Colorado - 4X4 country!
- Thread starter cewtwo
- Start date
Sparky-Watts
Banned
Charlie, ever been to Tin Cup? It's an old ghost town somewhere south of Co. Springs. My brother and I were there back in '92 and there was a 4x4 trail head there...don't know where it led to, but there sure were some nice looking rigs headed up the first big incline over the top...at about 12,500 feet, if I remember right. Dang, I sure wish we'd brought my Toy 4x4 on that trip instead of his Corsica.
cewtwo
New member
Tin Cup is a trail that goes between St. Elmo (residential ghost town) and Tin Cup, Colorado. The trail is easy enough for any 4-wheel drive vehicle (go rounds for the difficult areas and obstacles). If you take it from the St. Elmo side it will take you into the Taylor Lake reservoir area. My recollection is that it is a rocky trail.
The area around St. Elmo has many trails. You have Handcock Pass that leads into Tomichi pass. There is Mt. Antero & Pearl Pass. Back up toward Buena Vista you can ride Chinaman's Gulch and Carnage. If you head up toward Aspen, Colorado you can catch Taylor pass into the same area. The area can keep you on a different trail each day for days.
Black Bear pass was damaged by a severe winter. If you know the trail, near the top there was a reinforced roadside. It gave way during the winter weather. It was an involved process to shore up the edge and rebuild the road. They even had to postpone the reverse trail ride this year. By donating to charity, you can ride the trail in reverse.
Me? I am so looking forward to riding Poughkeepsie Gulch this year.
September is a great time of the year to ride the San Juan trails (again there are a lot of them). The fall foliage will be in full color.
There are some great trail reports available at www.traildamage.com
Hope it helps!
Charlie (cewtwo)
The area around St. Elmo has many trails. You have Handcock Pass that leads into Tomichi pass. There is Mt. Antero & Pearl Pass. Back up toward Buena Vista you can ride Chinaman's Gulch and Carnage. If you head up toward Aspen, Colorado you can catch Taylor pass into the same area. The area can keep you on a different trail each day for days.
Black Bear pass was damaged by a severe winter. If you know the trail, near the top there was a reinforced roadside. It gave way during the winter weather. It was an involved process to shore up the edge and rebuild the road. They even had to postpone the reverse trail ride this year. By donating to charity, you can ride the trail in reverse.
Me? I am so looking forward to riding Poughkeepsie Gulch this year.
September is a great time of the year to ride the San Juan trails (again there are a lot of them). The fall foliage will be in full color.
There are some great trail reports available at www.traildamage.com
Hope it helps!
Charlie (cewtwo)
cewtwo
New member
BTW - Black Bear Pass...
The very first time I rode that trail was in my '92 Ranger 4x4 pickup. The date was 9/11. Yes, that 9/11. We had watched the planes fly into the World Trade center. Full of horror at what we had seen (much like the rest of America and the world) we had talked about cancelling the vaction and heading back to town. Then we thought, Why? That's what the terrorists would want us to do. So, we headed on down the road and drove Black Bear Pass.
Nothing is like the first time down Black Bear. It is not that technical a ride. But there is that monumental pucker factor on the Telluride downhill side. I have Mitral Valve Prolapse. It is a slight heart condition that involves a valve doesn't always close all of the way. It can and often does cause 'panic attacks.' They come quickly for me and they go away just as quickly. Black Bear is always good for an occasion like that.
If you do Black Bear, you can catch it from Red Hill Pass on US550. Have lunch in Telluride (get a t-shirt extolling your conquering of the BB pass), and then take Ophir Pass back to US550. Ophir pass is a narrow shelf road that can get the heart pumping, as well, especially if someone is coming the other way...
I have driven the pass several times since that first time.
Let us know how you like it!
BTW... There is plenty of camping around that area. Be prepared though, it can get really cold at night and hot during the day. Welcome to Colorado!!
Charlie (cewtwo)
The very first time I rode that trail was in my '92 Ranger 4x4 pickup. The date was 9/11. Yes, that 9/11. We had watched the planes fly into the World Trade center. Full of horror at what we had seen (much like the rest of America and the world) we had talked about cancelling the vaction and heading back to town. Then we thought, Why? That's what the terrorists would want us to do. So, we headed on down the road and drove Black Bear Pass.
Nothing is like the first time down Black Bear. It is not that technical a ride. But there is that monumental pucker factor on the Telluride downhill side. I have Mitral Valve Prolapse. It is a slight heart condition that involves a valve doesn't always close all of the way. It can and often does cause 'panic attacks.' They come quickly for me and they go away just as quickly. Black Bear is always good for an occasion like that.
If you do Black Bear, you can catch it from Red Hill Pass on US550. Have lunch in Telluride (get a t-shirt extolling your conquering of the BB pass), and then take Ophir Pass back to US550. Ophir pass is a narrow shelf road that can get the heart pumping, as well, especially if someone is coming the other way...
I have driven the pass several times since that first time.
Let us know how you like it!
BTW... There is plenty of camping around that area. Be prepared though, it can get really cold at night and hot during the day. Welcome to Colorado!!
Charlie (cewtwo)
Sparky-Watts
Banned
cewtwo said:
St. Elmo...that is the other town I was trying to remember! Loved that area. We spent the night above St. Elmo in his Corsica. Woke up to heavy frost on the inside of the windshield and windows and everything else, and this was in July or August. We stayed in one motel the whole 7 day trip, and that was only to use the showers. The rest of the time, we'd use showers at truckstops. We spent the rest of the nights in the Corsica...of course, we were both much younger then, and sleeping in the front seat of a car didn't have the fatal effect it would have on us now!:lol:
We basically just drove all over the central and southern part of Colorado that week, taking in the sights. That's the same trip we almost drove off into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison!:shock: We were cruising along this little two-track, looking for the canyon, when I rounded a curve in the road and it was right in front of us, less than 10 feet away. I slammed the brakes and slid sideways to a stop about 5 feet from the edge (the road was so rough, we weren't going very fast, thank God). No guardrails, no signs, no nothing, just a sheer 1,000 foot drop into the abyss. That'll put a spot on the seat!:redface:
