Colorado Trip Reports

My friend sent me this one he found the other day. Made me palms sweat.

 

What CB are you getting? I'm thinking about throwing one in as well, but can't decide if I want to try and hide it in the console or glove box.

 

Photo Shopped? that is Frick'n nuts.

 

#lifegoals

 

Yeah i downloaded it and tried to zoom in but it's pretty grainy to begin with.

 

Can anyone recommend camping spots north of denver?

 

Here's the video I got from Medano Pass. This is heading back out from the trail closure to the dunes.

 

I'll get some pictures up later, but went up to Stillwater Pass in Grand Lake. Beautiful area! But all the trails are still closed until the 15th. You can get maybe 5 or 6 miles up Stillwater before you come to a gate. Camped there Friday.

Since there were no trails, we came down and did Bill Moore Lake, found a nice camp spot and tried to go up to the lake today. After getting past the "high clearance 4x4 section" there is the fork to the left that goes to the lake, 100ft in there was a drift that I tried to bash through, and it continued to slide me towards the edge. Would've been doable with some maxtrax and time but there was another small drift ahead and then a large one that was not gonna happen.

Backed out and went up the right fork that is just an out and back. Met some Jeeps that were coming down who seemed to say there was no reason to go up since I would have to turn around. No shit, thats what an out and back is?! But we got to the end of that trail where there is an overlook. Apparently people have been connecting that back to Bill Moore Lake, which appears to be an illegal trail, and its completely snowed in anyways.

 

Went and ran up a few passes in the San Juans today to get away from the heat.



Clouds came in quick. Sure is a lot of snow up there still.

 

Not sure if this trail even had a name but it was around Jefferson, CO. We camped there as well. Very light trail, few small water crossings. Good start for a newbie and I had fun.

 

Stillwater Pass, near Grand Lake


This keeps the pesky Subies out










Periscope elk on the left.


Not many places to wheel since all the stuff out there is still closed until the 15th of this month.

 

So we headed to Bill Moore Lake

Tried the trail up to the lake.... this is 100ft after the split after the high clearance climb/bypass.

I tried to just slowly plow through but it pushed me towards the edge. There was another small drift and then a huge one ahead, so no point in trying to get through. I was able to back out with maxtrax. Any tricks to getting the seat belt to unlock so you can put it on when off camber? I was at a sliding point and the seat belt would not release, tried pulling it slowly.. nothing. Not a great thing for Toyota when you get hurt after you try and put your belt on and it wont release.


Then we went up the right side of the split (100ft behind me in the above picture). Got to the top of that spur without incident. Jeeps were coming down, so I knew if the golf carts could do it...


4 foot deep snow bank... I got this! (Snowbank is covering the actual trail... not off trail screwing around)

Haha nope. High centered pretty well couldnt do anything.


Heading down





I would guess that those first two snow drifts will be taken care of (passable, not gone) by next weekend. I didn't look at the larger one, but it'll probably be July.

Got down to the bottom and only the LC had a compressor, other than me and he was running late. So I aired up 18 tires in a row. The Puma compressor might be a heifer but she knocked them out in a respectable time.

 

Around here the MVUM's may show roads opening on the 15th, but generally they remain gated until much later. Still far too much snow to even attempt exploring the high country.

 

Gotcha, it looked pretty dry over that way. Of course we were somewhat low but it seemed like at least the main road would be able to open. We camped at 10k feet I believe and it was warm albeit a little buggy. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on the website. Are they pretty good at updating it when they open them?

 

Every Ranger district is different. My experience with contacting the FS regarding road status is pretty poor.

 

Yeah, I've seen some that are updated on time, and I think I remember one being last updated a year ago or more.

 

If you are ever back in Grand Lake give me a shout. I'll probably be spending quite a bit of time in that area this summer. It's not far from where I live.

 

Will do. As soon as those trails open up I'll be back there for a day or two. And I've wanted to drive the RMNP road as well.

 

I'd like to drive Trail Ridge soon just to see the all the snow lol. Might do it this Saturday.