4th of July in SW Colorado

[ur2ez22]

Clearly not the only post (even recently) about the SW Colorado area (Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, Lake City, etc.) but since this was my first trip with the new 4Runner I figured I'd post it anyways. My thanks to many of you have posted lots of helpful hints throughout various threads, hopefully this one will help some others who are thinking of heading up there to have several pieces of information in one common thread...

My beautiful wife and I headed up to Silverton the day before 4th of July for a few days to have some fun breaking in the new 4Runner (had 380 miles when we left home). Truck is nothing like many inspirational ones on here, but it does have the ToyTec Ultimate lift kit, Konig Countersteer wheels with 285/70/17 Duratrac tires, Budbuilt bumpout sliders and Weathertec floormats (not a "mod" but man were they nice on a trip like this, Colorado gets rain every afternoon this time of year).

July 3rd
Ate dinner at Serous Texas BBQ when we got into Durango, nice people and great food. Will definitely eat there again, ribs were great! Then we headed through the mountains to Silverton and checked out each of the two campgrounds they have (one off 10th St, another off 14th St). It was a little after 10pm when we got there, and the check-in tables weren't being manned so we couldn't pay. Drove in anyways thinking that we could pay if someone came around checking or when we left in the morning, couldn't find a spot at the 14th St campground but found lots of room at the back of the 10th St campground. Sheriff came around as we were setting up, flagged him down to see if he knew of a dropbox to pay and he told us to not worry about it unless we were asked. Fair enough...especially since we left in the morning before the check-in had anyone there.

July 4th
Woke up early to go run the 4th of July 5k race...debated the 10k race, but wasn't sure what 9,300 ft elevation would do to our lungs. About 1/4 mile into the 5k we had our painful answers, and while our times were way off what we're used to it was one of the prettiest runs we've ever done and I'm proud of my wife for finishing in 3rd place for the women! The rest of the day we walked around town checking out the shopping stuff, watched the parade and fireman water fight, took a nap in the car during the daily afternoon rains, ate some great homemade Strawberry Rhubarb pie at Memorial Park, and enjoyed dinner at Grumpy's saloon and restaurant. After that, we found a spot up on a hill above Memorial Park, set up the chairs and watched a great fireworks display. I highly recommend spending the 4th in Silverton, although I hate saying that because I don't know how much busier that place could get - it was PACKED!

 

[ur2ez22]

July 5th

Decided to start out the trip with the Alpine Loop. Headed up towards Animas Forks and then to Engineer Pass. This trail isn't too difficult, but there were a few learning moments as I adjusted to the new truck (took me awhile to stop questioning just how great this thing is...). That dropped us into Lake City where we connected to Cinnamon Pass to head back up and over to Silverton. We also did Wager Gulch, which gives you Carson Ghost Town as a cool reward. This route has some amazing scenery, and it was hard to beat all the wildlife as well! Once we finished airing back up we headed over to Ouray and found a camp spot just before you get into town off Camp Bird road.

 

[ur2ez22]

July 6th

Since we were already on Camp Bird road, this left us with a great morning start to warm up on Yankee Boy Basin...which again has some amazing views (sensing a theme for this area yet?). The road was open past the gate mentioned in Charles Wells guidebook, but we ran into a ranger a little bit further up who wasn't letting anyone past due to some snow still blocking the road. Headed back down and connected to Imogene Pass. The creek at the start of this trail (or end of trail if you're following the guidebook) was definitely intimidating as I'm not used to dealing with water much in AZ, but probably shouldn't have worried about it as much as I did. About a mile or two into this trail, shortly before starting uphill on the "steeper, rockier north side" Wells mentions he prefers going downhill on in his book, the afternoon rains came in strong. But the truck never flinched, never slipped, nothing...this trail in the rain gave me some true appreciation for what I assume is just scratching the surface on this truck! There wasn't anything particularly difficult about this trail, especially with the added clearance and tires I have, but it was a lot of fun and probably ranks as my favorite trail from the trip. Was considering doing Black Bear Pass instead, but it wasn't open yet since they had a lot of snow still blocking the trail (probably a good thing since I'm still getting familiar with the truck). Once we were done, we found ourselves dropping into Telluride (with some amazing views coming down) in time to enjoy the free ski lift ride up to the top, took that over to Mountain Village, and were enjoying that area so much we decided to take advantage of a great walk-in rate at The Peaks Resort for the night instead of using the Telluride campground.





Wife didn't want me jumping in...






Kinda gassed it towards the end since the water was flowing pretty good. I'm sure I wasn't going anywhere, but every time we get that wet stuff in AZ it comes with news footage of cars being swept away by it...

 

[ur2ez22]

July 7th

Slept in later than we'd planned, then swam some laps and relaxed in the outdoor hot tub at the resort, but none of these trails take a tremendous amount of time as long as you start a trail from the town you spent the night near. First we headed up to Alta Lakes, and just as we were turning off the highway it started hailing on us! We were getting used to the afternoon rains, but hail?!? In July?!? Haven't washed the truck yet to make sure there's no damage, and I'm sure it's fine...but the hail was nearly 1cm in diameter. Only lasted about 5-10 minutes before turning into the familiar rain. The trail itself is a boring sedan-friendly dirt road, unless you decide to take the maze of trails back behind the lakes...these were full of slippery mud, tight turns with thick trees, and roots getting in your way. Finally a little fun!




From there we went back to the highway and jumped on Ophir Pass towards Silverton. Not a difficult trail at all, but getting to the Pass was a little annoying with a narrow-but-more-annoying-than-anything-else loose rock section. Instead of going into town, we turned into the Red Mountain Mining area trails. Again, not difficult trails by any means although I definitely see why the guidebook says "do not drive this route during wet periods" since the trail near the top is a thick, sloppy clay mud! Hadn't aired down at first since it seemed like a day of easy trails, but once I did things stopped being so slippery. If you don't have good off-road tires, I would follow Wells guidance about not doing that trail when it's wet...that clay mud mixed with a narrow switchback trail and steep slopes could be a recipe for disaster without good grip. All of the mining areas were awesome to check out though. Once done, we headed out through Ouray and down to Ridgway where I'd already booked us a night at a log cabin via Airbnb. We were going to check out Orvis Hot Springs after eating at True Grit (nothing to write home about), but we were so tired we just passed out before heading home the next morning.





Clay mud up on Red Mountain is thick and slick, wouldn't recommend this otherwise tame trail for anyone without good off-road tires if it's wet...

 

[ur2ez22]

Tips to Know...

- Every gas station seems to have free air for airing back up...definitely faster than the Viair P300 I'd bought so I think I'll return that and try to get the ARB twin compressor or something for under the hood.

- Silverton is CROWDED, and don't even think about getting in/leaving the night of the 4th. The line of cars from nearby towns coming in/leaving for the fireworks show was bumper to bumper for at least an hour before the show and another hour after the show (actually, the line of cars hardly stopped during the show, it just changed directions as people shifted from coming in late to leaving leaving early thinking that would beat the traffic).

- The Charles Wells guidebook is invaluable. The ratings are spot on, the little comments/tips are spot on, the turn-by-turn mileage log made it impossible for my beautiful but self-admitted bad navigator wife to not be a great navigator even though we seemed to do most trails backwards, etc. Already ordered his book for Arizona and will definitely be ordering the Moab book before we head up there this fall.

- Every morning is sunny, beautiful, and just as it starts to get uncomfortably hot...it starts raining. That'll last for 2-4 hours before it clears up and turns into an incredibly comfortable evening.

- Lots of great little restaurants in these towns. We'd packed enough food to eat all our meals out in the camp areas but ended up bringing most of it back since we like trying new places, especially non-chain restaurants. Won't bother packing nearly as much food next time.

- If you enjoy wildlife, take your time and look around. You'll find rock chucks and deer even if you're not looking, but there's a lot more to be found if you pay close attention!

If anyone thinks of any questions as you're considering a trip like this just ask, or if you have additional tips to share feel free to add to this thread!

 

[Desert Fox]

Nice writ up. Looks like you had a great trip. That is my favorite area here in Colorado. I would love to have a BnB with a car wash and 4 stall auto shop in Ouray, just for the off roading events.

I will be there Tuesday for the FJ Summit. My mind has been there all week.

 

[ToyotaDoodz]

- Every gas station seems to have free air for airing back up...definitely faster than the Viair P300 I'd bought so I think I'll return that and try to get the ARB twin compressor or something for under the hood.

- Silverton is CROWDED, and don't even think about getting in/leaving the night of the 4th. The line of cars from nearby towns coming in/leaving for the fireworks show was bumper to bumper for at least an hour before the show and another hour after the show (actually, the line of cars hardly stopped during the show, it just changed directions as people shifted from coming in late to leaving leaving early thinking that would beat the traffic).

- The Charles Wells guidebook is invaluable. The ratings are spot on, the little comments/tips are spot on, the turn-by-turn mileage log made it impossible for my beautiful but self-admitted bad navigator wife to not be a great navigator even though we seemed to do most trails backwards, etc. Already ordered his book for Arizona and will definitely be ordering the Moab book before we head up there this fall.

- Every morning is sunny, beautiful, and just as it starts to get uncomfortably hot...it starts raining. That'll last for 2-4 hours before it clears up and turns into an incredibly comfortable evening.

- Lots of great little restaurants in these towns. We'd packed enough food to eat all our meals out in the camp areas but ended up bringing most of it back since we like trying new places, especially non-chain restaurants. Won't bother packing nearly as much food next time.

- If you enjoy wildlife, take your time and look around. You'll find rock chucks and deer even if you're not looking, but there's a lot more to be found if you pay close attention!

If anyone thinks of any questions as you're considering a trip like this just ask, or if you have additional tips to share feel free to add to this thread!

Great write-up and pics! I recognized every pic location. Looks like you had a great time

The water crossing at the start of Imogene was a lot deeper two weeks ago. We got a tight grip on our rears and crossed the rickety looking bridge which is stronger than it looks.

You should be glad you had the afternoon showers. We had none for 7 days and the DUST was awful. It was like a fine talc. By the end of each day, the back glass was totally obscured. Even at altitude and 48° in the passes, we'd have the A/C or vent going because of the dust. Unlike June, the afternoon showers in July and August make it much better.

The 5th Gen does great on these trails. I was impressed with mine with just tires and no lift.

Great trip report.