Colorado Questions: Telluride, Silverton, Ouray, Montrose areas...

This thread is freaking awesome. Thank you all so much for this information!!!!

I’m hoping 5 days in the mountains will be enough time!
 
I’ve seen stock suburbans on black bear. And to tell you the truth it would not bother me a bit to do it in one. But I have done a shit ton of trails. First time I did it was in a stock Suzuki samurai with the wife and 3 kids. Little hairy but cool as hell. Lower all ways feels better. My driveway in Colorado is worse than any of those trails.
 
FleshEater said:
This thread is freaking awesome.
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Yes it is. It has answered a ton of questions I have had about the area, I'm hoping to get out there in 2022/23.

What is the consensus about running most of these in a 3/4 ram with 37s and lockers, possibly with a truck camper? It sounds like they are easy enough, I'm just wondering about the switchbacks and overall tightness.
 
I went on a “Full-size” invasion run on blackbear once. You are challenging yourself for sure as that’s the point. The switchbacks are more time consuming but it was fun. Longest truck in the group was a Cummins Ram 2500 extra cab short bed on 37’s. Another was a Chevy single cab long bed on 35’s. No issues just takes longer and spotting is definitely required.
 
Thank you Sceep for the recommendation of Lake City! Just called and spoke with the owner, and pretty sure he has cabins available for our dates!

You guys from CO and stuff that are used to these big mountains and "shelf roads" as ya'll call them don't understand that those of us from the east have never seen things like this before. Off camber situations in those aren't in my comfort zone. We have ledges in WV that we ride on some gnarly trails, and don't think anything of it, but that's because the brush hides the steepness and you can't see all the way down! Couple the absolute sheer plummet of your cliffs, with the fact you can see the whole way down, and 10,000+ elevation...and it's not exactly what I would call comforting. I'd probably feel more comfortable in a group, but alone, my first time ever getting into the rockies? No thanks.

I'll stick to the pussy stuff, and just take in the scenery! :flipoff2::laughing:
 
I was going to say, Lake City is cool but you are more than likely skipping imogene and probably definitely skipping Telluride. You are taking the Alpine Loop one leg or the other each day to get to the other side. Which if you are not wanting to drive on shelf roads that works out pretty well, you can run the south route to the Forks and then down into Silverton and hang out. Also if you are wanting to do one of the basins that is doable to run up the east half of Imogene where you aren’t on ledges and check it out and then turn around and come back down into Ouray and get a beer at the brewery
As far as off-camber to the edge, not really. Most of it is 20 foot wide and about perfectly flat. The first time we did it we ran west to east so the passenger side was looking at the drop off the whole time and that’s what messed her up :laughing: Going east to west she is against the bank and it is a lot better. Again they drive a damn dozer with Steel grousers up on it all the time and it never slides off so it is definitely not off camber
 
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Lots of fun little trails in the Montrose area. This trail is about 10 minutes from my office and only takes about an hour to run both ways.

If you are spending some time in Ouray, Box Canyon Falls is pretty neat and the Hot Springs pool is pretty relaxing.

If you do any fishing, the Uncompahgre river north of Ridgway has great trout.

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I envy you getting to see this place for the first time. I drove over Imogene for the first time in 1997, been over it countless times since. While it never gets old, my favorite part about traveling any of these trails is taking someone for their first time. You’re going to be blown away by what you see, LakeCity and the alpine loop are great places to start!

If you can make time go up and see the actual Eureka mine, it’s between Animas Forks and Silverton when your on the Silverton side. No shelf roads. But when you look at that stuff, imagine what kind of effort it took to haul all that cement and iron up there in the late 1800’s with just men mules and carts.
 
I was just going to come here and ask you guys about staying in Lake City. Is it further than 1.5 hours to Silverton running the Alpine Loop every day? Or should I just book in Montrose?

EVERYTHING is booked up in Silverton, Telluride, and Ouray, except town homes, and we're not into staying at those, stacked in a yuppie area like sardines.

Camping is currently out. The wife wants to get the boys camping frequently close to home before we try to do it 28 hours from home. :laughing:
 
JR4X said:
I envy you getting to see this place for the first time. I drove over Imogene for the first time in 1997, been over it countless times since. While it never gets old, my favorite part about traveling any of these trails is taking someone for their first time. You’re going to be blown away by what you see, LakeCity and the alpine loop are great places to start!

If you can make time go up and see the actual Eureka mine, it’s between Animas Forks and Silverton when your on the Silverton side. No shelf roads. But when you look at that stuff, imagine what kind of effort it took to haul all that cement and iron up there in the late 1800’s with just men mules and carts.
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You got me a little concerned about the railroad tie bridge, but it sounds like Imogene Pass is definitely doable. Let me get used to running these mountains, get comfortable with everything, and then I should be fine tackling this stuff. I haven't wheeled a full size vehicle in over 10 or 12 years. Usually running SXS's and ATV's for the last 5 years...so...I don't need to die from a heart attack on these white knuckle shelf roads right off the bat. :lmao:
 
JR4X said:
If you can make time go up and see the actual Eureka mine, it’s between Animas Forks and Silverton when your on the Silverton side. No shelf roads. But when you look at that stuff, imagine what kind of effort it took to haul all that cement and iron up there in the late 1800’s with just men mules and carts.
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:( not a lot left of the Sunnyside mine in Eureka. If thats the one you are talking about.
Some wicked history on that one.https://www.legendsofamerica.com/eureka-colorado/

Excerpt: "On Sunday, June 4, 1978, at approximately 6:50 p.m., the lake broke through into the mine, dumping its entire contents, estimated to have been 500 million gallons of mud and water, into the mine. The violent rush of water blew out of the two-mile-long American and one-mile long Terry Tunnels. At the American Tunnel portal at Gladstone on the other side of the mountain, water flowed from the mine in 8-10 foot waves, filled with mine timbers, equipment, and debris. A 20-ton Plymouth Locomotive parked below the main ore pass was completely flattened. Fortunately, because this accident occurred on a Sunday, the mine was closed, and no one was inside working. Had it happened on any other day, as many as 125 men would have been killed in the violent inrush of mud and water."
 
FleshEater said:
I was just going to come here and ask you guys about staying in Lake City. Is it further than 1.5 hours to Silverton running the Alpine Loop every day? yes

Or should I just book in Montrose? No. IMO. I haven't ever been on any of the trails near montrose that others have posted though. Looks like there might be a lot of stuff to do up there.
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:usa:
 
Sceep said:
:( not a lot left of the Sunnyside mine in Eureka. If thats the one you are talking about.
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Yes that’s what I’m talking about. Forgot that Eureka was the mill and that Sunnyside was the mine.

Straight north up the mountain out of Eureka was the Sunnyside mine. There was a trolley that carried ore carts from the mine down to the mill. The main tower is still standing at the top that was the main anchor for miles of cable and tons of baskets. That tower/anchor is enormous because it was the main one holding all the weight from coming down the mountain, but that’s not the impressive part. There is another trolley station anchored into the side of the cliff halfway down from the top. All of the materials to build that were hauled to Silverton I believe by narrow gauge train. Then hauled the rest of the way by mule and cart. The cast iron cable wheels are still up there, the cable is still there. The amount of weight moved up there without the luxury of the internal combustion engine is staggering when you stand back and look at it.
 
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I did Imogene on a dirt bike last July. It was on a Wednesday and the trail was packed with jeeps and utvs. There were also 2 stock pickups a Chevy and a Ford 1/2 tons. It is really just a dirt road, there are a couple places that get a little narrow, the jeeps had to take their time passing in those sections. I went around them on the bike. My wife had been up the trail a few time in the past, she had no desire to run any of the mountain passes again. Truthfully I wouldn't either if not on a bike. What took the jeeps all day took me under an hour. The rest of our 2 week stay in CO was spent on single tracks and away from the crowds. It is beautiful up there and a lot of peeps are there to see it too.

For research purposes
https://youtu.be/erffBty7crE

The first 6:40 minutes my FIL is following me and I am moving slow waiting for him. He gets to a point on the trail and says "you take it from here". Speed picks up and I start doing a lot of passing.
This was my first ride on this new bike.
 
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72blazer said:
You’re going from Arkansas to Montrose to San Juan Mountains to Moab. Make up your fawkin’ mind :flipoff2:
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What the heck, dude...once you drive 28 hours, 3 hours to Moab is nothing. 12 hours in a vehicle in the Rocky Mountains is nothing. When we ride WV we spend 12-15 hours in a SXS running 120-160 miles of trails each day.
 
BarfBag said:
that would be a long ass day if you wanted to do anything in Moab
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Yeah this is what I was getting at. We split our week in half for Colorado and Moab. I wish we coulda spent more time in both. I shoulda probably just focused on one as everything felt rushed but in the end we got to experience the best of both worlds.
 
We did a similar trip last August. We camped near Silverton and day tripped into Euray.

I was in my stock F150 FX4 crew and never had any issues.

The Alpine loop is nice and scenic. There were some areas where it is a tight squeeze while passing traffic, but otherwise the trails are fairly wide.

I wanted to run Imogene while there but couldn't fit it in among out other planned activities. I hope to get back there someday with specific intention to run the trails.
 
DirtRoads said:
Yes it is. It has answered a ton of questions I have had about the area, I'm hoping to get out there in 2022/23.

What is the consensus about running most of these in a 3/4 ram with 37s and lockers, possibly with a truck camper? It sounds like they are easy enough, I'm just wondering about the switchbacks and overall tightness.
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I passed thru a few years ago (Aug 2016) in my PW on 37s. Camped north of Durango (back down some dirt roads behind Purgatory Ski Resort). Breakfast in Silverton. Wandered some side trails on my way towards Ouray/Engineer. Started up Engineer Pass to do the Alpine over 2 days was the plan. Rain, then snow moved in as I climbed to the pass. Continued down the other side to Lake City. All my gear had gotten wet, so bailed to Moab for the rest of the week.

Had zero issues/concerns with the roads/trails I took solo. Hell, passed a few Jeeps/FJ Cruisers cause I was cruising so well.

edit: 8/23/16 at the Engineer Pass sign
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72blazer said:
Yeah this is what I was getting at. We split our week in half for Colorado and Moab. I wish we coulda spent more time in both. I shoulda probably just focused on one as everything felt rushed but in the end we got to experience the best of both worlds.
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Well, I'm glad I searched the address for the place in Montrose. It was a cabin on the river...the pics were very deceiving as there's a Target and shopping center right across from it all! It was almost in down town Montrose.

Still looking for something close to Silverton. Lake City sounds nice, but is a haul over to everything I want to do.
 
Ouray was my favorite trip I’ve done. We did all the trails including black bear pass in a stock 2 door JK I rented at the Denver airport and never had an issue.
 
A couple of items to be aware of : Uphill traffic has the right-of-way unless its impractical or unsafe (a LOT of people on the trails either don't know this or just don't give a shit).
One other thing that can be aggravating is the assholes that run the commercial "Jeep Tours". They are now using full-size Dodge Ram pickups with stadium seating in the back and they pretty much act like they own the trails. :rolleyes:
 
planefixer said:
A couple of items to be aware of : Uphill traffic has the right-of-way unless its impractical or unsafe (a LOT of people on the trails either don't know this or just don't give a shit).
One other thing that can be aggravating is the assholes that run the commercial "Jeep Tours". They are now using full-size Dodge Ram pickups with stadium seating in the back and they pretty much act like they own the trails. :rolleyes:
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I am use to running Hatfield trails in WV. The things you guys bitch about seem doable to me. Sure beats some jack ass on an ATV riding your bumper up a hill, or numbnuts doing full throttle around a one lane 180 degree turn in a mountain. :laughing:

These passes according to everyone here are like dirt roads, so not yielding to uphill traffic on a dirt road is just meh.
 
planefixer said:
A couple of items to be aware of : Uphill traffic has the right-of-way unless its impractical or unsafe (a LOT of people on the trails either don't know this or just don't give a shit).
One other thing that can be aggravating is the assholes that run the commercial "Jeep Tours". They are now using full-size Dodge Ram pickups with stadium seating in the back and they pretty much act like they own the trails. :rolleyes:
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We ran into both of these problems on imogene pass. Going uphill from the Telluride side. My buddy leading had to get off and give some etiquette to the tacoma at the front of the group. We ran into the dodge pickup without a problem.
 
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