Looking for recommendations around Telluride, CO

[Barclay]

My wife will be working in Telluride during the late Aug/early Sep film festival, and while she's working, I have about 5 days to roam about on my own. I've been to Telluride many times, but only for skiing, so I know the basic terrain and elevations but not for driving or camping. This will be my first time camping pretty much anywhere in CO. I'm in a Rubicon JKU w/ 35's (AT treads, full lockers, oil pan/control arm/front diff skids, rock sliders, 12gal extra fuel), and have the full accompaniment of recovery gear that I'm very familiar with, and am wilderness first aid/responder certified. I'd probably qualify myself as an experienced overlander, but only the occasional rock crawler. I'll also have my ~50lb cattle dog with me, in case that's relevant (bears?), but otherwise I'll probably be solo, so I'm not looking to push any boundaries. I'm guessing I shouldn't do Black Bear Pass just given the solo aspect, but a lot of the moderate trails look fine from what I can tell online. I'm looking for recommendations for:

• driving trails that interesting, scenic, or otherwise something I should check out.
• camping areas to investigate; ideally dispersed. I don't need facilities; I'm pack-in/pack-out.
• day hikes or trails to do with the pupper, even better if the trailhead is near a camp-able spot.

I'm not looking to cover huge mileage, I plan to stay mostly within a day's drive of Telluride. So, Imogene Pass? Ophir Pass? Last Dollar Road? Sekret unmarked trail X? Appreciation in advance.

Thanks,
-Barclay

 

[zgfiredude]

In addition to the Alpine Loop trails, Immogene, Engineer, Cinnamon, California, Hurricane, Poughkipsee Gulch, there's Ophir, Last Dollar, Yankee Boy Basin, Kite Lake, Priest Lake, Alta Lakes, Silver Jack Reservoir, Chimney Rock, and more!

There is plenty to keep you busy, I'd suggest perhaps checking out Trails Off-Road as a resource app for the area. It will be a great time of year to be there!!

 

[Neal A. Tew]

The following would make a great loop if you didn't mind getting a little bit further away from telluride.

Depart telluride via Imogene pass to Yankee boy basin and to the town of ouray. Then take the closest access to engineer pass trail off of 550 (aka Mineral Creek). Proceed all the way up over engineer pass to the town of lake City. Return via cinnamon pass to the animas forks Ghost Town. Take California to hurricane to corkscrew passes to the Old Town site of Ironton Park along 550. From there you should consider visiting the town of Silverton and decide whether you want to return to telluride via Ophir or black bear.

There is dispersed camping along the far end of Imogene and towards Ouray. You'll also find some along engineer and cinnamon passes. I suspect you could camp along california, hurricane, corkscrew, but I've only tried it towards the bottom of corkscrew and Ironton Park. There's a lot of dispersed camping there and you'll start running into RVs and things along the highway. I know there's also some dispersed camping on the climb up to Black Bear pass before you get to the point of no return.

If you don't find what you're looking for on the Overland bound app, try trails offroad.com. It's very helpful for this area.

 

[Barclay]

Very useful, thank you! I am a subscriber to trailsoffroad, which I've been using for initial investigation, but the types of information are just the type of personal recommendations I was looking for. Thanks!

-B