CO trip

[Posimoto]

Vid

[Posimoto]

At 13,000ft



I'll post Monday's trail ride soon.

[Bluerocket]

They have a much better system to prevent texting and driving out west,  same thing in Wyoming/Oregon you can drive right off a cliff if you so chose.

[Posimoto]

Silverton

[Posimoto]

When we were returning from poughkeepsie gulch heading to Silverton we went by the gold King mine. At that time workers were cleaning out the mine waste.  A week after we went by there the toxins spilled into the Animas river.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/09/navajo-nation-epa-spill/31384515/

[98xj]

Great pictures Chuck! Thanks for sharing. Hope you were representing and wearing NEJZ tshirts!

What a terrible mistake the EPA made. Glad you were able to enjoy it before the accident. I love wheeling out in there.

Check out the Kokopelli Trail (CO to Moab - 142 miles)
Or the White Rim Road in Canyonlands, Utah.

These are both on my list to do. I did part of the White Rim Road as part of a day trip and it was awesome.

[Posimoto]

Travel days

Some of us arrived in Ouray on Saturday July 25th. This year we had 8 vehicles participate on the trail rides. Not everyone went on every trail ride. Usually we had 5 vehicles on a ride.

Ouray is a beautiful town in a box canyon.

[Posimoto]

Sunday, July 26th
Yankee Boy Basin and Governor Basin

[Posimoto]

We continued on to the base of Mount Sneffles. Actually our jeeps made it within 1.2 miles of the peak of the 14,158 foot high mountain.





After Yankee Boy Basin we headed up Governor Basin.





Governor Basin









With a little time left we took the long way back to Ouray. We took a tail that went on the top of a tall cliff that overlooked the Camp Bird Mine.

[Posimoto]

Monday, July 27th
Engineer Pass, Animas Forks Ghost Town, Hurricane Pass ,Corkscrew Pass, etc

Three miles south of Ouray we turned off highway 550 and onto Lower Engineer Pass trail. The path was very rocky right from the start.

I rented a 14 year old toy tj with bald street tire and a receiver hitch to rake in all the rocks and gravel. I totally thrashed it!

[Posimoto]

Next we headed down to Animas Forks Ghost town. Here we were inundated with ATVs and other jeeps. This area gets crowded this time of the year.

[Posimoto]

At the end of California Gulch we headed over California Pass

California Pass overlooks Lake Como at the south end of Poughkeepsie Gulch. We'll be going up Poughkeepsie Gulch later in the week.

After California Pass we didn't really descend much before going over Hurricane Pass.

Next we went over Corkscrew Pass.

[Posimoto]

Tuesday, July 28th
Blackbear Pass and Imogene Pass

We had a group of four jeeps as we headed over Blackbear pass.
Many people were hesitant about this trail.

We turned off highway 550 and started climbing BlackBear trail.







































The above pic is the old power station at the top of Bridal Veil Falls. The power station is now a private residence.

[Posimoto]

Blackbear pass descended into Telluride. Next we took Imogene Pass back to Ouray.
On Imogene Pass we climbed, climbed climbed up over Telluride.





















On Imogene pass we encountered a Wrangler that went off the trail.

[Posimoto]

Wednesday, July 29
Stony Pass, Beartown site, Kite Lake

Today we took the highway 20 miles to Silverton. From there we headed north. We locked into 4WD and headed over Stony Pass.



Things are different at this altitude, besides thin air your that much closer to the sun and will burn easy. I found myself a fishing hat that worked perfect.

A couple of weeks ago Pole Creek was impassible due to snow melt but the crossing wasn't bad today. My cousin wheeled today







Next we crossed the Rio Grande River. (the source of the Rio Grande River is Stony Pass)