Colorado Looking for help from my CO buddies

NashvilleTJ

NashvilleTJ

I miss the snow...
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Last summer I and several buddies did an adventure motorcycle trip through Colorado. We did the Colorado Back Country Discovery Route (BDR) which goes from Wyoming down through central CO to New Mexico, almost all off road. It goes up and over many of the coolest passes in CO: Cottonwood, Cumberland, Engineer, Cinnamon, Black Bear, Ophir and many others. Spectacular trip.

I’ve always wanted to take my wife back there to show her some of those passes we did, and show her a little of the BDR. In a few weeks we are going to do just that. But I’m not taking the LJ because it’s not my intent to do any heavy wheelin.’ So I picked up a Grand Cherokee Overland with the air suspension to make the trip.

We are staying in the Breckenridge area for three or four days, and then heading down to the Ouray / Telluride area for three or for more. My plan is to hit Cottonwood (paved now, was not the first time we hit it a few years ago), Cumberland, maybe Engineer. I’d also like to roll through Tin Cup. Not Black Bear, and probably not Ophir. Going to play it a bit by ear while we are out there. We will be alone, so I don’t want to do anything which could cause too much trouble. I also know some of the passes may still be closed for snow.

A long winded build up to my question for my CO buddies. Any recommendations on some good passes or trails to hit or avoid in the GC while in the area? And feedback or caution given our current plan?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Just watch the weather, It can snow a good bit in the high country in June. The Grand Cherokee is a good choice if you encounter snow as I would guess it will do better than the TJ in those conditions, especially if it is AWD.
 
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Another good one near Breck is Swan River. Nothing technical, but the scenery is great.

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The trails in Ouray/Telluride are not technical at all. Unless your wife is afraid of heights (shelf roads). Ophir, Alpine, Engineer, and Imogene are definitely worth doing if you are in the area. The county road and bridge are doing a hell of a job this year clearing out the snow and some of the high elevation passes are open already.
 
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Ouray is a crap shoot early in the season. While not a trail, if you like mines and stuff you can visit the Yankee Girl mine. All the other trails are fun and even though groomed for tourism can still cause some rock rash on wheels if you aren't careful.
 
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It's been 3 years, but my memory of Tincup isn't something I would take a stockish rig on. It felt at least a step or two up from anything in the Ouray area other than Poughkeepsie Gulch. Though I went east, so I was going up the rockier side instead of down. And there is so much trail braiding that I never did figure out whether I accidentally took at least part of Old Tincup, which is a much more difficult section.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
It's been 3 years, but my memory of Tincup isn't something I would take a stockish rig on. It felt at least a step or two up from anything in the Ouray area other than Poughkeepsie Gulch. Though I went east, so I was going up the rockier side instead of down. And there is so much trail braiding that I never did figure out whether I accidentally took at least part of Old Tincup, which is a much more difficult section.
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I was thinking TIn Cup the town, which I think is on the road for Cumberland Pass. Is there a Tin Cup trail somewhere?
 
I believe Rimrocker trail is open..You could do part of it to Nucla and hiway back toward Ridgeway..Map is available off their site or in Montrose..
 
NashvilleTJ said:
I was thinking TIn Cup the town, which I think is on the road for Cumberland Pass. Is there a Tin Cup trail somewhere?
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Ah, yes. Tincup Pass runs between Tincup and St. Elmo. I made a loop out of it, Hancock Pass, and Cumberland Pass. You could also loop it or use as an alternative with Cottonwood Pass since it effectively does the same thing (runs between Buena Vista and Taylor Park).

https://www.trailsoffroad.com/trails/480-tincup-pass
but it's all kinda moot, since my whole point was that it might be a bit rough for a GC of any recent vintage. I wouldn't hesitate in a stockish TJ though. It's a fun little trail.
 
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If they are open, I would hit a few on the drive between Denver and Breck and then Breck and Ouray:

Denver -> Breck a few decent options:

* Guanella to Georgetown (paved, scenic byway)
-or-
* Boreas (dirt, but a stock suby could do it) - lots of aspens, nice views of Breck

Breck -> Ouray:

* Hoosier (paved, it's "parallel" to Boreas, but will be open year round (more or less) - this is going to be on your route between the two unless you choose to go to Leadville and run Mosquito Pass
* Alt: Mosquito (longer day, but a better pass if you want dirt - you'll want 4low but beyond that it's not too bad).

Most the rest of the way is paved, but you could choose to drop into Lake City (which is a really small town) and run part of the Alpine Loop to Ouray. Either Engineer Pass (which is great, but there are a few spots on the way out that may be a little tough if you take the northern most exit into Ouray) or Cinnamon Pass. There's a lot of cool mines throughout these.

I wouldn't think twice about taking a Grand Cherokee on any of these, at least usually. Sometimes the rain can change them up a bit.

I haven't done the others going into Telluride yet :(

Weather is going to be your enemy, assuming the snow has melted off - be sure to get on the road early and want to be off by the afternoon. Our storms roll in fast up there and things can go bad in a hurry.
 
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rasband said:
If they are open, I would hit a few on the drive between Denver and Breck and then Breck and Ouray:

Denver -> Breck a few decent options:

* Guanella to Georgetown (paved, scenic byway)
-or-
* Boreas (dirt, but a stock suby could do it) - lots of aspens, nice views of Breck

Breck -> Ouray:

* Hoosier (paved, it's "parallel" to Boreas, but will be open year round (more or less) - this is going to be on your route between the two unless you choose to go to Leadville and run Mosquito Pass
* Alt: Mosquito (longer day, but a better pass if you want dirt - you'll want 4low but beyond that it's not too bad).

Most the rest of the way is paved, but you could choose to drop into Lake City (which is a really small town) and run part of the Alpine Loop to Ouray. Either Engineer Pass (which is great, but there are a few spots on the way out that may be a little tough if you take the northern most exit into Ouray) or Cinnamon Pass. There's a lot of cool mines throughout these.

I wouldn't think twice about taking a Grand Cherokee on any of these, at least usually. Sometimes the rain can change them up a bit.

I haven't done the others going into Telluride yet :(

Weather is going to be your enemy, assuming the snow has melted off - be sure to get on the road early and want to be off by the afternoon. Our storms roll in fast up there and things can go bad in a hurry.
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Great info, thanks. We are actually staying in Lake City one night. There was a cool hotel with a great deck that we stumbled upon during the cycle trip. Beautiful ride going south into town.
 
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NashvilleTJ said:
Great info, thanks. We are actually staying in Lake City one night. There was a cool hotel with a great deck that we stumbled upon during the cycle trip. Beautiful ride going south into town.
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Lake City is definitely under recommended! (or maybe appropriately so to keep it so beautiful)
 
Georgia Pass > Boreas Pass > Hoosier Pass IMO...

Georgia Pass can connect into Middle Saint Vrain, Webster, Ect... You could spend all day above treeline in this area if you wanted to. Wouldn't recommend Redcone unless I'm not giving the GC it's due.

Another good one is Kingston Peak. Combined with a few other's it will get you into Rollinsville which is the east portal of the Moffat tunnel. Can also connect and take Rollins pass up above tree line to see the old train route.
 
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rasband said:
Most the rest of the way is paved, but you could choose to drop into Lake City (which is a really small town) and run part of the Alpine Loop to Ouray. Either Engineer Pass (which is great, but there are a few spots on the way out that may be a little tough if you take the northern most exit into Ouray) or Cinnamon Pass. There's a lot of cool mines throughout these.

I wouldn't think twice about taking a Grand Cherokee on any of these, at least usually. Sometimes the rain can change them up a bit.

I haven't done the others going into Telluride yet :(

Weather is going to be your enemy, assuming the snow has melted off - be sure to get on the road early and want to be off by the afternoon. Our storms roll in fast up there and things can go bad in a hurry.
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Cinnamon pass is currently open. It's the only through-pass I know of that's currently open all the way; everything else is either only open on one side or still closed. Hinsdale County (Lake City), Ouray County, San Juan County (Silverton), and San Miguel county (Telluride) do reasonably well with road status on their facebook pages, and trailsoffroad (which I linked earlier for tincup) does pretty good at updating the status as well.

I wouldn't take a GC down the western portion of Engineer (west of Animas Forks) unless you're ok with undercarriage and rocker contact. It's close to a full day, but you can leave Lake City and string together Engineer, a short connector road down to Animas Forks, and then over California Pass, Hurricane Pass, and down Corkscrew gulch to dump you out on US-550 between Ouray and Silverton. From there you can go just a few miles south and take Ophir and then some pavement around to Telluride, and near the Telluride airport is Last Dollar Road that is scenic, long, not super high altitude and dumps out on the highway a little west of Ridgway. Last Dollar can get muddy right after snow melt season, but I had my parents follow me over Ophir Pass and Last Dollar last year in a stock full size 4 door Chevy pickup, so a GC should have no problem at all as long as they're open.

I've never done Black Bear but after seeing 4Runners and FJ's tip over in the same spot every single year I'm not sure I'd take anything with IFS type travel down it, and it's usually one of the last to open. Imogene Pass is another option between Ouray and Telluride, but it goes over 13k feet and I would expect is one of the last to open, too. It seemed like last year San Miguel county was a little behind the other counties on getting them clear, and I don't know if that's typical. If they are open, a guy followed me over Imogene in a regular late model Cherokee, so a GC could do it's going to have the same rocker and undercarriage contact concerns as engineer. My cousin made regular use of the skidplates on his Tacoma (2" lifted on 31s) that day, and actually left a noticeable dent in one of them where he didn't have enough approach angle.
 
James C. said:
Georgia Pass > Boreas Pass > Hoosier Pass IMO...

Georgia Pass can connect into Middle Saint Vrain, Webster, Ect... You could spend all day above treeline in this area if you wanted to. Wouldn't recommend Redcone unless I'm not giving the GC it's due.

Another good one is Kingston Peak. Combined with a few other's it will get you into Rollinsville which is the east portal of the Moffat tunnel. Can also connect and take Rollins pass up above tree line to see the old train route.
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Red cone probably won't be open by then anyway and for sure webster won't be. That cornice is there until late june at least.
 
tworley said:
I have yet to run it myself but Schofield is always a highly recommended trail
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Scofield is usually snowed in until July. I've seen stock Lexus SUVs on it, but I suspect they were having a rough time.
 
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