w squared

Hi folks

I'm en route from Houston Texas to Calgary Alberta, and I've managed to plot a route that takes me through Durango, Silverton, and Ouray. As it stands I plan to be moving pretty slowly as I pass through this area....I've planned one full day to get from Durango to Ouray on 550 because I want to stop along the way, take it easy, and hike.

As I travel from town to town I'll be in a 2008 JKU Rubicon on 35's, towing a trailer that can handle most trails that a stock 4x4 can handle:


I have no shortage of off-road experience and in the future I anticipate exploring more of what this area has to offer (I'd like to spend two solid weeks doing just that in the future). On this trip, I'd like to keep it to scenic, relatively easy wheeling. I'm more than willing to park the trailer in a campground and keep it there for a couple days as I do local day trips - either wheeling or hiking.

What are your suggestions as to what I should see/do/hike/wheel? Amazing must-see places to eat/drink/shop?

And....is anyone interested in doing one or more of the high alpine passes? The truth is that I'm not going to be doing any routes on this trip that might involve using my winch....and preferably nothing that even includes using my lockers. I've got a LOT of miles to cover, and wheeling-induced mechanical breakage is not something that would fit well with my plans at this time.

MikeOK

we just got back. My favorite was Imogene. We did several trails in the area, here's a thread I started after we got back:

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-t...o-week-343475/

w squared

Awesome. It looks like you had a blast. I felt the same coming back from Moab in 2010.

Did you wheel most of the passes solo, or were you with a group? Is there much ability in Ouray to find a group to wheel with? I'm thinking of Moab, where anyone in a Jeep can find two or three possible groups to join on any given morning at City Market.

MikeOK

We were solo, but were only alone on Pearl Pass Crested Butte to Aspen. On most of the other trails we waited at the trailhead for a group and asked if we could join them, they were all tickled to have us along. But, it's that way everywhere I've jeeped, jeepers are for the most part a pretty cordial bunch. After this trip I decided we would never be alone up there again. It's dangerous.

One thing you may consider though, the dates you will be there many trails will be closed because of snow. You can go to this site for fairly up to date trail reports:
Bushducks Back Country Adventure

Take that link with a grain of salt though, most of the reports are done by locals and I found that they underestimate the difficulty at least to a flatlander like me.

Edit: I just saw your dates again, you should be fine in early sep.

MikeOK

Oh yeah, the best place we found to eat was True Grit in Ridgeway. Yum!

w squared

Thank you! I was not at all certain that there would be enough traffic that I could just "pick up " a group...but that's definitely good to know.

I am considering my first day starting in Durango, and then crossing Ophir pass and looping around on the pavement to come into Ouray from the North - so stopping in Ridgway for Lunch would be great.

MikeOK

You can do Ophir to Telluride then take either Imogene or Last Dollar Road back to Ouray. LDR is just a gravel road even by my standards. Imogene is more fun and scenic but not all that technical. One that we didn't do and wanted to was the Alpine Loop but to get to it from Ouray you have to do a short expert section.

Here's another good web site that covers about all the trails up there. You can even get free .gpx files you can put in your gps if you use one.

Jeep the USA - 350 Western US Jeep, SUV & ATV trails.

w squared

Thank you!

I will probably not do Imogene over to Ouray on the same day as I do Ophir, especially since I'll be driving in from Durango that morning. Trying to do Ophir and the Imogene in one day while pulling a trailer is a recipe for being on the trail after dark in my books.

However....Ouray to Telluride on Black Bear, and then back to Ouray via Imogene pass....sounds like fun to me!

Thank you for the website link. I've installed Gaia GPS and ported the tracks over...already installed onto my phone, and onto my iPad shortly.

MikeOK

Ophir is a good one to help you warm up for the harder ones. Very scenic. The only thing is there is about a mile long stretch of really narrow shelf road on the west side of the pass and you'll be going down if you're going east to west. There are just a couple spots that are barely wide enough for two Jeeps. I met two coming up to me and it was interesting trying to give them room to get by me. Good thing is the dropoff is on your left so you'll be hugging the uphill side of the trail. The first picture in the link to the thread I posted above is of that shelf road.

w squared

Sold! Living down here in the flatlands has definitely taken the edge off of my piloting skills, so warm-up is good!

Dates have now stretched out from the 11th to the 15th....with a possible detour to Moab or elsewhere in Utah on the tail end of that.