SkyRat

I am going to be traveling to Colorado between June 21st and July 5. We are planning a full two weeks between getting there, wheeling and getting home. Last time we had Crested Butte as our destination with some great mountain biking. Wow, it was the trip of a lifetime and it is why we are heading back. We plan on spending most of our time around Ouray with stops in Grand Junction, Durango, Crested Butte and Moab. We want moderate trails (nothing tooooo scary).

If it were you:

1. What trails would you say are "no miss" trails, and why?
2. Would you include areas not listed above?

Darren

Sounds like a good itinerary, George!

Not sure how much time you'll have in any one of those areas, but here would be my thoughts:

1: For the San Juan Mountains area (Ouray, Silverton, Telluride), the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway (which includes Engineer and Cinnamon Passes) would be at the top of the list. That's 70-some miles of incredible views and is Colorado's most scenic route. Count on one full day for that. After that, my top choices would be Imogene Pass (which should open right around those dates) and Ophir Pass used as a return route. You could hit the two spurs off of Imogene, Yankee Boy and Governor Basins if you have time. California Pass, Hurricane Pass, and Corkscrew Gulch, which are back-to-back-to-back, and would round off the grand scenic tour in that region. If you have more time, I can give more suggestions. All the roads, save for Black Bear Pass, will have recently opened by this time, so you'll be rewarded with all the snow on the peaks so early in the season.

On the way to or from Crested Butte, I would highy recommend a stop in at Black Canyon National Park. It is quite awesome.

In the Crested Butte area, I would highly recommend Schofield Pass, though I'm not sure if it will be fully open then or not. It may not fit the "not too scary" criteria anyway, though. Otherwise, if you go up to the Marble and Crystal area, you can take the wonderfully scenic Lead King Basin road with a stop at the Crystal Mill, one of Colorado's icons. There are a couple of spur pass roads north of Crested Butte, but I'm not sure if they'll be open or not.

For the Moab area, I'm not the best resource for there, though you saw my recent reports from over there, and would certainly recommend those without a doubt.

2: Not sure what else to add off-hand, other than a must-stop in Telluride (though if you take Imogene/Ophir, you'll be there anyway), but I'm not sure Durango is worth a stop. The town isn't that scenic (just some high mesas surrounding it), but if you have the time or someplace you wanted to visit there, go ahead and check it out.

If you would like links or pictures to all the areas I mentioned, let me know and I'll round them up. I also have this excellent video, which covers a few of the trails in the Ouray area that you might like to view to get an idea of what to expect. I also have this one, but it primarily covers the mining ghost town history in the area, but pretty cool nonetheless. This offer is open to anyone.

SkyRat

Thanks for the input Darren.
We were there in mid July last year and the Schofield Pass was still closed. But, who knows. I am a bit leery of that road because of the fatalities I have read about there. Sounds spooky!! Last year it was blocked near Emerald Lake. We ran one great pass from Washington Gulch over to the East (I think?). The valley above gothic is one of the prettiest places I have ever been. Riding the MTB on the 401 trail with wildflowers as high as the handlebars is going to be hard to beat. I do want to see Marble. Some of our friends said that it was their favorite town. If the pass is closed, can we take the highway there right?

I did see your posts regarding Moab and looks like fun. I wrote down the trails you were on. I have about 2" of suspension lift and no lockers, but good 32" BFG AT KO's. We stopped in there last year too and it was just too hot to enjoy.

Durango is just a place we want to stop in because it was one of our fav's last year too. I don't know about wheeling there, but the Colorado Trail goes through there and we might take in a hike on the trail we biked last year.

The Ouray - Telluride - Silverton trails you mention sound great. I have read about them all in my Backcountry Adventures Guide, Nice to have confirmation from an on the ground source.

Do you know of any fun in the Grand Junction area?

Thanks!

Flygtenstein

Check out the CO4RJ write up from 2002, it was in the greater Ouray neighborhood.

The coolest thing I have found in Grand Junction is that it is the last place to get real beer on the way to Moab, but I have only been there a couple of times.

Other than that, listen to Darren. He is one of the best knowers of cool places to go in his state that I have ever seen.

SkyRat

Understood!

For me, Grand Junction is... just about as far as I can get in one day from LA without going nuts!

Darren

Thanks for the affirmation, Adrian!

George, I think all those deaths on Schofield were drivers from Iowa, not from California with some driving experience! You may have seen my report on that, but if not, here it is. Another trail with its largest online gallery.

Washington Gulch is a true hotspot for wildflowers and I'll definitely be there come mid-July.

Marble can be reached by going over Kebler (dirt) and McClure Passes (highway) which are part of the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway. I'm being redundant here, but those are grand as well. The Kebler Pass road goes through the largest, or second largest aspen forest in the world. Like your friends, Marble is my favorite small town/village in the state. I'm hoping to head over there in the next few weeks.

Your 4Runner is good to go on all of the trails I mentioned, including the Moab area ones.

As far as Grand Junction, I don't know much about what to do other than what Adrian mentioned. I only use it as a place to drive through on my way to somewhere else. Actually, I take that back. Colorado National Monument is right there, as is Rattlesnake Canyon.

Oh, and when in Telluride, be sure to take the free gondola ride, as it's the best ride in America. Well, Colorado at least! It goes to one of my favorite views.

crawler#976

don't forget the Creed/Lake City area- it has some great scenic trails too-

The Wheeler Geologic Area is awesome- it's a full day trip in and out. The access road is just north of Wagon Wheel Gap between South Fork and Creed.

http://parks.state.co.us/cnap/Natura...es/wheeler.htm

The Rat Creek Loop trail due north out of Creed is an easy, 4 hour scenic run to the Continental Divide. It's a 4x4 only off-shoot of the Bachelor Loop Scenic road. The local Orvis shop gave me directions to it-

A good resource is:

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/are...aid=CO&cu_id=1


We're going back in Sept., and this time I'm bring the trail rig

No more Jeep rentals for us..........felt like I had one leg and both hands tied behind my back.

enjoy!

bckpack

Hey Darren (or anyone else) I'll be heading up to the San Juans the last week of June myself, I asked about the best time to visit over on the Colorado Nature Photographers forum a few days ago. Anyway, I'll be spending the majority of my time on the area trails taking pics and camping. I'd like to spend a day in Telluride too. Do they have the ski runs open for mountain biking in Telluuride like some of the other resorts? Can I rent a mtn bike and transport it up the mountain on a lift/gondola for a ride back down? I don't see any related info on their website.

Since I'll be driving my Tacoma on the area trails the idea of biking uphill doesn't really excite me.

Darren

So you're the same guy over on CNP, eh?! Cool!

You can mount your bike on the racks on the outside of the gondola cabins and get off at the top. There's a road that switchbacks down the hill below the gondola, or to the other side to Mountain Village. Here's a link. Details are on the second one down. I'm not a mountain biker, so I haven't done either of them. I have walked the road back down into Telluride and that would definitely be an easy, yet cool, ride.

SkyRat

Darren I just spent an hour cruising your site. Great shots and captions. Thanks for documenting Schofield Pass so thoroughly. Very nice stuff and lots of good ideas.
Thanks

Flygtenstein

Darren, 10-4. I am going to need you to take some cool pics of my truck starting around September. Seriously though, I don't mean to be a brown noser, but you seem to know more about Colorado than I know about Wisconsin.

The Telluride area is cool. Check out the diner where we all signed the wall, that was a good time.

Bryce, Zion and Arches are all near Moab and well worth it. Lots of parks in close proximity each giving a little different feel.

SkyRat

Thanks,
I have used the SoCal version of the book. Aside from falling apart (that is okay, I later went to Office Max and had it spiral bound for $3!!) it is a terrific guide. I have also started using the Backcountry Adventure series and find it perfect. I have the CA and CO versions of the books. They give GPS for the major points on the route (without having to look them up in the back of the book) and give instructions on the trails from either direction. Great History and Info in them as well.

Jeff the marmot

OK, so I'm late in responding to this but I see it's another month before your trip.

Near Grand Junction, CO, the only trail I'm aware of that would be good for you and your 4Runner would be Battlement Mesa (or Battlement Resevoir). It's listed in one of the Charles Wells books. There's a short but challenging rock garden at the start that can be completely bypassed if you want. The rest of the trail would be rated about a 6 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. It's really not difficult as long as you avoid the few very deep mud holes near the top. The start of that trail is on the south side of I-70 in Parachute. So it's a ways east of Grand Junction.

As has been said already, Darren knows CO's 4x4 trails better than just about anybody. So he has good advice about what to see here.

For Moab I would highly recommend getting Charles Wells' Moab book. (You probably guessed someone would say that). His book is the "standard" there as well.

I assume there won't be another vehicle with you on the trails? If that's the case, having open diffs and no 2nd vehicle limits you from some of the harder trails. But the cool thing about Moab is that it definitely covers the widest range of 4 wheeling abilities of any location in the U.S. that I can think of. It has plenty of everything from gravel roads to extreme competition-class trails.

Some useful Moab websites:
www.moab-utah.com
www.moabdiningguide.com
www.moabhappenings.com

Here's a list of some 4x4 trails in Moab:
www.4x4now.com/mu4wd.htm

For a single vehicle with open diffs, here's my random Moab thoughts in reference to that list:

I'd say stick to anything that's rated a 3 (out of 5) in difficulty only due to your open diffs.
The 3-D trail is really a combination loop of about 3 trails that are listed in the Charles Wells book. I think two of them are called Bartlett Wash/Overlook and Hidden Canyon. Those have a great variety of scenery and a good variety of the 4 wheeling out there (slick rock, sand, very small ledges, etc). I recommend those.
Tusher Tunnel is also nearby the start of 3D although that trail isn't much for 4 wheeling but the tunnel is very cool to walk through.

Gemini Bridges is also good although I don't remember many obstacles. You get to see 2 large natural bridges.

I've always done the 4+ rated version of Behind the Rocks. I don't know how you'd do "Tip Toe" Behind the Rocks. But you'd get to see some cool obstacles if you do the 3 rated version.

Crystal Geyser is just a long drive with minimal scenery and the geyser only erupts something like once every 28 hours. Not really worth it so I don't recommend that one.

Fins & Things is one of the "classic" trails for first timers in Moab. You should be able to do that with open diffs. Darren did that and might have more suggestions if you should do that. Expect to make a couple wrong turns but it's no big deal on that particular trail.

Don't do Hey Joe Canyon due to the likelihood for severe paint scratching.

Porcupine Rim would be good. So would Top of the World. Similar destination/views. Top of the World is probably cooler.

Seven Mile Rim should also be fine with open diffs, but there's multiple places with difficult route finding. It's better to follow someone that's done it before. Same story for Hell's Revenge since it's possible to make that into a 3-rated trail, too, but only if you know where to go.

If you have a GPS, you can put it to very good use in Moab.

Don't step on or drive on the cryptobiotic soil crust. It holds the soil from blowing away. The bacteria takes a long time to re-grow.

With the addition of a rear locker, I'd recommend trails like Kane Creek, Poison Spider Mesa, Metal Masher, Steel Bender, and Gold Bar Rim.

SkyRat

Thank you all for the great info and links. We will be taking much of the advise listed above. We are still in the planning stages, but I am thankful to have so many with so much to offer to augment the limited experience we have in the area. We are taking it all in.

Darren

I'll second that, but I'm wondering what the heck took him so long to post (other than another trip out to Moab)!

Glad you were able to add some details for the Moab area, Jeff. We're going to have to take a trip out there sometime (I won't be attending the jam out there) with a small group. I'd like to hit a few other trails you mentioned. Oh, twist your arm, huh?!

Mark, 4x4Colorado.com is another one you can bookmark. It recently went live and was built by the owner of XOC. We're still trying to get the word out on it, though, so it isn't in full swing yet. I hope to be adding my share of updates on that and BushDucks.

And by the way, welcome to the (free!) YotaTech travel agent hotline!