Tacomas in Minnesota?

Sure thing! A few pics from our July 4th trip out to CO feat. said bumper (and our dog).

 

What tails did you do out there? heading there in 2 weeks to do some exploring and some alpine passes.

 

We did Cinnamon Pass from Lake City to Animas Forks (we wanted to hike Handies Peak - if you're into fishing, there's a lake halfway up full of trout - I could have spent the whole trip there, haha!) then cut down to Silverton - I would have liked to have finished the pass from Animas straight into Ouray, but it had been a long day and the trail into Ouray, when viewed from the bottom off the Million dollar highway, looked quite spicy, so I was okay that we bailed out into Silverton, definitely still a beautiful drive. Then we drove Imogene Pass from Ouray to Telluride - it's beautiful, but definitely a bit more technical than the youtube videos would have you believe. We smacked the skidplate once but I could have been more careful (2" lift). We skipped the North side of the Alpine loop (Engineer Pass) due to many folks saying it's quite a bit more challenging than Cinnamon. I would love to go back and rent a Razer or something to get get all up and around the sketchier areas when I wouldn't have to worry about losing my truck off a cliff.

We also did a lot of bumming around the Holy Cross Wilderness south of Red Cliff, CO - saw a monster bull moose and drove some fun trails. We thought about trying to drive up to Holy Cross City, but the road leading up there was also quite spicy so we decided to pass it up this time around.

The whole route was Denver -> Red Cliff -> Leadville -> Lake City ->Silverton -> Ouray -> Telluride -> Hotchkiss CO (just driving back, the road south of Black Canyon of the Gunnison was closed for blasting, so we had to take a 90 mile detour to CO-92, which, in hindsight was amazing and would highly recommend the drive along 92 between Hotchkiss and Gunnison) -> back to Denver, but stayed South to avoid any I-70 stoppage.

If you make it to Buena Vista, CO, stop at Sorelle Deli for a sandwich - had one of the best Meatball subs of my life, and my wife loved the hell out of her BLT.

 

Nice thanks for the info. How long did all that take you? We got about 10 days and have a 900 mile route planned threw I think 12 passes over 11k ft. I doubt we will make it threw half of it but I'm hoping to make it out to the alpine loop and telluride and ouray but we will see how much time we spend on the way there. We are going to enter the mtns south of denver, got to pikes peak, great sand dunes via Medano pass then to creede and silverton and the lot out there. we have a few hikes planned also so who knows if we will make it to any of them.
Also what size tire you on?

 

Hey Minnesota! Hopefully joining the MN Tacoma club next week

 

Two summers ago we did 17 days in the San Juan’s, and the alpine loop minus black bear because it was closed still.

Too many idiots. Expect traffic, and people that don’t know trail rules or what turnouts are for.

Ophir Pass from Ophir to Silverton was basic, only “challenge” was the shale shelf road section, but only if you don’t like heights. Honestly it was pretty pedestrian.

Imogene Pass from Ouray to telluride.. do it this direction, the climb up to the summit was decently technical, and the creeks were swollen, so the crossings were about waist deep. Rocks were wet from misting. Used the locker four times on the ascent.

Silverton to Animas Forks. Mosquito pass IIRC, Again, pretty pedestrian. Animals Forks ghost town was awesome.

We planned to take cinnamon pass down to Lakevulle, but downhill traffic idiots caused us to miss the switchback onto the route. Opted for Engineer pass. About two turns from summit we came across a UTV that went off into the boulder field. Long story short, I spent my afternoon stabilizing two badly injured people who were ejected from said UTV, and coordinating medevac by helicopter. While there found out cinnamon had three landslides stranding 50 people till the next afternoon.

Mineral Creek Trail, animas forks’ish to Ouray. Did this to GTFO the mountain, started down at dusk, finished 3hrs later in the dark. Moderate-difficult route, lots of clanging and banging on the sliders and skids. Hill-Decent was my friend.

Beautiful country, and I’ll likely be there next week visiting friends, but I’ll pass on the alpine loop this time. One day I’ll go back for black bear, but the level of dumb asses up there dictates it won’t be soon.

I’ve got some good places to disbursed camp in the area and some good eats as well.

In NM now.

 

Finally broke in the truck, on a mountain in CO... appropriate.

 

We were out in the mountains for 5 and a half days or so.

I just had new BFG K02's put on at 265/75/R16 - Way quieter and better balanced than my Wildpeaks were.

 

Yes my main concern for being out there is all the ass hats who have side by sides and disregard all tail rules. Hoping to hit some of the passes middle of the week so we don't get caught up in traffic. I've heard a lot of people doing Imogene Ouray to Telluride but is it to difficult the other direction. I am hoping to take black bear into Telluride and then take Imogene out.

 

We passed Several vehicles coming up and over from Telluride, probably ~10 - Middle of the week is definitely nice, we planned all of our adventurous drives during the weekdays to minimize too much traffic. I'm sure its totally fine, I just preferred going up some of the technical areas outside of Ouray to trying to navigate down them.

 

Here is the route we are planning. I doubt we will get threw most of it since we are going to be hiking and possibly doing a couple 14er summits but hoping to do all the good passes if we have time. Here is the route I have planned out in Gaia.

 

Imogene from telluride is an easy set of switchbacks up to the summit then the technical stuff down to Ouray. It’s not difficult, but I like going up, not down.

 

You could always do something to black bear, Ophir back over to Silverton, million dollar road to Ouray, the n Imogene back to telluride.

 

Very true. I don't think out time out there is really set in stone so we might just go where there are less people ha

 

I’ll tell you how packed Telluride is tonight, we’ll be there for dinner. We are limping the truck home, front shock top nuts nearly backed themselves out in valley of the gods, and I can’t get them any tighter... I think I shit out the lower bushings bilaterally.

 

Damn sorry to hear that! Never fun when you break something on a trip. Have you looked into anywhere in Denver to get a replacement on your way home?

 

It’s not bad, as long as I stay off the trails. We parted with our friend from CA at Natural Bridges this morning, so we were going to be pushing East anyway. Been on the trail since last Friday.

 

Few photos from Guadalupe Mountains this summer.

 

It's a long shot, but does anyone have a grey back seat from a '13 - '15 they don't want? I just need the bottom seat passenger side.

 

can't help you out......buuuuut what were you doing back there haha