Road Trip!

The wife and I are trying to get a road trip planned for some time this fall (early Aug - late Nov). We will definitely hit Colorado and Utah, and possibly swing up to Yellowstone. Our window is ~ 2 weeks.

What we'd like to know is what you locals would recommend within the parameters of hiking, offroading, and whatever else you would consider a must see to represent your state. We're trying to avoid the tourist traps. We will be in your state for 5 - 7 days.

I realize this is a broad question, but we're not really the trip advisor types and would much rather see the 'real' Colorado. TIA

 

Northern, middle, southern Utah specifically? Maybe more southern due to the time of year like Moab area.

I'm born and raised in Utah and there is too many to mention, but no matter where you're at, there is off roading and hikes every where! Not to mention snow sports (you can always visit Park City and check out the 2002 Winter Olympics stuff), water sports, etc. Just a couple of links you can graze over:

http://www.everytrail.com/best/hiking-utah

http://alltrails.com/us/utah

http://www.utah.com/offroad/

Enjoy your time!

 

I'm born and raised in Utah and there is too many to mention, but no matter where you're at, there is off roading and hikes every where! Not to mention snow sports (you can always visit Park City and check out the 2002 Winter Olympics stuff), water sports, etc. Just a couple of links you can graze over:


Awesome, thx.

Yeah, we've got a big chunk of time allotted for Moab.it seems pretty straight forward. One of the things I'm having trouble with is if we can find a 4x4 trail to conundrum hot springs. Google alludes to it but I have yet to find an actuall trail head.

Also, was wondering what to do in cities, as well as which cities to see.

 

conundrum hot springs south of Aspen, CO? I know its a bit of a hike (over 5 miles), not sure if you can 4x4 there or not.

Found the people there amusing but not sure others would be so kind.

 

Conundrum is one of the wife's picks. Frankly it's too far for my fat old behind to drag up! If there's no driveable trail it gonna have to get scrubed.

 

Try traildamage.com for some helpful info on regional 4X4 trails. Great resource for finding a degree-of-difficulty that suits your rig and experience.

For road trips... it's touristy and crowded because it's a national park, but Trail Ridge Road (US34) through Rocky Mountain Natl Park is a pretty fun drive. Old Fall River Road is a very tame off-road detour along the way that dumps you out at the summit along Trail Ridge, but it's been closed since the 2013 floods and I haven't heard if it will re-open in 2015.

You can make a Boulder/Denver-based loop on US36 (Boulder,Estes Park), US34 (RMNP/Trail Ridge Road, Grand Lake, Granby), US40 (Winter Park/Berthoud Pass), CO119 (Central City/Black Hawk) to Golden Gate Canyon State Park, work your way down to Golden and back to Denver or Boulder on county roads. That's only a day of driving, but if you explore off-road trails along the way and/or hike and camp you could turn it into 3-4 days easy.

 

Alpine Loop\Silverton, tons of off-roading, hiking, camping, fishing, etc..

 

X2

 

Thx guys, good info! Finding offroad trails is easy enough (I've been studying trailsdamage.com religiously) and there are more hiking websites then I could ever fully read. But, I figured only a local could collate both together. So, I really appreciate all the responses!

 

Can someone tell me about poughkeepsie gulch and black bear pass trails? Trailsdamage.com lists them as pretty tough, but YouTube videos make it seem not terribly difficult. I'm running open/open on 285's, will definitely have all of my armor in place by then but it's doubtful if I'll have a winch or lockers by then. Should I attempt it, or are they too tough for a single truck to take on?

 

Black Bear is mostly turning radius and an off-camber section at the top. Well, that and the exposure/narrowness and the fact it's one way so if you commit, you are committed. Poughkeepsie I've never been to the obstacle in question, but my understanding is without a locker no way. Just about everything else in that area (except maybe Mineral Creek) you should be fine. I did a fair number of them last summer in my Sport, and you may as well count the LSD as open.

 

Perfect. Thx everyone for the responses, I think I've got most of the trip pretty well planned out. Now I just have to figure out a few more hikes to do so the wife stays happy and try to endure the the next 6 months.

 

X3
This is a must

 

What places are you staying? Hard to narrow down hike suggestions without knowing that. Sloan Lake from American Basin off Cinnamon Pass outside of Silverton is probably a perfect hike for you guys. Not too long, up above treeline, tons of wildflowers depending on time of year, and one of the fewer turquoise lakes we've got surrounded by some nice jagged peaks. There's a really easy 14er just down the road (technically you're a third to halfway to another one when you hit Sloan Lake) but that's probably more than you want to hike if the hot springs sounded like too much.

 

There is no offroad trail to conundrum, it's a hike in and hike out trip. Black Bear has insane tight switchbacks and if you mess up on a switchback and roll a tire over the edge, you may not live to tell about it.

 

In Utah we're gonna start in Zion and work our way across to Moab. We will camp/hotel as the need/desire arises. Then in Colorado we'll do as much of the Alpine Loop area as we can. Again camp/hotel as the situation dictates. I think we'll finish by running up and driving Trail Ridge rd. This may be more than our timeframe will allow so we might have to scrub some things on the fly. We're trying to keep things somewhat fluid so if we really like one location or another we'll spend some extra time there. Right now I need to figure out if I'm trying to pack too much into a 2 wk trip or if I could add a few more things in. I have to keep reminding myself that it'll take 4 days off the trip just to get out and back from Kentucky.

 

As far as hiking goes, we're in pretty good shape. We've hiked all over the Appalacian mts, Napali Coast and Haleakala. The only thing that worries me is the high elevation. Haleakala (10,000 ft) was definitely different, so the 14er's might slow us down a bit. But, we're still looking forward to it.

 

Just my personal opinion, you're trying to pack in too much. But then different people vacation different ways. Two years ago we started in Zion, then Bryce, Escalante, and finished in Capitol Reef. That was a full two week trip and we didn't even have time to do everything we wanted. Last year it was the Telluride/Ouray area, again a full two week trip. We usually do two weeks (been to Moab/Green River a couple of times, Silverton/Ouray/Telluride a few), and we usually don't have time to do everything we want.

From your itinerary I'd drop Trail Ridge right off - unless you plan to spend at least two days in the area (maybe heading to and leaving from), it's a bit of a swing north for what will be nowhere near as impressive as you see down in the Alpine Loop. Admittedly I only live 45 min away, but I'd trade time in RMNP for time in the San Juans any day.

I'd try to give more hike suggestions but... man, just too many to list for such a big area.

I do want to add to an earlier post though. I have never personally run Black Bear, though others here have. I do not want to give the wrong idea that it's easy - he's not kidding about a couple of the switchbacks being somewhat insane and the exposure severe. There are a few other trails in the area I would strongly suggest running first before attempting Black Bear (if you're considering it, because in fact I wouldn't recommend it at all to anyone I didn't know) just to make sure you're ok with the exposure. Corkscrew comes to mind, and if you've never been up on roads like the Alpine loop, doing Ophir/Imogene as a loop would be suggested before using Black Bear as one of the legs (those are the three passes between the Silverton/Ouray and Telluride sides, though Black Bear is one way west to Tellruide).

BTW, I made a map of the Alpine Loop area trails you might be interested in. It's got them all color highlighted on quad sheets. Supposedly this link is good for 7 days: Alpine Loop Trail Map.jpg

 

Noted. Packing too much in is a concern. On the other hand we circumnavigated Ireland a few years back and honestly didn't feel like we missed anything. (we vaca at breakneck speed)

That said, we are going in with a loose itinerary. If we want to stay longer at any particular spot, we'll just have to drop something else.

I will take your point about Trail Ridge under consideration though. Everything I'm finding about Ouray/Silverton makes me want to spend as much time there as possible.

Thx

 

Also, thx for the map. Downloaded to the phone!