Engineer Pass and Mineral Creek

Engineer Pass
Lake City to Ouray via Mineral Creek
Completed June 30, 2021

Started this trail in Lake City. The trailhead begins right off the SE corner of town just past the Lake City Brewery on County Rd 2 along Henson Creek. This portion of the trail is a dirt/gravel road. It is easy to drive with plenty of sights to see, including the Ute-Ulay Mine area. I aired down to 20psi and was on my way.





Once the trail up to the pass begins, it is well marked, easy to follow, and less than challenging. The biggest concern on this side of the pass was simply the narrow roads. I had no issues on the way to the top.



At the top of the pass, the views were beautiful being above tree line.





The way down to Ouray splits just down from the pass with a route headed South towards Animas Forks, or a more direct route along Mineral Creek. I chose Mineral Creek.



This portion of the trail proved to be challenging. I was warned it was “rocky” but what I found was numerous areas of getting out of the truck, picking the lines, and crawling over the rocky outcroppings. More than a few of these spots camber the truck away from the mountain as the passenger side crawled over the rocky portions. It was a little unnerving at first, as I had yet to hit trails this aggressive in my truck and I was unsure how well it would handle it. Turns out the truck didn’t skip a beat. I ran it in 4lo for this portion, gear locked in 2nd or 3rd with no use of the rear locker.





As I pushed through this section I was repeatedly faced with narrow rocky portions, tight turns, and tighter switchbacks. I come from a background of rock crawling in a Wrangler in Arizona so picking the lines wasn’t too challenging and was able to get down without too much trouble. If you drive Mineral Creek Trail, just know it’s not an easy dirt road, I recommend high clearance at the very least. I did smack my front skid towards the end, but that was due to me rushing the downward side of an obstacle and could easily have been avoided with a little more braking.

Toward the end of the trail, it does open up a little bit, but don’t be fooled as there are challenging sections pretty much all the way down to the staging area just south of Ouray.



At the bottom I found a nice place at the parking lot along Hwy 550 to air back up for the short drive into Ouray.



Overall I would rate Engineer Pass Road as easy, and Mineral Creek moderate to hard, depending on your vehicle.

 

Excellent! looks like a great trip! Are those 33" tires?

 

yes, 285/75/16

 

Fun trip! Did alpine loop- mineral creek- ouray and Kendall mountain in my stock 19 Trd or with Toyo AT3’s, having a spotter was helpful for a couple of those more technical spots. Will add some rock sliders for peace of mind next time.

 

How many inchift do you need to fit 33s? I have a sr5 3rd gen

 

We did the reverse from the parking area on 550 to Lake City on June 19 of 2021! We were camped at Ironton right off 550 for a week then. The views off Engineer are amazing. We took the time to hike to the top of Engineer mountain. It was breathtaking!

 

Wanted to do the Alpine Loop after the Flats. Looks promising. How’s the climate this time of year?