weather looking like this, but what can I say, we’re from Alabama.

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Some pictures on the way down. There were some optional lines that I took on the way down that made it pretty interesting. Plus creek crossings are always fun!

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And here the rain started coming down, HARD.

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It was pouring the rest of the way down. Which means not a whole lot of pictures. We did pass a group with a first gen 4Runner that were heading up. He was driving towards us with his window down in the pouring down and his hand out, like he wanted a high five. I rolled mine down, gave him a high five, and he said something to the effect of “4Runners Rule!”. If you’re on the forum mystery 4Runner owner, nice rig!

We made it to the end of the trail, a few places being a little slippery due to all the rain.

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Now we had to decide what to do. Ouray was the only city in the area we hadn’t been to yet, so I set my sights for that. We pulled into the city right as the rain stopped. We walked around, went in a few of the shops, and grabbed a delicious burger at Maggie’s Kitchen.

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The rain had stopped for a while, and it looked like there wasn’t any more on the way so it was time to go hit the dirt again. There were still a bunch of trails in the Animas Forks area that I wanted to run, but didn’t get a chance to earlier. So that was the plan.

Corkscrew Gulch was the first one we would do, and it would link us to a bunch of other ones I had wanted to run. We started off of the Million Dollar highway, below the treeline. We quickly made our way up in altitude, winding through the forest, which was actually a lot of fun. The trees started to clear out and the views started to become spectacular once again.

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It’s very red in this area, due to either Red Mountain 1 or 2. I’m not sure which is which. The various terrains in Southwest Colorado are amazing. Once second it’ll be red, then it’ll be this sandy stuff, then it’ll be rocks, and then you’ll be on regular brown dirt. Or snow.

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This took us to another overlook. We could only drive so far, but hiked the rest of the way up. It’s amazing what the altitude does to you. I couldn’t move too fast or I felt like I was gonna pass out. Or maybe it was the scenery taking my breath away.

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The wildflowers, well I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

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All red on one side, all green on the other.

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Onto Hurricane Pass we went, and off onto another side trail we also went. This one took us up through some tight switch backs, and then onto an extremely loose and steep road. It’s slightly unnerving feeling rocks move under the weight of your vehicle, but never the less we made it up. The trail was blocked here by snow, but there was a path around (legal, it was to a campsite right here), but it was an extremely steep not so easy looking entrance. I know I could make it down, because gravity still works at elevation, but I wasn’t sure I’d make it back up and there were no good winch points. Since we were alone I decided it was best to leave it for another day.

The view from up here where you can see the trail winding through the mountains was magnificent.

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Back onto the main trail we went. The combination of rocks, blue skies, snow, water, wildflowers, and a brilliant sun make this place truly magical.

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We summited Hurricane Pass, and I got my obligatory picture at with the sign.

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Looking down into a lake that probably sees very little sun. There was still a lot of ice in this little lake. But the water was so amazingly clear.

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It was interesting as well that they chose to use large branches to mark where the signs were, rather than a long piece of metal. Some of these didn’t stick up very straight as you can see…

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Some more marmots, they’re fun little creatures, it’s hard to believe they can be so destructive.

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Next stop, California Pass. There was a neat little hiking trail up to a higher vantage point. This put us up over 13,000 feet again. And also left me out of breath.

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The views from here were spectacular though.

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The contrast of the tiny flowers that only get to live for a couple months out the year, against the huge towing mountains that are millions of years old makes for bucket list scenery.

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