Colorado Trip Reports

Ran up Kingston Peak solo today. Headed up from the West side. Weather was perfect. The trail was tame but rocky. I completely forgot to bring a rock but found a sandstone flake in my floor mat. I'm going to say it's from Moab. Didn't make to the James peak overlook due to snow drifts and being by myself. All in all great day

 

I absolutely love this trail, and the short hike to James Peak overlooking the lakes. I've missed it the past few years because they always open it so stupid late in the season.

 

any "easy" snow trails anyone would recommend? By easy i mean not cliff edges. Reg recovery gear would be standard

 

The Gulches once the snow comes. Also Schubarth, and the trails connected to Rainbow Falls.

 

If I recall correctly the boulder, gold hill area was popular here a few years ago.

 

Switzerland Trail

 

I was going to say the same. Although I've never done it in the winter, I work in Boulder and know there is a ton of snow wheeling done up there.

 

I like driving Old Stage Road (outside of Colorado Springs) after a snow. It's a road, not a trail, but it draws all sorts of characters for people-watching. Last year I found a guy in a 2nd gen who was wholly incapable of driving in snow. He kept putting the truck in reverse to get it to slow down. He was also too stubborn to accept help. Good times.

 

I got myself stuck, mostly on purpose. @Littles winched me out.

 

that was nice of him

 

aren't there drop offs on Switzerland?

 

Yes, there are a few spots. If I remember correctly the first portion of it is set back though. I don't think you get to the shelf road until well after the rock climb obstacle.

 

Adding the Day 2 recap of this trip below.

Day 2: Fairplay to Leadville Via Weston Pass + Drive to Lake City

Day 2 kicked off with packing up camp and venturing into downtown Breckenridge for a burrito and coffee. We stopped at Unravel, which serves expensive but very good coffee. This was the first time I'd tried any of their breakfast food, and both my dad and I agreed that the burrito was pretty sub-par, haha. After breakfast, we fueled up the truck and made our way down to Mosquito Pass, which was our originally planned route. However, due to snow, the pass was closed to thru traffic. So, we did some quick research in my FunTreks books and determined that Weston Pass would be a great alternative.

We made the quick drive down to Fairplay and made our way to the Weston Pass trailhead. I aired the tires down, snapped a few pictures, and we were on our way.

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Weston Pass was incredible. A great alternative route for my dad, given his fear of heights, but still wildly beautiful with great views of the Rockies. It was originally developed during the Colorado Gold Rush and become a popular route for miners traveling between Fairplay and Leadville due to its (relatively speaking) lower elevation. At its highest, the pass reaches about 11,900 feet and has some great hiking, dispersed & established camping, and great alpine scenery.

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As we finished the trail and headed towards Leadville, storm clouds started to roll in. My dad and I stopped at the Leadville mining district to take a quick glance at some of the old structures and some of the "boom day" rocks that sit in the parking lot. Leadville was once one of the richest silver mining towns in the world and still retains much of its historic charm. They actually celebrate their annual Boom Day Festival that weekend before. Even after asking one of the locals who worked at the Pizza shop what it is, I'm still not entirely clear on what the festival celebrates, so if anyone has more info on that, I'd love to know!

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At this point in the day, we were starving and decided a pizza sounded like the move for lunch. We swung by High Mountain Pies, ordered a meatlovers, and enjoyed the pizza in their covered outdoor patio while a huge storm blew in.

After lunch, we stopped into a coffee shop and discussed if we wanted to camp near Twin Lakes or make our way down to the San Juans, where we'd be spending the rest of our trip. After some contemplation, we decided that it made the most sense to head down to Lake City and set up camp so we could fully enjoy the following day. So we grabbed a coffee, hopped in the truck, and made the ~3 hr drive down south.

We arrived at camp early evening and did some perusing of sites to see which area we'd call home for the next couple of days. We landed on a secluded site that was on Lake San Cristobal, but a bit off of the cliffside, so that we had some privacy and protection from the wind. We paid the camp host, got camp set up, and started a fire. Unfortunately, the tent was still pretty damp from the rain the night before, so we strung it along the side of the truck to the Clam, and it dried out quickly with the wind. After enjoying some time around the fire, we called it a night in preparation for Day 3.

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I recall this moment so vividly that I was sure I had a picture of it, but for the life of me cannot find it. You dove head first into one of the biggest snow drifts you could find on the trail.

We laughed and we laughed as we pulled you out That was fun.

Switzerland is fun with a foot or so of snow, but it can get squirrely fast and you'll be belly up on you skids in 3 feet of snow. Found that trail blocked a time or two by abandoned jeeps.

 

It was definitely one of those moments that everyone had enough recovery gear and I just put new snow tires on the truck and wanted to really test them out, so what the heck. I am still surprised how quickly I buried the 1st gen up to the frame rails.

 

Ah yes. This is more or less as I recall but in my head you were buried up to your grill. It doesn't take much to go from floating on top of the snow to buried diff deep, stuck belly up on skids.

 

Messing around near Fraser, CO

 

I ran Rainbow falls Friday and only made it about half way up. Blazing fresh powder the whole way. Then laid fresh tracks on Hotel Gulch and exited to Woodland Park off of Rampart road on Friday. Saturday I went up Old Stage Road with all intentions of making it over to Cripple Creek. The road was plowed-ish up to the fork to Penrose Reservoir then the snow got real deep.

 

That truck looks purposely buried

 

Plow driver gave no fucks