Toronto - Colorado - and back

kcowyo

ExPo Original
AlekG said:
As I was driving up to the second to last crossing, I see a flash of movement in front of me so I step on the brakes and shut off the engine. A family of deer have come to the clearing to graze and drink!

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Them ain't deer, sir.

That's a family of bighorn sheep, which is even cooler and more rare than seeing a bunch of deer.

Excellent photos and trip so far! :clapsmile
 

AlekG

Adventurer
Day 5 - Thursday Sept 13 - Part 4

The closest the trail gets to the dunes is about 50 feet. There is a pull off and a short climb down the creek bank to the water. This is just the tip of the dunes and if one was inclined, they could climb up to get to the next level. There was another picnic area further on where you can clearly see various attempts to get up the first dune. As the guide book says, this trail gets you the closest to the dunes, however, because of the sand and some inclines, a 4wd is definitely required.

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As you start to head away from the dunes and towards the dispersed camping area, you see the dunes from a different perspective. It seems that every angle offers something new to look at.

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AlekG

Adventurer
kcowyo said:
Them ain't deer, sir.

That's a family of bighorn sheep, which is even cooler and more rare than seeing a bunch of deer.

Excellent photos and trip so far! :clapsmile


:oops:

Shows how much I am up on my nature. I saw some bighorn before but in and around Banff, Alberta. They had bigger horns though so I think that's what got me confused.

I won't edit my post though :)

AG
 

kcowyo

ExPo Original
Hey, I passed two hot hitchhikers once and didn't stop. We all make mistakes.....

The Dunes are mindboggling, just enormous. I think you got some wonderful shots at conveying their immensity.

You also got mad points for building up one of the baddest Trailblazers I've ever seen. I hope you continue to enjoy your trip through Colorado.

:beer:
 

AlekG

Adventurer
Day 5 - Thursday Sept 13 - Part 5

Finally at the visitor center I got to "clean up" a little bit. The center is very nice and has excellent information (geological and historical) on the dunes. Its quite a trek out do the dunes from the visitor center, but if you don't have a 4wd and can't get any closer, its definitely worth it.

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Some final views as I prepare for the drive to Durango. Overall a great experience, I would definitely come back to actually hike up to the dunes but unfortunately on this trip, time was running short.

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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 1

Durango is a bustling town south-west of the San Juan Mountains. Lots of offroad ready vehicles around as its close to a wealth of adventures.

Its also where the R&D / fabrication headquarters is to Fab Fours which are the manufacturers of my replacement bumper. Now, they don't make a specific bumper for the Trailblazer but the one for the Toyota FJ worked out great (with a little tweaking of the mounting brackets by National 4WD). I was considering contacting them to see if they would be interested in taking a look at how their product was adapted, but again, time considerations stopped that idea.

Today I was off to a couple of trails that are only in the smaller size Colorado Trails books, that is, the ones that have the additional trails documented. The ones close to Durango that interested me were the Columbus Mine and Kennebec Pass trails. I usually prefer loop-type trails where you don't come back the same way you arrived but these looked interesting in the Southwest Region book so I decided to give them a shot.

They both start from the same access road heading into the La Plata range. The road soon turns to gravel, then becomes much rougher with medium size embedded rocks.

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At a certain point I took the turn off to the Columbus Mine side of the trail and started up the switch-backs which are very wide and not a problem to navigate. The trail is still rated a 4 out of 10 as the shelf road is somewhat narrow (1 vehicle only) and fairly steep.

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There is a closed gate before the end of the trail where there is an abandoned mine entrance so I parked the Trailblazer at the turn-around spot. I believe that there is too much falling rock to allow vehicles past this point. So I put on my hiking boots and slowly walked over, again, being carefull of not being used to the altitude which the guide says is 11,647 feet here.

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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 2

From the mine entrance area I could see another vehicle starting up the switch-backs to get to the mine. However, they stopped at the last one before the final climb up to the turn around area and decided to head back. Too bad, I would have liked to say HI.

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A couple of views of the mine entrance.

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Looking back at the turn-around area. Can you spot the Trailblazer?

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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 3

Once I was back to the vehicle, I took some shots of some more mining equipment nearby. I thought of hiking up there to take a closer look but I had one more trail to go so I decided not to.

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Some final shots after I turned around.

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And finally a shot from the Trailblazer of the trail back down (to the right) and of the hiking trail to the mine entrance on the other side of Columbus Basin.

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The most difficult thing I had get used to are the drop-offs from the shelf road, which in this case where quite substantial. Otherwise the Trailblazer handled the inclines and surface well as the Mickey Thompsons were solid. Oh, and I also had to get used to long stretches of driving (crawling) in 4LO - 1st gear. The Trailblazer has a 2.7:1 LO gear in the transfer case so its actually not bad at all.

The drive up to Kennebec Pass (rated 5!) next post ...




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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 4

The Kennebec Pass trail goes to the pass, which is an interesting notch cut into the ridge, but it doesn't continue as the other side of the trail is unpassable they say. I can probably attest to that as there is a trail going down if you can call it that. Its extremely narrow, steep, and looks unstable. I also should mention that I noticed some memorials at the pass which I would assume are there for someone's untimely demise.

The trail is rated a 5 (out of 10) in the guide book, which is the highest rating they write about - with a few exceptions such as Black Bear and Red Cone. The rating stems from 4 things - the steep and rocky trail leading up to the basin, the very narrow shelf road, the high drop-offs, and the small turnaround area at the notch.

There is a parking area just before the last shelf road to the pass. This is where there is access to the Colorado (hiking) Trail with the true Kennebec Pass about half a mile east. Two views from the parking area, one looking west and the other south along the shelf road. As there was no other vehicle up there I could proceed (as the guide book recommends as there is no way to pass here).

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Once at the notch I took in all the amazing scenery on both sides. Looking west:

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Looking east:

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Now to try to turn around ...



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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 5

With no spotter to help me out, turning around proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated. The guide book says the notch is at 12,000 feet with a 300 foot+ drop off. So I spent about 15 minutes analysing and planning how I would turn around. In the mean time ... more pictures.

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I finally ended up doing about a 25 point turn and got the Trailblazer pointed the right way.

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Once back at the parking area I relaxed a bit from the white-knuckle drive I just finished.

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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 6 - Friday Sept 14 - Part 6

I stopped at the basin to talk to some hikers which had left their Ford Navigator just below the last steep and narrow part of the trail leading up to here. They commented on having watched my 25 point turn at the notch and we had a good laugh.

Some mining equipment and views from the basin.

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Here is one of the steep, narrow, loose, and rocky areas leading up to the basin.

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More wildlife spotting on the way down.

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And finally the sun setting on my way back to Durango.

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Overall a great day of exploration. A little more "exciting" than I was anticipating in regards to the driving but the Trailblazer ended up passing with flying colours.

Next up is the relatively short drive up to Silverton tonight and some more pass driving tomorrow.



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adrenalnjunky

New member
Alek,

Great shots/pictures.

Please tell me there's a build thread on your Trailblazer somewhere? I don't own one, but I have always enjoyed reading buildups of the vehicles that aren't as common as others.

I honestly have never even considered a Trailblazer until looking through this thread. Good work!
 

AlekG

Adventurer
adrenalnjunky said:
Alek,

Great shots/pictures.

Please tell me there's a build thread on your Trailblazer somewhere? I don't own one, but I have always enjoyed reading buildups of the vehicles that aren't as common as others.

I honestly have never even considered a Trailblazer until looking through this thread. Good work!


Thanks very much, the build has been an adventure to say the least. The current white vehicle was necessitated by a freak accident to my old blue one which was in the middle of a build to get ready for the Colorado expedition:

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7755

It took quite a bit to find a replacement vehicle and get it ready. I had to postpone the expedition twice and I still have not completed absolutely everything I had wanted.

I will post a technical summary at the end with links to some more detailed pages.

AG
 

AlekG

Adventurer
Day 7 - Saturday Sept 15 - Part 1

The night drive north to Silverton was mostly uneventful. The road can be a bit deceiving though, if you are not careful the steep grade can speed up your vehicle and then you are in trouble. There were some emergency vehicles out after the pass (which my GPS told me was at 3330 meters) which were dealing with an overturned 18 wheeler that could not handle the sharp turn. I hope the driver was OK.

Driving into Silverton this late in the season and at night was somewhat of a surreal experience. It almost looked like a ghost-town except for the 2 or 3 bars open late. After I checked in to the bed and breakfast which I reserved earlier in the day, I decided to take a stroll through town. It ended up that there were some vacancies at the more rustic places along the main street, but I didn't want to take a chance of not finding any rooms so I was staying at The Inn of the Rockies at Alma House.

As I walked down a mostly deserted street I heard some great blues/jazz fusion coming from one of the bars so I popped in to take a look and grab some refreshment. The Pride of the West Restaurant and Bar was a great change of pace to all the driving I have been doing.

My plan for today was to head out of Silverton and combine a few trails that would ultimately get me back to pavement for my drive up to Delta tonight. Here is a picture of the 2nd main street, only the 1st main one is paved. This is where most of the tourists end up first after disembarking from the narrow-gauge railway that goes from Durango to Silverton.

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I chose the Silverton to Lake Como trail (rated 4) which takes you north out of town along Cement creek. There are various building ruins along the way.

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But once you get to the modern mine in operation, you take a left and the real trail starts up to Hurricane Pass and Lake Como. The trail you see coming out of the Red Mountain Peaks is Corkscrew Gulch Trail which leads back to the Million Dollar Hwy.

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AlekG

Adventurer
Day 7 - Saturday Sept 15 - Part 2

As you can probably tell, the weather was not the best as the winds picked up and the clouds started to come in. I had to finally put on some track pants and a windbreaker (first time other than that cold night camping). At least the rain stayed away.

Here's Hurricane Pass at 12,407 feet.

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Just after you crest the pass, there is a short shelf road down to a 3-way intersection and a nice view of Lake Como. It was interesting that there was quite a bit of traffic going on here. While I was parked and taking pictures, 3 other vehicles stopped, 2 "tour jeeps" came out of Poughkeepsie Gulch (this is supposed to be a very tough trail, not even in my guide book), at least 4 motorcycles came through, and a party of 5 ATVs! A regular traffic jam.

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The trail I planned to continue with is not marked on the sign, its California Gulch Trail with California Pass at 12.930 feet a short distance up the mountain. I believe this will be the highest point I will reach on this trip. Just under 13,000 but I guess I will have to save that for next time!

A couple of tight switch-backs forced me to reverse here and there. I probably did not need to but this kind of driving is new to me so I decided to stay on the cautious side. You can see the pass up and behind the Trailblazer. I stopped here as there was really not that much room at the pass and I didn't want to block anyone. Then the trail continues down the mountain and into the basin.

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