Colorado Trip Reports

We'll that sucks.... we were running about an hour late, might have caught you

 

At the top of Red Cone

 

Someone here in silver taco at top of bill Moore today?

 

Poser rock at bill Moore lake.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ6ZgNCKgeA


Next time you're heading out west to Moab, make sure to run back through the Dinosaur Nat'l Monument up on Hwy 40.

 

Looks like an awesome trip. Did you just recently get that FJ? I thought you drove a 1st gen taco.

 

Great video, what river is that in the preview pic?

 

I did. Sold that 1st gen back in May.

Green River.

 

The upper river north of Pinedale?

 

Red Cone>Webster>Santa Fe>Chihuahua w/ @teamhypoxia

We saw sun, rain and snow in a few hours, trail is in great shape and not closed, despite the gossip. Webster is going to be awhile, drift is easily 20-30 feet deep still. Radical didn't look open, talked with the moto guys we helped and they came down it but didn't think a full size would be capable yet, maybe in a week or two.

 

Headed up Kingston yesterday, but the north gate was still closed, so ran up Rollins East to fish, I hate that fucking road. It was fun blowing by people doing 30 when they are doing 3, came down Jenny Creek faster than someone else made it down the main road.

 

how was santa fe?

 

Yes, indeed.

 

It's a good trail, I had done it before. Pretty quick, an hour up and back, the part above tree line is cool, you look over at Red Cone, Greys and Toreys, breck, Geneva basin, Chihuahua, Peru, Argentine, etc, higher than most of the peaks in the area, 13K and change.

 

cool...I've seen it from Webster before and been curious..need to get up there one of these days

 

Worth the trip, a good adder to Red Cone if headed out through Montezuma.

 

And a couple of octogenarians shamed us by hiking the damn thing

 

The idea was to do a nice relaxing trip through Shelf Road and Phantom Canyon Road (neither of which are difficult) and then go camping. Started a bit late on Saturday...didn't get on the road until almost 10.

Just outside of Cripple Creek. The start of Shelf Road.







Window Rock.







A bunch of trees hanging out...looks suspicious.



The real captain of the ship. She was a bit nervous...a lot of turbulence.











Red Canyon Park. Beautiful stuff. Wile E. Coyote is out there somewhere. We would have camped here except the "interesting" characters already in the area made us think otherwise. A campsite further down the road looked OK but was out in the open and the flash flooding warnings pushed us forward. The only other campsite in the region (The Banks) appeared to be closed.



So, knowing that Phantom Canyon would probably be full up camping-wise, we decided to head over to San Isabel National Forest.

First campsite--on Lake Isabel--no dice. Second campsite: Davenport Creek. No dice. Third: Ophir Creek. Filled to the brim. Smith Creek: couldn't find it. Halfway to Florence with a quarter of a tank we decided to go west to...Westcliffe. Shot up north from there. First site was next to Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp. Been there before and it was nothing spectacular so we kept moving on. Got into Coaldale and headed toward camping. First up was Cutty's Resort...mini golf? Moving on. Coaldale Campground: closed. One last resort...Hayden Creek Campground further up.




Got lucky.





Breakfast of champions.



May as well hit up Hayden Pass.



Burn scars.









OH HI





This burn seemed fresh. There was a plane flying around the area as well...spotter?





Landslide.





Trying to figure this one out...moss on the trees. At first it looked like beetle kill trees only but upon closer inspection it seemed universal. It appeared to make the trees sick.







WUT

 

hayden pass burned just last year, so relatively fresh burns

 

Check out bushducks

http://bushducks.com/tripreps/passopen.htm