CO - Ouray, Silverton, Lake City, Telluride Experts

[cruiseroutfit]

Kurt, I've done all these trails, and will be doing them again over labor day. Your truck will handle it all. Most of these have a lot of gravel in them, so even in the rain they don't get really sloppy.

But, you need to take your time. If you're into old mines (and I know you are), you'll be out exploring a lot of old buildings.

Thanks for the suggestions... I think the thing I am most excited to check out is the old mines, so we'll just have to plat it by ear and keep track of our times.

 

[kkemp]

Please don't let a little rain stop you! It always says isolated rain this time of year and up at high elevations, it's not uncommon for a few sprinkles every afternoon. All those roads up in that area are very passable when wet though so even if it's a downpour, you should still be fine. It's when you get past Labor Day that you want to be a lot more cautious because it can snow with very little incentive.

Actually, every time I've been there it rained, snowe, and hailed like crazy. It's pretty intense but like you said, the roads are fine. I just don't want to fo all the way down there if it's going to be continous rain all day long. It's too soon yet to know what the weather is going to be. If it's just thunderstorms, I'll be there.

Kevin

 

[Greg]

We just got back an hour ago, went to Silverton, then over to Ouray on the Alpine Loop. The inlaws loved it, but the sheer cliffs on the side of the road kinda spooked them a few times. The crappy thing was that the flowers aren't nearly as cool as they were a month ago, there was hardly anything this time around.

Here's how they looked over the 4th of July.-

The weather was nearly perfect, it sprinkled a little bit, then the sun would come out. Temps got as low as 53* at the top. A jacket or hoodie would have been handy, but I was fine w/o. We ate a bunch of wild raspberrys... Mmmmmmm. There were many washouts, lots of rock on the road that had washed down the mountain. Catherine's 4Runner handeled it all just fine, but you could tell there was a large storm not long ago. All this was on the Ouray side of the mtn.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

So Greg, did you do all of the Apline Loop? Engineer & Cinnamon, what else?

How long did it take you?

 

[Greg]

So Greg, did you do all of the Apline Loop? Engineer & Cinnamon, what else?

How long did it take you?

Not on Thursday, we just went above Animas Forks, past the turn-offs for Cinnamon & Engineer and followed the Alpine Loop over to Ouray. We did this because we had limited time & Catherines parents have already spent lots of time cooped up in a car. I wanted them to experience the area, but not go on a 10 hr offroad trip.

This adventure was a one dayer, left Fruita at 8 AM, arrived in Silverton at 11 AM, walked around & had funnel cakes until noon, then hit the road. I'd say we spent less than 4 hrs on the trail, arriving in Ouray about 3:30 PM, grabbed dinner and hit the road about 5 PM & were back in Fruita about 7 PM.

 

[Greg]

BTW... come prepared.


Stranded people

And...

Rock kills man


Both of these have happened in the last week, there's been a lot of rain & it's been wreaking havoc on the mountains.

 

[RockMonkey]

FWIW Kurt, I think you're trying to do too much each day. You're kinda missing the point if you are just there to drive the passes. There is so much to stop and see and explore that you'll miss by rushing through it. I think you will enjoy the trip more than most if you take the time to take it in.

 

[Greg]

FWIW Kurt, I think you're trying to do too much each day. You're kinda missing the point if you are just there to drive the passes. There is so much to stop and see and explore that you'll miss by rushing through it. I think you will enjoy the trip more than most if you take the time to take it in.

x2

Stop, explore... enjoy.

 

[BroncoMama]

FWIW Kurt, I think you're trying to do too much each day. You're kinda missing the point if you are just there to drive the passes. There is so much to stop and see and explore that you'll miss by rushing through it. I think you will enjoy the trip more than most if you take the time to take it in.

If you are even remotely interested in the history of the area and mines, you will be blown away by how much exploring there is. We are only 2 hours away and have spent the last 7 summers spending close to every Sunday up there and there are STILL roads we haven't been on. Every road has multiple mines, mining implements, and other fun stuff to poke around in. Like Imogene has the Tomboy and the Upper Camp Bird. And ya gotta get out and snoop around! So just something else to keep in mind.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

BTW... come prepared.


Stranded people

And...

Rock kills man


Both of these have happened in the last week, there's been a lot of rain & it's been wreaking havoc on the mountains.

I've been keeping a close on one of the CO forums, there is a maintance worker on there that is the one that clears the slides, he has been giving us updates. Black Bear IS open (FS site said otherwise as of yesterday). But there is always the danger of another slide!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Too much driving...

Good point, the nice thing about this area, you can pretty much catch a highway back to Ouray from the end of any trail (before starting on another). I'm going to prepare a couple of "slower" agendas.

Though really, this is more of a "wet my appetite" trip. I know I won't have time to do everything... but I want to get a good feel of where my time would be better spent on future trips (possibly Labor Day too )

Thanks again for all the suggestions... I can't wait!

 

[RockMonkey]

You could probably spend your whole trip in Silverton, Animas Forks, and the area directly above Animas Forks.

 

[moabrangler]

Silverton Trails

We just got back from there.We spent the week with the Mile Hi Jeep Club's All for Fun outting. It was a blast. Rained every day for a hour a to. The trails were GR8. we did them all.We were comming down the road as the wrecker was hooking up to that TJ that got hit by the rock.

 

[kkemp]

We just got back from spending a week there. It rained everyday from about 3pm on through the night. 4-wheeling was fun but the weather got pretty old. Imogene pass gave our Exploder a run for it's money. We went up the Ouray side which is usually more difficult than coming up from Telluride. My Jeep would have just cruised up it but it had to stay home for this trip. Except for two obsticles, my daughter drove the whole trail. That was her first time to do any "four wheeling".

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Got home tonight... AMAZING

Full trip report with pics in a day or two.