Rimrocker Trail

The Rimrocker Trail is a 160-mile off-road route that goes from Montrose, CO to Moab, UT (or vice-versa).

More details are here: https://rimrockertrail.org/

To start, here is a windshield view montage to illustrate the terrain changes:

 

Now that the 80's montage is out of the way, we can proceed.

I went with one vehicle, my good buddy, and my dog. I recommend bringing another rig for both safety reasons and just to have some better action shots. The trip was started this past Friday (7/3) with the intent of finishing up and getting back either Sunday or Monday (7/5 or 7/6). Things...didn't quite go as planned.

We began in Montrose.

As we started up the road, which at this point was easy and rather crowded, we stopped to look at the landscape behind us.



To the left, Grand Mesa.





To the right, Aspen, Vail, etc.



To the far right, the San Juans which house the Alpine Loop Trail and its associated spurs. The area was hit with heavy rain continually throughout the weekend and this was one of the only clear views that we were rewarded.



In the immediate vicinity, a furry idiot. Also, a dog.



Back to it.



I've been getting into the finer points of photography lately, and have the camera set up manually to reflect this. That would have been great, if I had been stopping every 5 minutes and taking photos completely still. Of course, off-roading doesn't afford stillness and many of the pictures of the first leg were too blurry to use. Lesson learned; while moving, take pictures in an auto mode. Deal with the processing later.

One of the side routes (among many) is the Roubideau Loop (or Jeep Trail), a 13-mile path that bypasses a part of the regular Rimrocker. We decided to take a look.



We ran into a multitude of fallen trees. Some of them we could easily roll over, some we simply moved, but this one I decided to hack up. Of course, I forgot to bring a saw.





With that out of the way, we moved on.



We finished the loop! Or did we? It was way too short. Something wasn't right, but we'd figure that out later. We continued on the main road toward what we hoped would be our campsite for the night.

On the way, we ran into a scenic overlook.







We got to the campsite and staked our claim. Normally, I avoid developed sites. Given the Stage I fire ban in effect, however, I opted for a metal fire ring because I really wanted a fire.

Checking the map, we found that we had started the Roubideau trail but had managed to veer off onto a side spur back to the Rimrocker. Given the amount of daylight that we had left, we decided to keep it safe...and try again. This time, we started from the closer side of the loop.













It was a fun trail, but we ended up having to move a lot of deadfall. This chewed up clock and it was starting to get dark, fast.



At the very end of the trail, we had to go under this tree. Unfortunately, thanks to the camera settings that I had set up, we didn't get many pictures of going under it. A bit unnerving though, as we removed some of the hanging branches and the tree proved to be loose.



But we managed, and more importantly we completed the whole loop. By the time we connected back to the Rimrocker, it was pitch black. We doubled back to camp. Right before the lookout point that we had visited earlier, I saw a bear run across the road ahead of us. This was the first bear that I had ever seen while in the wild.

We got back to camp, built a fire, and cooked up some burgers.



It was a beautiful, peaceful night.

Just kidding. There were cows. Everywhere. Earlier on the loop, we had to force a herd off of the trail. They didn't look too happy. I suspect that their revenge was to keep me up all night long. Mooing, walking through the site, huffing, hacking, and stomping through trees. It didn't help that we found bear tracks in the campsite. I was, to say the least, paranoid.

Damn cows.

The heat of the morning got me out of bed, with me running on fumes.


While we drank coffee and ate a healthy batch of bacon and eggs, doggo got busy.



Back to it. From here, the trail goes into the town of Nucla. But first we wanted to check out another alternative loop, Divide Road to Burro Creek.






The views were incredible. We rolled up to the Burro Creek section.









The road looked fun. But given that both my truck and myself were low on gas, we decided to head back to the main Rimrocker trail straight to Nucla.







Nucla was a nice little town that luckily had gas. Filled up the tank and my gas can. I tried the convenience store that was attached but it was closed for the 4th.

So we started the next leg. By this time, we had figured out the camera situation...man, I'm glad that we did.



Uh-oh. It was hot, dry, and we had storms coming in. A perfect situation for that fire to blow up...and it looked like we were heading straight for it.





The building storms didn't look like they would bring much rain. Dry storms with wind downbursts...exactly what we didn't need.



We pressed on though, knowing that we had exit strategies in case things went south.







The fire was close. Too close.



I scouted ahead, and my fears were realized. It was moving fast, and there was no telling which way it would end up. I didn't wait around to find out.



Knowing that the map showed us as going away from the smoke, we got the hell out of there.



The water crossings, including the infamous one (Tabeguache Creek) were bone-dry.



I was expecting, maybe hoping, for some Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shenanigans.



Wait, we're routing BACK to the fire? What the hell?



False alarm. Still went far faster than I normally would on such a trail.



On the horizon was the La Salle Range, which is in Utah and was exactly where we were headed.



I couldn't wait to see what was on the other side.

 

We continued on. It was still early in the day, and my hope was to get to the next campsite on the route, Buckeye, which would put us right at the Utah border.

The markers kept us on track.



I was still in awe at how different the landscape was compared just to the previous day.







The fire was still doing it's thing. In the background is what I believe to be Williams Peak. The road to the right is Hwy 141 which at this point is following the San Miguel River.



Somewhere in the area is Uravan, a now-defunct mining town where uranium and vanadium was extracted. At one point, it was used only to support the Manhattan Project. We saw a lot of hills with green hues like this in the area; I suspect it was related to the town's operations.



I'm disappointed in myself that I've never really explored this part of Colorado...so much history and beauty.





It will never cease to amaze me how and where mining structures were built.







Although I didn't manage to capture a picture, above his scene an aircraft flew overhead. I assumed that it was a spotter plane. We would find later that there was a town north that hosted an airfield to ferry tourists around the canyons.



The La Sal range was looming ever closer, and I was looking forward to some more pine therapy.



At this point, we were descending quickly toward Hwy 141, as we would have to cross it to get to the next leg of the trail.









Right after the above picture, we hit 141. It was just a quick jaunt south on pavement to get back to the good stuff. It was already almost 5 PM on July 4th weekend, so I wasn't betting on finding a campsite at Buckeye. That was OK, as it was very hot and I wasn't worried about having a campfire anyway. Here we go!



























No. This can't be happening. We came all of this way...

We could just go to the left and bypass the blockage. Maybe some overzealous mining claimer was trying to keep people away. Or, it could have been the RV owners ahead who were trying to homestead. Either way, we refused to believe our eyes.

But we had no service. So, do we go south on 141, and go up to Buckeye to continue that way? But that would be quite a detour and we had no idea what the status of the fire was (which itself was just off of the highway).

Since there was still 4 hours of daylight left, we decided to go north and get to the next town for service to see the official status of the trail.

While dejected, at least we got some amazing scenery.













We finally got some spotty signal. Our worst fears were confirmed...the trail was closed past that point thanks to fire, and it wouldn't open again--at the soonest--until July 8th. The target campsite was closed, as well. I have no idea how I missed the announcement, but an important lesson was learned.

We didn't want to give up yet. If we couldn't finish our initial trail, then maybe we could find a campsite for the night and do some light wheeling the next day in the Grand Junction area. We were headed straight for Grand Mesa, so we figured we'd check out some options there.

We found a less-traveled back way to get to the top, Land's End Trail.



You can clearly see the route.



You can see the canyon that we just came from, and the smoke.



We rise.











A hawk looking for a July 4th feast.





After we got to the top, we explored for a few hours in the hope that something could pop up. Unfortunately, we were too little, too late. Unsurprisingly the developed campsites were packed and sadly many of the dispersed sites that we found were taken up by RV cities. In the end, all's fair and we arrived too late to the party.

Tail tucked between our legs, we headed home.

I will finish the trail before summer's end. More to come.

 

@McRib this is what we missed this summer


I need a disconnect we need to plan something maybe Georgia Traverse or Alabama

 

@JaCado, thanks for looking out. You can respond now without interrupting the flow.

 

No promoting @buffedout adventurez! I tried to be the president of his fan club once and he scolded me with gifs!

 

But but but he's in CO and has some sick places to wheel

 

Wait where are the fun stuff pics. It’s just a dirt road?

 

Im not seeing if I’m post 1! Post 2 & 3 better be pretty fucking epic!

 

Right?! Where da fookin rocks at??

 

Rim rocker looks like a fun bomber trail

 

Part I up.

 

I thought I recognized that ugly mug in the pictures.

subbed. I want to do that trail.

 

Let's go hope you can keep up

 

Shit
It won’t be a problem cause I’ll have to keep pulling your “full send” ass out lol

 

Part 2 is posted.

 

So cool!!!

 

Beautiful pics! Looks like a great time!

#jealousflatlander

 

Just a fire road but I read somewhere that it is about to be expanded from a 160 mile point to point trail from Montrose, CO to Moab into a 560 mile loop. The new section is supposed to return to Montrose via a northern all unpack route.