Ophir Pass/Alta Lakes-Imogene Pass and Black Bear Pass- 3 Day Off-road Adventure

My buddy and I decided to partake in a 3 day adventure in the Telluride area. He has been really wanting to get into the Overlanding scene and has been looking at the new 3rd Gen Tacoma TRD OR. So we decided to take out my 3rd Gen 4Runner and see what she could do. Our 1st stop on the list was Ophir Pass and camp at Alta Lakes.

We decided to take the long way to get the Ouray and go through Cottonwood Pass and down. This way would an extra hour to our drive, but neither one of us had taken that Pass. The top of the Pass was pretty cool, turned out to just be a well maintained dirt road, but offered some great scenes.



Next stop: Ouray and then the Million Dollar Highway to Ophir Pass.

Ouray is a pretty cool little town, definitely was worth the stop.



Now we are off to the Ophir Pass on the Million Dollar Highway. This highway felt a little sketchy with no sway-bars in the rain




After 6 hours of driving, we finally made it to Ophir Pass

At the summit




Going down the summit was at least a little fun







The town of Ophir, which used to be a supply hub for all the mines in the area


Now that Ophir is done, we are on our way to our camping spot at Alta Lakes






4Runner camping


Quick review: This trail was extremely easy, but pretty beautiful drive. Not sure if I would do this trail again, except as a way to get to Alta Lakes. It could have been because we were already on the road but overall wasn't too impressed with the trail. Seeing the town of Ophir was kind of cool though.

Up next: Telluride and Imogene Pass

 

Day 2: Telluride and Imogene Pass

After we broke down camp we decided to head down to Telluride and spend part of there day before we would hit up Imogene Pass. Telluride is a pretty cool town, and the free Gondola is an added bonus.

Leaving Alta Lakes


The beginning of Imogene Pass: We started in Telluride



Looking at Black Bear Pass and Bridal Falls





At the top of Imogene 13K feet up









Heading down:




The stream crossing. It is a lot stepper than it looks. The Wrangler in front of me smacked his tail pipe and I smacked my trailer hitch



The campsite for the night. We camped on a nice cliff face that you could see down into the old mining town



Our little visitor


I would highly recommend doing Imogene in reverse, starting in Ouray. It's a lot more technical starting in Ouray.

 

Day 3: Black Bear Pass and Last Dollar Road

Here is a shot of my KO2's at the beginning of Day 3. They held up great, tackled everything we threw at them.


This was a cool "Rescue" truck at the bottom of Imogene


The beginning...



A cool flex spot we found before we started to head down the other side of Black Bear Pass


Heading down



Telluride



The point of no return


Looking down Telluride


Well this looks fun





We made it


Bridal Falls



Our camping spot on Lost Dollar Road

 

nice pics, looks like a nice little trip.

 

Beautiful! Great pics!

 

Thanks. Definitely looking forward to go again next year. My buddy already said he won't take his 3rd gen Taco on Black Bear though

 

I would take my first gen over my second gen because I think it would be more fun, either way I'm sure I would have a blast.

 

It would be a blast in any rig. It offers a lot of pucker factor but it's a blast once you finish

 

Looks fun and nice timing on the weather. Sweet final campsite. Was that close to or within view of others?

 

Alta Lakes had a bunch of spots but were spread out and pretty private. We had no neighbors but saw people camped while we found ours. The one on Imogene we had no one by us and I'm pretty sure we were the only ones camping in that area. The last spot there were 5 of us pretty close together. The last spot we kind of just looked for trails we knew had spots on it and it was really close to Telluride.

 

The pucker factor on Black Bear Rises significantly if your in a Manual, most swear off ever running it again.

 

Very nice. I hope to be making some of those trips soon. Good to see the mail box is still on Imogene.

 

My buddy will have a manual in his 17 Taco. I cannot wait to run it again.

Next year we are going to skip Ophir and do Apline Loop

 

nice pictures bud!

 

Hi! I'm actually going to be in Telluride next week and looking to do the Imogene Pass drive. In doing my research I came across this thread (gorgeous pics btw!). Is the pass do-able in a '18 stock Tacoma OR? We'll be camping around Telluride so we'll be heading up the pass from the town, and probably will come back down the same route. Any tips or points for a newbie? Thank you in advance.

 

Still stock tires?

 

I think you’ll be fine. We did Black Bear and Alpine Loop in a stock 17 Tacoma Double Cab OR on stock tires. I think going from Telluride down Imogene is the “easier” path. If you want a good spot there to camp there is a good one over looking the airport of Telluride. Definitely recommend airing down to 15-20psi, if you can see if you roll with a group on the trail. We ended up going with Jeep group out of Illinois we met on Imogene and they let us tag along. Safety in numbers. Overall it isn’t too difficult, some spots you might need a spotter. Other than that enjoys the views.

 

Yeah.

 

Awesome! Thank you so much for the info. I just ordered a compressor just for the occasion. We may end up camping once we're higher up on the pass, will definitely look for the spot you're talking about.

 

The San Juans and southwest Colorado is a great area. So many trails and don't forget the restaurants. Lots of good BBQ.

The most challenging trail my group took was Poughkeepsie Gulch which requires winching. That was the only trail I didn't do in my fairly stock rig.