Ouray, Co trip

[braxton357]

What's the temp there

 

[77GreenMachine]

I’ve had (and love) peanut butter whiskey. Screwball specifically, but I never thought of adding cranberry juice. I actually haven’t had it in a while. It was good but a bit sweet. But I could go for some more.

 

[89wrangler]

I’ve had (and love) peanut butter whiskey. Screwball specifically, but I never thought of adding cranberry juice. I actually haven’t had it in a while. It was good but a bit sweet. But I could go for some more.

Kinda like peanut butter jelly..

What's the temp there

78 during day, 58 at night… PERFECT!

 

[89wrangler]

Awesome day!! Perfect weather although We got sunburned pretty good, I guess being closer suns has that effect lol.

couple of drone shots of campground we are the center camper with blue awnings at btm of first pic

our group of 5 rigs. Another one arrives tomorrow

the entrance to Black Bear Pass

our ugly mugs

the views!

made it to the top, easy part!

Hmmmm sounds serious!

did I mention gas was expensive…

trail pics. I was busy concentrating on my driving so didn’t get a lot of pics. I will go through the few my wife took and see if she has anything good. She spent most of the time with a death grip on grab bar and door handle… lol

telluride

 

[upnover]

Thanks for all of the sharing Steve! I live vicariously through you! LOL Sorry you are missing all the heat and rain we are having!

 

[89wrangler]

More pics

 

[77GreenMachine]

I feel like the day I get to see those views from that trail myself, I won’t be able to contain myself. Amazing.

 

[89wrangler]

Another perfect day in Ouray! Imogene Pass today. I am not sure how any other trails will top that one! Trail riding almost all of the way, trees and some shade until we got above the tree line, creek crossings, water falls, and of course views that pics do not do justice. Ended up in Telluride again and stopped at the telluride brewery for a couple to top off the day.
double rainbow yesterday evening

road up to entrance. You learn quick not to look left or down.

Start of trail

On the way up

made it to the top!! Can’t describe the views, breath taking! Not to mention the air was a little thin! Sorry about the finger in way, get what you pay for.

On the way down to Telluride

This is looking at the trail zigzag down from black Bear Pass that we rode yesterday

 

[Andy J.]

Man, I want to do this trip so bad. Thanks for sharing!

 

[willness33]

Too lazy to tap like on all the posts. Looks like a hell of a trip with awesome scenery.

 

[89wrangler]

Today is a lazy day. Had a couple of elk walk behind the camper this morning while I was fixing breakfast on the Blackstone, we’re not 10’ away. Caught me by surprise to say the least .Took a 2 mile walk around the river running next to campground with Rubi ( the dog) getting ready to head up town to get grandkids some shirts and grab lunch. Then head to Montrose to pick up some fuel filters for the RV we ordered yesterday to have for the trip home.. just in case I need them. Then we are heading to the hot springs in town for some R&R and soak the old bones and muscles.
Few more pics from yesterday.

No way I could afford to live in Telluride. Gas prices

$8 for a draft beer at brewery.

 

[GONOVRIT]

There’s good wheelin in Montrose!!
@89wrangler

 

[shawn]

There’s good wheelin in Montrose!!
@89wrangler

Wheel all the way to Moab

 

[shawn]

Head south on 550, make a left and head toward Gladstone. Pick up CO 110 near there and take it south to Silverton. Celebrate your trip at the American Legion bar, then head back north on 550.

 

[89wrangler]

There’s good wheelin in Montrose!!
@89wrangler

We had wheeled there before on one of our Moab trips, good stuff. I am here to check off my bucket lists for Colorado. It is awesome for scenic views and some pucker factors, but not hard wheeling. I have yet to need a locker. We are doing the alpine loop tomorrow which includes engineer pass and some others, should be most of the day. Then on Thursday we are going to hit Poughkeepsie which is supposed to be one of the harder trails. Stay tuned for the report.

edit *** our next trip will be back to Moab! Love that place!

 

[GONOVRIT]

I am here to check off my bucket lists for Colorado. It is awesome for scenic views and some pucker factors, but not hard wheeling.

I’m guessing you’re referring to Ouray area trails there from my experience. If you want a hard wheeling trail in CO let me know but you might need a helicopter to get you out

Glad y’all are having a great trip!

 

[89wrangler]

I’m guessing you’re referring to Ouray area trails there from my experience. If you want a hard wheeling trail in CO let me know but you might need a helicopter to get you out

Glad y’all are having a great trip!

I guess i should say challenging, not hard core. You know maybe getting to use a locker or two. I assumed that would be involved with some of the main trails here My hard core days are over. Just want to get out on the trails as much as possible.

as for today, will report tomorrow. Involved 12 hours, thunder storms, mudslide and 201 miles of driving…..

 

[rattlecanpaint]

I went to pre school in that KOA campground you stayed at. The house I grew up in is just around the corner from there. The road to imogene used to be my Dad's commute. Even in the winter. Many days, he'd park where the avalanche had crossed the road and walk from there. He was the chief geologist for the camp bird mine and when we first moved to town we lived in the house with the turret you can see from the road at the mine. It was built in England and taken apart and moved there and put back together. When in high school, we would go to Telluride and wheel Black Bear from there to Ouray by the light of a full moon. Had some good times there. In middle and high school I worked and the Timberline Deli during the summers too. I really can't stand the place anymore though since the California liberals took over. Preety pictures though!

 

[89wrangler]

Ok, back at this. Made it back and all is good. When we came home we went 50 from Montrose, through Gunnison, over Monarch Pass to Colorado Springs up to I70. WAY better then taking I70 through Denver. Very beautiful, relaxing drive!

Wednesday our plan was to do the Alpine Loop. 64 miles over Engineer Pass, down into Lake City, then over Cinnamon Pass back to Ouray. All was well great weather all the way to Lake City. We stopped at a small local eatery. Had a 35 minute wait even though it was 1:45 and a ton of folks arrived after we put our name down. Food was great! But then it started to rain hard. I guess it had already been raining up in the mountains. We left out of there to finish the last 30 miles. We got 15 miles in and that is when we ran into a huge mudslide that has happened about 10 minutes earlier. It was probably 50’ wide and 6-7’ tall covering the trial and on down the mountain side. We were 15 miles from Ouray. We had two choices at that point. Back over engineer pass or take the paved road back. Due the heavy rains and slide warnings for the area we chose to take the road back… 133 miles worth! ….. to be continued.

 

[89wrangler]

OK, some more, the road back to Ouray took us to highway 50. This road is being worked on and is only open from 6:30-8:30 am , 12:30-1-30 pm and 5:30-7:30 pm. at these times it is one lane and the opposite sides are about 5 miles apart. we figured we could make the evening cutoff time to make it through and we did. What we did not know is that they let a certain number of cars go. They make the 5 miles drive following a pace truck. then the opposite side goes and so on. Took over 35 minutes per group of cars. We were there in lines for just short of an hour to get through that mess. Then our buddy ran out of gas so we pulled over. Thank goodness he had a spare 2 gals. with him. That got him in to Montrose with a 1/2 gal. to spare. Filled up his tank, and we heading south towards Ouray and same buddy's jeep started to overheat so we pulled over. Found a bad crimp on the terminal for the electric fan, fixed that and made it back to Ouray around 10:15 pm. 14 hours and 206 miles. There were no major breakages or anything, but damn that was a long day and the most miles for a daily trail ride to date for me.

Ouray Brewery

this was a damn good cider, jalapeño pear!

these pics are from engineer pass

what is left of an old mine. It is amazing how the got all of this stuff up in the mountains and built it back in the 1800’s

Inside of an old mine shaft

In this pic all the specs are sheep way down in the valley. Prior to seeing those we saw dude we thought was hiking up around Odom Point. He had 2 border collies and rifle with a huge scope. We joked that he must be hunting Sasquatch or something.. lol. Then we see the sheep and realize he was real sheep herder. Then the questions how did he get up there(12,000’) where does he sleep, what does he eat, etc. would have liked to chatted with him for a while.

Zoomed in with camera

 

[89wrangler]

More pics

elevation from jeep

this house was only accessible from the bridge

an old damn that used to have a lake behind it and was was used to power the mine

Another long day fir Rubi.. haha

trail head to Poughkeepsie gulch

Lake in the middle of nowhere. There were old mine shafts all around it. This was out lunch stop point.

same lake on the way up to the pass after we left

 

[89wrangler]

On the way back down

Road back to town. Notice NO guard rails.

our group of folks

last night in Ouray cool looking moon

another long day!

top on Monarch Pass, all down hill back to NC

Was an awesome trip for sure!!!!