Colorado Trip Reports

Great Sand Dunes / Medano Pass (6/28-6/30)

Camped Medano with the girlfriend this weekend testing out a new RTT and Bilstein 6112s.

1) Pass was still closed up to the 4th creek crossing with 10 open camping spots. Water was at the bumper or a bit higher

2) Sand was soft in one area and had to air down but fine even in 2wd

3) Saw a lot of Toyotas/Jeeps, including a Barcelona Red 3rd gen speeding through the winding trail and almost slammed into me. Same thing happened with a jeep but not nearly as bad. Not sure why people are rally racing through a popular trail.

4) Helped jump a poor Xterra that just died suddenly, only to come back and see NPS towing them out (they made it 100 ft after the jump)

5) Mosquitoes were complete hell

6) Saw a TON of wildlife. Deer on 4 separate occasions, elk, and a whole family of goats

 

Just got back from a trip to Lake City.

Family trip so wheeling wasn't the main priority, but we did go up CR 20 and CR 30 as far as they were open from that side. Many slides, pretty wild to see how different it was this year. We were able to go up Wager Gulch all the way to Carson, but you can't get up and over to the older site due to snow.

One of my favorites, Stoney Pass was technically open from either side (silverton or rio grand resvoir) up to Pole creek. We didn't try it b/c of the shear amount of snow melt swelling all the lower streams. We figured Pole creek would be to high to cross.... and it was... someone attempted it while we were out there and I don't think they've found them yet. https://durangoherald.com/articles/283468 Be safe out there!

 

Yeah they’re still missing according to Hinsdale OEM. I’ve got my eye on all those trails in early August, hopefully things have normalized.

 

Down in ouray for a couple days visiting some family from Vegas. They came up with their Jeep club. So far most trails are only open partially but it is still alot of fun.

8946]FB_IMG_1562030269351 by CGoss posted Jul 1, 2019 at 9:54 PM[/GALLERY]

 

Yeah we were heading back down the mountain when it started. Glad I still have my roof and doors unlike the Jeep I was following.

 

Thanks Alec (@bot102) for organizing. Drift on top of Webster Pass is very impressive, wonder if it will even melt off this summer.

Update
Webster is open to the switch backs
Red Cone's gate is closed
Georgia Pass all clear to top from the South, Second you crested and start down North side is snow drift city and we only busted a few before stopping.

others
@YamaDirtrider
@spongejosh
@Coop68
@Littles (perfectly timed)

 

So what is the camping plan for the rest of thew weekend?

 

unknown to me, I'm back at work today.

 

How far did yall make it up Wheeler? One of my favorites.

 

Half moon Gulch is a great mild trail if anyone wants a really awesome place to camp it has some amazing places to set up with most places having fire pits made from previous people. The river is kind of high right now and there were a couple stock Tacos stuck on the other side of it and the trail isn't fully open because a couple slides ran through near the end of the trail and threw some pretty good size trees over the trail, but with plenty of trails close by and far enough away from Denver that even on the 4th the trail had very few people.

 

@YamaDirtrider @Littles

 

I went up to Halfmoon Gulch with some friends this past Friday and blazed trail with the taco. The first river crossing was deep, and came over the hood a few times. Close call, but no snorkel and no issues even after crossing 11 more times. Just past the second crossing, we passed a taco and his buddy in a 4 Runner coming the other way. They warned us that the road was impassable due to 20 trees across the road, and they spent 45 minutes digging the 4 Runner out of a huge snow drift. Sensing a chance to put my new Stihl to work, we pressed on. We were able to smash through the snow, and clear the trail enough to get through. Taco leading the way.

People had already driven around this massive pile of trees, so did we:


We plowed through a big pile of snow left over from an avalanche. This must have been where the last people got stuck because the tracks stopped here.

Then we came to the Avalanche debris field with a bunch of trees down, and piles of snow.
Before:


After:


There were at least 5 avalanches near the trail, but only one was still blocking the road.

We had the first 4x4 tracks at the top, and the place to our selves.




Great place, amazing time.

 

I think I passed your campsite a few times running up and down the mountain. I should have let you know we cleared the trail Friday up to the mill. I only had 1/4 tank in the chainsaw, which is all it took, but ran back down to get more. Communication isn't my strong suit. Beautiful area though!

 

Yup I remember seeing your tan taco go back and forth! I drove past the massive downed trees and didn’t want to go any further after that. I hate driving over trees, one branch jammed in a wrong spot and the trips over and i had also been up to the top last fall. The spot we found was an awesome spot though.

 

so you went off trail to go around some trees because "people had already driven around..." then you went around the gate to go up to the structures? wtf?!

 

That's not real good..... I always thought the best option when coming to a place where people have gone around trees blocking a trail is to move the trees blocking the trail so they block the bypass.... or just turn around.

 

Not adding fuel to the fire but the trees across the road aren't gonna be moved anytime soon unless heavy equipment gets up there or a crew of men with chainsaws because the trees in that spot are huge and moving them with just two guys is literally impossible. I don't see in his post anything about going around a gate by the mining buildings and if i recall there is no such gate but then again he also spent his time clearing the rest of the path from trees.

 

Just adding more context nothing more nothing less.

 

Sounds like "Alice's Restaurant" where they figured one big pile of trash was better than two little piles and rather than drag the other one up, they decided to throw theirs down.

If you ever get drafted into the army you're going to have to sit on the "Group W" bench with the father rapers.

 

there is a green gate below those structure. people have gone around this gate, but again doesn't mean that is the route.

if there is a closed gate, the road is close.

if there are trees down across a trail, the trail is closed until cleared.

if there is snow across the trail, you go over the snow. if you cannot go over the snow, turn around, the trail is closed.