Buena Vista>Telluride off-road adventure

Dude that looks like a awesome and crazy trip! One of the reasons I just bought my taco is take some trips up there to do some wheeling.

 

i definitely recommend you doing that...you'll have a blast in that bad ass rig you got now...

 

That looks like it was one heck of a trip! (Great pics of a beautiful area!) I recognize some of your shots around Engineer Pass - I've hunted that area and covered some of the same terrain...

 

quite the memorable trip for sure.. and already can't wait to get back down there to knock off a couple more areas...the snow really dictated where we could go that weekend

amazing area though..i can't imagine hunting down there, that would be amazing to explore some off the trail terrain like that

 

It was quite an experience, involving a LOT of hiking and requiring snow shoes!

 

Fawking epic

Thanks for sharing. Those Engineer pass pics and Ophir pass pics were insane.

I am definitely going to do this next summer. In favorable conditions are the routes suitable for a stock 1st gen TRD with locker? (running 31 x 10.5 BFG all terrains)

 

engineer and ophir can both be done with your setup...we took mineral creek at the end of engineer pass which you may have some troubles getting down, but the full trail of engineer which would take you into anima forks would be fine...ophir is another trail that from start to finish you will be fine...

 

Just found this thread and it was great! I can't wait to go check out some of that scenery next summer. I live in Buena Vista, just moved out here last summer. Now that I have the Tacoma, I can't wait to spend summer weekends exploring!

 

I have done Mineral Creek in a my old stock FJ and my wife's Rubicon Unlimited with no issues at all. Looking forward to taking my new Tacoma next summer, hopefully.

Love the Ophir pictures in the snow. This past spring some guy in a Tacoma (at least it looks like an older Tacoma) rolled at the top. Scroll down about midway on this link and you can see the photo's.

http://telluridedailyphoto.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

This is a friend's blog that lives in Telluride.

 

Dang I'm jealous for sure!! that looked like an awesome trip. Thanx for sharing : )

 

x2, thanks for bumping it back up. those pictures are amazing! that looked insanely fun. Those snow coverd trails on the side of the cliff were wild! that rocky bypass section also looked very technical, way too much for my stock truck at the moment

 

BV is a great area...spend half dozen at least weekends up there each summer camping/hiking/wheelin...definitely not a bad place to land in colorado

that's nuts! looks like they were ok though judging by the "tow truck coming" note they left

it was a bit tense coming down there for sure with the snow that had fallen but after driving black bear pass once before when it was dry out, i knew that coming down the shelf road and switchbacks while it's snowing was NOT an option...

it was...can't wait to get back there and have another go at black bear and imogene...

yea we saw a stock jeep coming up the bottom of the bypass and the old man was having troubles on the easy stuff, so i informed him he should turn around while he could and take the normal way up...he was gracious

after seeing rlew's link he shared, i'm glad we made it down with no problems like that taco had seen...we were very cautious knowing that we didn't need to push ourselves and that the goal of getting home safe was #1 priority

 

Are there maps you can get of all these roads/trails? Or are they just on regular county/forest service maps? Also was wondering if you carried any fuel on the trail. Doesn't sound like you were ever more than a tank away from town, but I'm only vaguely familiar with the area.

Cool trip, nice work on the photos!

 

i used this book as my main guide..





i was contemplating getting a jerry can for the trip, but looking at mileage, we weren't really pushing the truck's fuel mileage limits...we got gas in denver, buena vista, gunnison and maybe lake city, but i don't think so...then we got gas in telluride when we got into town..then it was highways coming back to denver...but on the way there we had extra stops just to make sure we had full tanks going into the woods

 

We got to the top of Imogene one time and the gas light came on so we took off for Ouray. Got there and filled up realizing we had plenty of gas. Never did figure out why the light came on.

I had a link to an article and pictures from some guy that rolled off The Steps on Black Bear back in September of this year but it does not work anymore. Article said he had minor cuts and bruises, but other than that he was okay. I bet he had to change his underwear after that one!

 

the jeep guy right?

 

Yep. I found a picture I saved on my pc at work so I sent it to my phone but I can not upload from my phone to the forum! I will load it up tonight.

They have any kind of forum site blocked here at work.

 

found it...can't access the telluride news article though

 

That's it. Last time I checked the people I know there were not sure if they had been able to recover it before the first snowstorm right after the accident happened.

 

great pics of my favorite place to vacation,been there 3 times and i live in Illinois...I just bought 2012 tacoma sport ....Been on engineer pass ,alta lakes ,cinnamon,ophir,owl creek, just to name a few. I rented a Jeep in Ouray ..Hope to take my truck some day soon