Visiting Colorado? This is your Local Information Thread!

Did a similar path from Denver to Flaming Gorge Reservoir in UT. We bombed through the area, but stopped at Sand Wash Basin where there are wild horses, and the Gates of Lodor at Dinosaur NM. We camped by Kremmling which was gorgeous. I'm sure there's plenty of trails you can hit (I know there's a few on the east side of Buffalo Pass by Steamboat Springs), but a lot of that route is through some spare country. If you're willing to divert from a direct course, there's lots of things I'm positive you can find - I hope somewhere here can guide you a bit better.

 

If you're not, you need to be aware there's a 23k acre fire burning just north of RMNP. Depending on wind you may have a smoky visit and not great views. To say nothing of the other larger fires in the west part of the state and whatever we're getting from CA. A week ago I could have told you it would be for sure, but the last few days we've had fronts moving through and it seems like it's a crap shoot as to where the smoke is any given day. We've had a break in the weather - down here on the front range we've gone from regular highs in the 90s to 70s and 80s. Expect high country to be at least ten degrees cooler than that and much lower overnight. And in most of the region there's a fire ban going.

Old Fall River Road is a nice drive, but even leisurely with all the stops takes about half a day, and it's a dirt road, not a trail. There's some shorter hikes that are the popular ones most people hit, like Alberta Falls or Dream / Emerald Lake (they're popular but also kind of representative of the RMNP experience if you can't take the time or distance to get to the more remote versions of them). The Loch if you've got a bit more distance in you but still not too bad. Steamboat is on your way from RMNP to and there's a lot to do in that area. We have some local members up there. Having only done it once, there's not really a lot between Steamboat and Dinosaur, at least not that I know of. While at Dinosaur (staying in Vernal) we went north to Flaming Gorge and toured the dam, and I thought it was worth the day-trip - scenic drive even if it is highway.

No, Ophir is easier than Imogene, it's just that neither are particularly difficult. The 'one part' of Ophir already discussed above (the narrow shelf section), there's at least two somewhat similar sections on Imogene, and some steeper hill sections, and a water crossing, and... Ophir's narrow section... well, there's places on Imogene where you can't get around another vehicle too, but personally I'd say Ophir's is a bit more dramatic, especially if you aren't ok with heights and shelf roads. I'm aware of more accidents and deaths on Imogene though. Ophir's one section is basically all there is, the rest is dirt road for the most part. Imogene feels more like a trail for more of it. I'm not familiar with the Funtreks books or their ratings and system, but I would not call Imogene hard, nor would I call Ophir medium. Ophir is more like easy with a get your feet wet medium or maybe hard section (again, most of that is in how you handle heights and shelf roads), Imogene would be a medium overall. But that's just me, and you kind of have to know a guy to get a feel for their difficulty calibration. I have a video of me running it in the rain with almost nobody up there and still having to pass someone on the shelf a few years back, but no decent way to share it. Have video from both Imogene runs on that same trip too. I'm sure you can find some on youtube though.

 

Yeah, never heard of that book but I saw a Subaru Outback doing Ophir the last time I was out there to give you an idea of how "hard" it is.

One thing I don't agree with, with a lot of rating systems if they automatically add "difficulty" to rating for shelf roads. I get that they are "scary" but just stay away from the edge, don't be stupid, and you'll be fine

 

Alec, just keep in mind the whole "Keep away from the edge" is the most common issue for roll-overs, they drive up the "safer" Mtn side of road and roll it over.

 

Yeah, I still don't see how people can get so far up on the side of a trail to roll, like, I feel like you'd feel yourself way leaned before you ever roll

 

You would think but there are many youtube video's that show it. I think it's really lack of off road experience but that's just my theory.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm not sure how i feel about shelf roads, but would like to give ophir a try next week. Imogene looks a little gnarlier from the vids ive seen so does black bear. idk if im ready for those.

I did Hermit road down near the sand dunes. They rate that a green and it wasn't bad just incredibly bumpy. I did Weston pass which they rate as a green too but my old jetta could have made it the entire way. The difficulties are kind of hit or miss.

Maybe you guys could give me some ideas for the trip I have planned for next week.

I live in Colorado Springs, planning on heading to BV over Cottonwood pass to Crested Butte. Kebler pass over to HWY 133. Up to Crystal mill/hill idk what its called. Down to Paonia, up to Grand Junction to see Colorado National Monument. Then to get down to Telluride or Ouray I was thinking west to Rim Rocker to either Nucla then Montrose or Nucla to Telluride. I'd like to see Alta lakes, then over Ophir to Silverton. I have a reservation at Molas lake one night, some friends recommended it. Then Durango/Pagosa Springs before heading back home. Gonna camp the entire time, just wanting to see cool mountain passes and some alpine lakes. Leaving Springs Friday hope to be back Saturday to decompress and get ready for the next work week.

 

Or anyone got more details on Schofield pass? I found this thread, https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dclb-on-schofield-pass.564045/ from a couple years ago a guy in a dclb with sliders had to pivot on his sliders. Anyone do it in a stock dcsb or and not damage anything?

Edit. NVM. Found other threads. Sounds like it's too much for me

 

Well, sadly it sounds like I will not be able to make the trip. We may have to travel for work and will be short handed so I'll have to stay behind and keep things running locally. Dang it!! But I plan on heading there at some point, hopefully this year. Sounds like the trails might be pretty busy this weekend anyways, so it might work out to my advantage. Thank you for all the info guys and I might have more Q's in the future for a different trip.

Out of curiosity, when does the snow usually start in the areas of Imogene and Ophir? I don't mind snow, but I would rather go there and enjoy the trail before the snow flies.

 

snow has already been starting to fly in the high country... won't stick around too long especially on the trails, but the season is already here where snow can fall any day there's moisture in the air at the higher elevations.

 

Most years you're okay before early October, although as mentioned above you can get snow anytime this time of year. Once October arrives things get chancy...

 

Yep, on Red Cone at 1pm Saturday it was 36* and raining.

 

We were just over in Telluride last week and ran Ophir from West to East in a rented Jeep. We had a guy in a stock Ford diesel pickup that made it up after us. There were a couple of spots where I would imagine he dragged a bit, but he made it. If you don't like heights and/or shelf roads, run it from west to east and you get the one somewhat sketchy shelf going uphill (with R-O-W) and then the drive down to Silverton is really gorgeous and easy.

We were going to try Imogene the next day, but it was raining that morning and we skipped it since the Jeep Jamboree was in Ouray and we didn't want to be stuck on a rainy shelf road with a dozen (or more) jeeps going the other way. Instead, we went out to Animas Forks (which is a really cool area) and then made a really dumb mistake and took a wrong turn on the way back and went down Poughkeepsie Gulch in the rain instead through Engineer Pass. In my defense, there was no signage at the top other than a sign pointing to Engineer Pass and Lake City to the right and Ouray to the left. For a trail the rental companies don't want you taking their vehicles on, you would think they would put a sign on it so you would know to avoid it. It was pretty sketchy in the rain in a rental jeep, but we made it down without any damage to the Jeep. My truck would not have made it over/around a few of the sharper boulder-laden turns, and I am pretty sure that had we turned around, I might not have made it back up over a few of the areas without some damage to the Jeep. After that experience, I would not hesitate to do Imogene given the relative ratings of the two trails.

 

Thank you for giving your experience. A friend said they did Imogene in their jeep, pretty sure its a stock 4d wrangler, but I'm not too sure. I may be talked into doing it in my stock off road shorty. I think the plan is to do Ophir west to east so its a relief to hear you say that is the easier way. Whats R-O-W?

 

Right of way (as in the uphill has it) given how many don’t know this use this with caution.

 

Headed out that way on the 11th, looking at exploring around the Crested Butte area this year. I'm in a mostly stock TRD Pro (have winch and better tires), buddy in a 2nd gen with 4WD but no locker. Not looking to do anything crazy, would say I am beyond beginner but not advanced. We did Tin Cup and part of Antero last year, plus some other miscellaneous stuff, and I did the Alpine Loop several years ago in a stock TRD Off Road (FS guy we ran into said the road was in better shape than he'd ever seen it that year, so there is that to consider -- I didn't find it that hard, just a bit scary on the shelf road up to Engineer since it was wet and I was running stock Rugged Fails). Those are about as difficult as I want to take on.

Any suggestions for that area, good dispersed camping options, areas to avoid?

 

Yeah, as Steve said, uphill drivers are "supposed" to have right of way and the downhill vehicle is "supposed" to move over and let you pass or back up and wait if there isn't a wide enough area for a pass between you. Not all drivers know that, and in practice what really seems to happen is that whoever has the easiest chance at a pullout will move over and wave the other people forward. On the west side of Ophir, there is one long shelf road that is fairly visible from either end. It really only has about 2-3 places along that shelf where two vehicles could actually pass, so the best idea is to look when you reach the corner where you can see the shelf start and if somebody is already on their way down, just wait for them to reach you rather than heading up and then trying to find a place to pass each other. The folks coming down can do the same thing where the first switchback corner comes around and they can see the entire shelf road from the upper end.

 

Right now, most of the restaurants are doing very limited or no dine-in eating. So almost every place is doing takeout. We got takeout from Brown Dog Pizza and Siam and both were very good. I have heard others say that High Pie Pizza is better than Brown Dog, but both seem to have their fan bases. We also picked up breakfast from Baked in Telluride before heading out one morning and their buttermilk bars are delicious. They had a huge selection of other pastries and also offer breakfast burritos. I had the chorizo, egg, and cheese burrito and my wife had their potato, egg, and cheese and both were great.

 

Hey all, coming out end of next week for 2 weeks for some off grid adventures. Staying at Chapman in White River National Park. Looking for some truck trail + hiking trail recommendations(maybe a few overnights backpacking) for my stock+ OR rig to do solo with a buddy, so nothing super technical. Just nice day trips trail to a trailhead to hike some place beautiful.

Past years I have run Hagerman, Red Table, Diemer and Stellar Lake, FS 532->538(Cunningham Road), Ivanhoe Lake all in stock 4runner

Truck has following mods (31.6" KO2, RCI skids, rock rails, Bilstein TRD Pro - 1.5" lift, hi-lift, come-along, straps, shackles, ham radios, garmin inreach)

If anyone is going to be around during the window, feel free to DM me.

 

Multi day hike
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/four-pass-loop--5

Also, you could do an out and back (4x4) to Crystal Mill in the Marble area about an Hour from Basalt




Capital Creek Basin- Rocky but Subaru's can make it to trail head.



One of a few trail info
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/capitol-peak