Highest Elevation Tacoma

Snowman7878?

 

Before I got my Tacoma I took my 88 Suzuki Samurai on a camping trip in the Rocky Mountains at around 11,000 elevation just below Greenie Peak in NM, and the taco stayed at 8,650 in Red River, haven’t had a chance to take him on any more high elevation trips

 

It has been done.



Elevation 14172.

Posting this live from the summit, where I just missed a set of F15s that buzzed the peaks.



Feel like an ass, everyone else walked up here. I'm eating leftover steak in a lawn chair.

 

Awesome. Now go hike Antero

 

Did you/will you run Mosquito Pass?

 

I had no idea you could drive up Bross. That's cool
How's the drive?

 

Yep, came in that way last evening and camped up in the valley near the pass. It's as miserable a drive as ever, but there's only one snow bank left and it's thoroughly worn through.



Camped at 12k feet just across the valley from North London. Should have pushed on to a lower elevation, I didn't sleep very well.



Sorry for the cheese quality pictures here, I'm doing this on a phone.

Lol, I'm spent! Hiked all day yesterday. Ima go try my luck fishing and panning the Arkansas.

Hard to find the right trailhead, and narrow and tippy in places. But overall easy peasy, and entirely less jarring than Mosquito.

 

Mosquito was on my list, I'll have to add Bross too.

 

Engineer Pass
I know I was above 13k at several points during this week-long excursion, but I have no altitude authenticators other than the sign here.

 

Not my Tacoma(s)... but I just love high mountain peaks and will take the excuse to post more photos.



Around 13,700 ft asl, near the top of a 30,600-foot tall volcano.



Traffic up here is a mix of idiot tourists in rental Jeeps (myself included), and locals in Tacomas with surf boards in the beds, shuttling snowboarders.



Hope they don't mind that that some random creep is posting photos of them on a pickup truck forum.



My only shot at astrophotography on the whole trip... and they kicked us off right at sunset. Oh well, we still had fun!

 

This pic is insane!

 

I'm back again with more rambling thread spam... new photos of old places already posted here (some by myself!) Sorry but not sorry--I really like this thread.

1. California's Mt Patterson -- 11,650 feet.

For the US state who's peak elevation outranks all others except Alaska, plus has legalized recreational stuff since... actually we can't remember for some reason: Damn, it's not easy to drive high in California!

I mean, people get super high here all the time, but almost nobody is allowed to get anywhere near that high while driving. And that's like... a huge downer, man.

Compare that to Colorado, where not only can you get almost as high as in CA, but there are like dozens of ways to get super high all over the state, and by far the most popular way is to just trip in your car--you ride it all the way to the peak, enjoy the high for a while, then take it easy coming down. You can trip on a weekday, with your kids, with your parents... it's just completely normal to get super high tripping in your car there.

Well, I'm still hoping to reach the ultimate high while tripping in California, but it's not going to be easy, so Mt. Patterson is my best trip to date. And actually, I've gotten just slightly higher than this before, but I hit a barrier, never peaked, and came down way too early. Mt. Patterson is a fun trip and still gets you pretty high. Plus the visuals are intense. It's my new favorite trail in California!

And with thanks to @another395Taco for inspiring this one several years ago.







2. Mt McClellan, CO -- 13,100 ft

Last week found me once again at the saddle below Mt McClellan in Colorado's Front Range, which I posted here previously, but now I can add pictures with the Tacoma there too...



... and also plagiarize the Wikipedia entry on the former rail line that terminated here:

The railroad grade (and today's vehicle trail) terminates abruptly at a saddle just below 13,100 feet elevation, but it's a somewhat easy hike to McClellan's peak if you enjoy stumbling along treacherous ridgelines in hypoxic euphoria.

I'll spare you my desire to post historical references as well, but I believe many of the era's reports of mine and tunnel progression to be wildly overstated based on what is visible and explorable today. Every mountain was touted as 14k+ feet, every ridgeline was claimed to be the continental divide, and every tunnel was thousands of feet long and nearly complete, having already intersected dozens of high-grade ore bodies. Not that they didn't dig a million holes in this mountain range -- dozens of tailings piles scar every hillside in sight. But they were clearly exaggerating all aspects of their endeavors in their reportings.

I have indeed located and visited both ends of the 1.4 mile tunnel, though; both are gated shut, and although I can't find any indications of water collection or delivery infrastructure, available online evidence suggests it is still in service, with the east portal extensively repaired about 15 years ago. Perhaps it is used intermittently or during other seasons, or perhaps the modern water infrastrucutre is buried out of sight.

Sadly, the numerous other tunnels and mine workings in this region are being gated off at an alarming rate -- better explore what remains while you can!


(2016 photo) I was looking forward to this old favorite, but it's now permanently blocked!

Interestingly, signage at the worksite housing for an aborted trans-divide tunnel of that era, located in the valley far below in the first photograph above, suggests that an aerial lift (chairlift? tram?) once brought tourists to this summit station as well. I found some haulage cables nearby, which I previously assumed must have been for mining purposes. Can't find much else up there to hint at the scale of this ridgeline's former glory as a tourism site.

Here's a historical photo of said tunnel I lifted from the CSM library site, though:

"The dream still lives though the dreamer dies"

Now isn't that eloquent... not sure anyone will say the same about whatever ill-fated hill I eventually die upon. More likely: The dream finally died with him--thank God.

I failed to find this tunnel in the darkness. But I did try to drive the old rail grade all the way to Silver Plume this year -- quite the mistake: I wound up reversing for nearly four miles. Those old narrowgauge grades are, well... pretty damn narrow!



3. Argentine Pass -- 13,200 feet

Nearby (and prior to the above fiasco) I reached the ~13,200-foot summit of Argentine Pass -- considered Colorado's highest vehicle-accessible pass, although it is not traversable to the other side today. But this was definitely once a significant through-route.



Whats that? You want me to copy and paste more Wikipedia? Okay, if you insist...

The mines and railroads are long gone, but these peaks still see heavy traffic to this day, with visitors arriving in flocks to enjoy the apline tundra:


Get it?



4. Mt Antero Trailhead -- 13,700 ft

Finally, and definitely not because @turbodb told me to, I made it up Antero this year... starting from BV, affording this magnificent view of my destination...



Wait, actually that one's Mt Princeton. Antero is to the left and less prominent from this vantage point. Whatever.


Here we are parked as high as I could drive above trailhead -- approx. 13,700 feet -- and the truck's high score for this year.

I myself scored even higher ... however high Mt Antero is!



Well either that, or 37,000 feet. But that was crammed in the back row middle-seat of basic-economy on an overbooked narrowbody holding over Iowa just long enough to ensure there was no hope of connecting home when we finally slamed down on the runway at O'Hare six hours late in a thunderstorm, then standing in line for two hours to get a three-leg standby ticket that we all know won't get me home, so they throw in a free voucher to go fuck myself because it's the weather not the airline's fault.

You know what, actually, I really enjoyed the Antero hike, even if it was less than 37,000 feet elevation.




Edit: Bit of a high-mountain update, while I was in town, they officially chanced the name of Mt Evans to Mt Blue Sky

 

Love the celebration 'beam'.

 

Made it up to Pike’s Peak summit last Thursday- 14,115ft. The turns close to the summit are pretty insane. Interestingly, there is surprisingly little race heritage to be found anywhere on the mountain. I saw one patch in the gift shops & about 60 seconds of race doc footage in a film at the summit visitor center- that’s it. The starting line is barely noticeable too. Also, there is a ranger shack that conducts mandatory brake temperature checks as you begin your descent. Couldn’t get a shot of my truck w/ the summit sign, so these will have to serve as documentation:

 

Just an fyi about anybody wanting to roll Mt Evans/Blue Sky: the final leg to the summit is closed after Labor Day. I was there last week. You’re gated at the Chicago Lakes Overlook, which is roughly 12.5k ft.

 

Great pics and info. I’ve added a few more pins to my Colorado folder on Google maps, thanks!

 

Gorgeous pics. Thanks everyone!

 

Got this made on Amazon for the lols.

 

Everglades NP

 

It kills me that the tallest places in Florida seem to be bridge abutments.