Colorado Trip Reports

Fun little loop with my dad. We started off and did tin cup pass and down into the town of Tin Cup then over Cumberland Pass down to the town of Pitkin and with a few dirt roads made it to Old Monarch Pass and back down the pavement home.

 

A few more. This is coming down to the lake on the westside of Tin Cup

 

How do you like wheeling with the trailer? I wanted to get a project vehicle, and to make it complete, I would need a trailer. Didn't know if the pros outweighed the cons. I can only imagine backing that thing up on a tight trail if you needed to let someone by...

 

That is my biggest fear. I only explore with another vehicle out front to be my eyes and ears if the trail will be anything more than a dirt road/easy trail. There are trade offs for sure. i need the space with me and my wife two kids and two dogs so honestly thinking of a Tundra with a slide in camper, but who has money and my truck is already built. Overall the the trailer has always impressed me and it follows anywhere i go so far ( i can u turn in gas stations and have fit in some small places and tight turns so far). Honestly still need to find its limits. i did have to back down one thing and it was not fun, but my truck was not really ready to handle the weight in the back and therefore why i think i got stuck. I love though being able to set up base camp since we dont move everyday and then explore the harder trails or the unknown. Overall i am happy with it but it really depends on your need and what you want to do, it does limit you. We wanted to exit Taylor park area up Taylor or pearl pass but did not want to risk it with the trailer since i have never done it with just my truck yet. I like to pre run most places before i take the trailer and the family unless i have another vehicle out front. Hope that helps.

 

Makes total sense. Thanks for the insight.

 

You're welcome. good luck

 

Thought I’d share some pictures of my last few weeks of wheeling.... Falorado was good to me.....

 

nice man. looking good i love this truck

 

Are those scrub oaks in that first shot to get those colors? Haven't seen colors like that since back east.

 

I have no idea.... i found that deep red on the Paiona side of Keblar pass.... I can’t remember the road number.... all I remember is it was muddy AF..... I may or may not have left some serious rutts behind......

 

Barbour Fork

It was pretty late in the afternoon when I got started so I never ran into anyone on the trail but saw people in the parking lot. It was slick in spots due to mud and wet leaves but definitely still passable.




This part of the trail is called "Trojan hill". Aside from a bunch of small to medium loose rocks, there were a couple tricky spots. The picture doesn't really show how steep this one was but it took a bit of luck to get up the slippery rocks.



Snow


Downhill portion of the loop

 

Also ran up South Spring gulch. I went all the way to the top of Spring Creek but it was late and started snowing so I turned around after briefly contemplating attempting it. It was probably for the best, when I turned around I ran into someone running parts for a broken down 4runnee blocking the trail.




I took Ute Creek back into town. The snow persisted almost all the way down to where Ute Creek meets up with the highway

 

Went and checked out some snow at Fall River Res., mostly wanted to get a feel for these tires in snow. A group of young kids in way-too-nice Jeeps were bashing hard, said they were up at Yankee hill earlier.

 

Lesson learned on this trip is always go prepared. Thank god I always have two gallons of extra gas in the truck even when not expected. I took my little boy out for the first daddy solo camping trip and left mommy and brother at home so I packed everything up the night before to ensure nothing was forgotten. Got up the next day and headed off to Grand Junction without having to stop and do anything. My heart absolutely sank when I got to Grand Junction and realized I had no wallet or cash on me and I had my son in the backseat feeling absolutely stuck. Luckily I had that 2 gallons of gas and was still on a quarter tank and I was able to make it back to NewCastle where my mother-in-law lives where she was able to fill up my tank give me some cash and we were still able to salvage the trip and Camp along the Colorado River.

 

Decided to take the day off and stretch the legs on the new turd gen. Took Old Flowers Rd to Pingree Park and brought Buckhorn Rd over Pennock Pass back. Wanted to hit a fairly easy route just to get some trail time with the 6 speed as it’s been a long while since I’ve driven a manual off road. Old Flowers seemed like a good choice because it’s not technical and has a lot of fairly sharp, and a couple steep, ups and downs. Two takeaways...I need more work and patience on uphill approaches with the manual and Old Flowers is a lot more churned up than last summer. I’ve been back in there a lot, and this time it was a lot rockier and rutted out than the last time I was back there. I think the trail rating on it is a bit misleading, especially when wet and snowy. Too many people see it rated easy and go back there and tear it up. It’s by no means technical, but definitely a little sketchy in spots when snow packed and icy. Anyway here are a couple of pics, not much of a photographer...

 

Is yankee all snowed in like that? Or was it?

 

Not sure, haven't been up since that day.

 

You, sir, have more balls than me.

 

That pic gave me the heebie jeebies.