US Rocky Mountain Camping, hiking and a couple trails in the San Juan area

[wishihada4runner]

Summary Post to make sure I understand:

Sunday - Arrive in Telluride via hwy 50 to hwy 550 to Last Dollar Road "end" of trail and run it backwards (based on trailsoffroad and funtreks) into Telluride. I'm running Aspen Ridge with the group that morning, are you planning on just leaving and not doing any trail runs with the group on Sunday? Aspen Ridge takes you to Salida which is "on the way" from Buena Vista.

Monday - Hang out in Telluride and Mountain Village then Telluride to Ouray via Imogene and Yankee Boy Basin in the afternoon (concerns for afternoon storms or are we far enough West?)

Tuesday - Hang out in Ouray to hike then hwy 550 to Silverton and up to Animas Forks town then Cinnamon Pass to Lake City

@Wandering Wanda - If you want, we could go North to Engineer Pass and ride that East instead of Cinnamon Pass. They both end up close to Lake City, then we meet up again for the final night. We miss the first 11 waypoints of Engineer but ... eh



Wednesday - Home via hwy 149 North to Gunnison (or whatever route suits you depending on where you're going)

 

[Wandering Wanda]

That sounds like it will work for us as well .

 

[wishihada4runner]

Ooooo it looks like Lake City also has a designated dark sky area which may be pretty awesome. Find a Dark Sky Place - International Dark-Sky Association

 

[DosTacos]

Thanks for posting this. I am planning a trip for July and this was almost the exact route I mapped out today. This will be my first time running these trails ( Ophir Pass, Imogene Pass, Yankee Boy Basin, Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass/Wager Gulch then back down to Silverton).
Any advice or things I should be mindful of?

 

[wishihada4runner]

Thanks for posting this. I am planning a trip for July and this was almost the exact route I mapped out today. This will be my first time running these trails ( Ophir Pass, Imogene Pass, Yankee Boy Basin, Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass/Wager Gulch then back down to Silverton).
Any advice or things I should be mindful of?

No idea, but I can tell you on June 30! Hah My first time out here as well. Someone else might be able to chime in who has been this way before.

When in July? I am definitely getting back to Ouray area again this year to finish the Jeep badge of honor trails. Just haven’t planned when yet.

 

[Wandering Wanda]

I am assuming that the constitution on highway 50 is complete or do you know differently??

 

[wishihada4runner]

I am assuming that the constitution on highway 50 is complete or do you know differently??

No idea if the highway has its own constitution or if it falls under the generic constitution of the United States Republic. I’m assuming the latter and you still have freedom of speech to say whatever you want while driving on it in your vehicle.

I’m also not certain if the construction is completed though. I would assume not because construction is never finished here.

 

[Wandering Wanda]

gotta love that auto correct.... JK LOL after looking at their website it appears 50 is open on weekends so it should not be an issue.
Constitution,,,, hahaha

 

[JDGreens]

OK I'm back in town and am going to be very busy getting my house and rig camping supplies ect in order for the weekends June Jam. I have to look at the Sunday morning June Jam trail run. But I wasn't around the internet for the past three weeks to know they had a sign-up sheet for trail runs. That ok as I was hoping to just hang out with my wife during the entire weekend and running the trails isn't internet cards except I'm planning on taking a drive for ice cream after we setup our camp site.

But I figured that not everyone would be leaving promptly so I figured on enough time that anyone running Sundays Aspen ridge run would have enough time to meet at the City Market in Montrose. I want to give everyone plenty of time to gas-up and re-supply before we head out. On Monday most of you were planning on running Imogene Pass. So I figured that my wife and I were going to mostly be doing Telluride alone. When I ran Imogene it took the 2 of us (2 rigs) it took us about 3 hours. So I figure you guys will want to enjoy as much time as it would take. We'll worth it! There is a Deli/sandwich shop (Timberline Deli) that we an park on a side street next to it and meet there at a designated time. The following camp site is a boutique a half hour to 45 minutes from. I will work on GPS for these campsites when I can. The last campsite we will have to find on the last day.

Tuesday I will leave thing up to what everyone wants to do for the day. From the campsite at the top of the beginning of Corkscrew pass. There are a lot of options trail wise. For those who are going to explore. My wife and I are going to take the morning and explore Ouray for the first half of the day and drive down to Silverton to access an easy trails to Lake city. In Lake City there is a public park that is perfect to meet at. For those who may be coming over from Engineer pass. Or what ever trail

I know that I'm being very open ended on this as far as what everyone in the group may want to do. But it's hard to do everything that everyone wants to do on this kind of trips. I have done several trips down in this area bending (on purpose) to want others want to do. Which was fantastic to be truthful. Just that I don't want to drag my wife all over those trails that would terrify her. And at the same time I don't want anyone who always wanted to explore these wonderful trails to feel they are tied to us and miss out on them.

 

[JDGreens]

As far as the construction in the canyon. This is way I wanted to use Sunday to sneak through it. And during the week we use the road that takes us from Lake City to Blue Massa reservoir on either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday Morning depending on who want to camp Tuesday evening.
Last year we had to go the long way home because of a rock slide that kept it close all day. Brutal to drive out of your way to I-70 to get home. If you live down south

 

[JDGreens]

Thanks for posting this. I am planning a trip for July and this was almost the exact route I mapped out today. This will be my first time running these trails ( Ophir Pass, Imogene Pass, Yankee Boy Basin, Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass/Wager Gulch then back down to Silverton).
Any advice or things I should be mindful of?

When we ran them a couple years ago we took Ophir Pass over to 550 from the Telluride side. Note that as most of the time up hill traffic has the right away. They ask you to be mindful of people starting down. Before you proceed up. Because on these mountain passes you can use common sense to keep everyone from a tense situation. Backing up or down isn't fun on these shelf roads. This one in particular is so narrow and steep enough to make things very difficult. If you have a group.

 

[wishihada4runner]

All those planning on continuing the adventure, let's all connect on Friday evening.

I've got a mostly stock Blue Jeep Rubicon with license plate DSCP EF and will have my small orange Big Agnes 3 person backpacking tent setup. It's about a 3.5 hour drive for me from Northern CO and I plan to leave about noon on Friday, expecting to arrive by 4pm at the latest.

 

[JDGreens]

Summary Post to make sure I understand:

Sunday - Arrive in Telluride via hwy 50 to hwy 550 to Last Dollar Road "end" of trail and run it backwards (based on trailsoffroad and funtreks) into Telluride. I'm running Aspen Ridge with the group that morning, are you planning on just leaving and not doing any trail runs with the group on Sunday? Aspen Ridge takes you to Salida which is "on the way" from Buena Vista.

Monday - Hang out in Telluride and Mountain Village then Telluride to Ouray via Imogene and Yankee Boy Basin in the afternoon (concerns for afternoon storms or are we far enough West?)

Tuesday - Hang out in Ouray to hike then hwy 550 to Silverton and up to Animas Forks town then Cinnamon Pass to Lake City

@Wandering Wanda - If you want, we could go North to Engineer Pass and ride that East instead of Cinnamon Pass. They both end up close to Lake City, then we meet up again for the final night. We miss the first 11 waypoints of Engineer but ... eh

View attachment 232159

Wednesday - Home via hwy 149 North to Gunnison (or whatever route suits you depending on where you're going)

I was planning on taking Last Dollor road from just outside Ridgeway down to the end near the Telluride airport. There is a large dispersed camping area near the end of last dollar road. If you go down through this area you end up in a meadow that has the most amazing view. We camped there. But if the weather doesn't cooperate we can just drive the road a little farther up and acces the campsite from the other side.

 

[JDGreens]

All those planning on continuing the adventure, let\'s all connect on Friday evening.

I\'ve got a mostly stock Blue Jeep Rubicon with license plate DSCP EF and will have my small orange Big Agnes 3 person backpacking tent setup. It\'s about a 3.5 hour drive for me from Northern CO and I plan to leave about noon on Friday, expecting to arrive by 4pm at the latest.

So far it looks like most are going to be at June Jam. Just want to be sure that anyone who isn't going to June Jam is informed also. At least the time we are going to start this from City Market

 

[JDGreens]

I think I'm going to adjust the starting time to 2 pm so that we can do the Aspen ridge trail out of the 4-mile area. We didn't do that last year and I think since a few of you are doing it we might as well tag along.

 

[DosTacos]

When we ran them a couple years ago we took Ophir Pass over to 550 from the Telluride side. Note that as most of the time up hill traffic has the right away. They ask you to be mindful of people starting down. Before you proceed up. Because on these mountain passes you can use common sense to keep everyone from a tense situation. Backing up or down isn't fun on these shelf roads. This one in particular is so narrow and steep enough to make things very difficult. If you have a group.

We'll be coming the opposite direction but what you say makes sense and good to know. We always give right of way to uphill traffic. Hope y'all have a safe trip. Sounds like a good time.

 

[Wandering Wanda]

We are planning on being at JJ Thursday afternoon. We will definitely meet up with you guys so we can get a plan set up for Sunday departure.

 

[JDGreens]

We'll be coming the opposite direction but what you say makes sense and good to know. We always give right of way to uphill traffic. Hope y'all have a safe trip. Sounds like a good time.

You mean your not going to drop into Telluride via Black Bear pass?

 

[DosTacos]

You mean your not going to drop into Telluride via Black Bear pass?

We'll becoming in from the other direction. We plan to take Ophir Pass to hwy 145 up to Telluride. From there we intend to take Imogene Pass over to Yankee Boy Basin and into Ouray

 

[JDGreens]

Summary Post to make sure I understand:

Sunday - Arrive in Telluride via hwy 50 to hwy 550 to Last Dollar Road "end" of trail and run it backwards (based on trailsoffroad and funtreks) into Telluride. I'm running Aspen Ridge with the group that morning, are you planning on just leaving and not doing any trail runs with the group on Sunday? Aspen Ridge takes you to Salida which is "on the way" from Buena Vista.

Monday - Hang out in Telluride and Mountain Village then Telluride to Ouray via Imogene and Yankee Boy Basin in the afternoon (concerns for afternoon storms or are we far enough West?)

Tuesday - Hang out in Ouray to hike then hwy 550 to Silverton and up to Animas Forks town then Cinnamon Pass to Lake City

@Wandering Wanda - If you want, we could go North to Engineer Pass and ride that East instead of Cinnamon Pass. They both end up close to Lake City, then we meet up again for the final night. We miss the first 11 waypoints of Engineer but ... eh

View attachment 232159

Wednesday - Home via hwy 149 North to Gunnison (or whatever route suits you depending on where you're going)

Actually we will split up from the campsite off last dollar road. We will discuss things on Sunday. All of us are attending June Jam. That way we can be on the same page