June 15 to June 19 - Colorado Front Range(ish) Sampler

[AZ_Craig]

Days 0.5 and 1 (June 15 Fourmile Area and June 16 Half Moon Gulch):

So with my wife needing to be in Denver for work June 20 through June 22 and having a job that observed the Juneteenth Holiday, we decided to take a road trip into Colorado to beat the heat (and chose a wonderful week with Phoenix topping out at 117 while we were gone). We quickly realized that despite the mediocre snow year in Colorado, there was quite a bit more snow remaining above about 10000 feet than we anticipated (first lesson learned, don't plan a Colorado trip expecting to wheel much before mid July if wanting to get above 11000 feet).

We stopped in Durango, CO our first night to split the drive up to Dillon, CO roughly in half and decided to take a short detour to checkout the Fourmile Travel Management Area just to the northeast of Buena Vista, CO. We were using Charles Wells' Funtreks book and decided to follow his suggested 24.7 mile loop (trail #45 in the 4th edition book). We figured with a maximum elevation of 9800 feet we'd probably be okay for not finding any snow (and we really didn't).

Trail was a nice mix of dirt road (passable to AWD with some clearance), a few rockier sections that were slower going but still pretty easy, and some sandy rolling areas near the end. Overall we had a great time and this was one of those areas that was just fun to drive around in (good views and interesting terrain with nothing being particularly challenging). After roughly a couple of hours we spit back out on CO24 to continue our drive up to Dillon (where we were staying for the next 4 nights).

For our first full day focused on wheeling, we decided to check out Halfmoon Gulch and the Champion Mill (#62 in Funtreks' book, rated moderate and level 5 on OnX). This trail is accessed just south of Leadville. We were a bit nervous about the creek crossings being called out as being nearly 30 inches deep at times and figured we could have snow problems, but decided to chance it as this road does not have any seasonal closure gates. Long story short, this probably ended up being the best day of our trip as we made it all the way up to the mill at 11580 feet without getting stopped. The trail up to the Mount Massive trailhead at about 2.2 miles wasn't too bad, but did have one narrow, rough shelf area that required taking your time and not getting too close to the edges. The creek crossing just beyond this point though was definitely nerve racking with water around 2 feet deep requiring driving up the creek slightly while making a relatively sharp turn in deep water to get out the other side. I figured with a 37" fording depth we'd be okay, but you could definitely feel the current on the vehicle and the water was definitely up to about the bottom of our grill at the deepest point. We continued up from here wondering if we were going to hit snow at some point but ended up lucking out as we made it the full 7.4 miles to the gate below the mill and found it open and able to drive straight up to it. The optional side road to the Champion Mine was blocked by snow shortly above the turn off and we gave up hiking once we were postholing through a foot plus of snow trying to continue up the road.

The mill was incredible though. This structure is likely going to collapse at some point in the next 10 to 20 years I imagine and I highly recommend checking this place out if able to do it. We spent awhile exploring and taking pictures of the area.

We drove back down finding a nice dispersed camping area to have our picnic lunch and then worked our way back to Leadville. We decided to stop at the Mining Museum there and actually found it quite interesting and worth the stop (plan on an hour or so to check it out depending on how much history you want to read about).

Emboldened by our success this day, we decided we'd do Georgia Pass the following day just outside of Breckenridge. I'll post that one up when I have a bit more time!

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[BearPatrol]

Wild, I was out on Halfmoon yesterday. Mostly cause I was bored & wanted to scout out future camping spots for a Mount Massive hike.

 

[Felix808]

Looks like it was an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing

 

[Hupperware]

Awesome to see this. I was born in BV, moved to Phoenix at 18. Thanks for the memories!

 

[AZ_Craig]

Day 2 (June 17 - Georgia Pass and Boreas Pass):

So for this day we came up with the game plan to drive down towards Breckenridge and do the Georgia Pass 4x4 route (FR 355, #78 in Funtreks Colorado book, rated moderate and level 5 on OnX) with a plan to go down the other side of the pass (which is apparently more of a standard dirt road) and then do a return run up Boreas Pass (which is also just a dirt road and is also in Funtreks Colorado as #80). Indicators were that the seasonal gate is often open by May 21 and the peak elevation was only 11585 feet (the same as Halfmoon), what could go wrong?

Well, the answer is quite a bit. When we first got up to the start of the trails we were excited to see the word "open" on every forest road route on an info board. We decided we'd try to run FR 354 which follows the North Fork of the Swan River and hopefully be able to complete the loop back on FR6 which returns on the Middle Fork of the Swan River before going up Georgia Pass. About 3 miles down the road (while climbing up Wise Mountain) we started hitting intermittent patches of snow until we got to a spot that had continuous snow for probably over 100 feet with no tire tracks except a mess someone had made turning around. I was pretty sure this was an omen to turn around since we had almost another 10 miles to go at this point to finish the loop and I was pretty sure we'd end up stuck at some point. The trail was good up to this point with some fun creek crossings (including an area where you drive down the creek for a few hundred feet), we'd definitely come back and try this loop in the future if we're back in the area.

At this point we headed for Georgia Pass, a touch worried about what we were going to find. I figured it was only about 6 miles and figured if we ended up blocked, it would likely be near the top and perhaps we would just walk up. At about the 5.2 mile point, we started hitting patches of snow, but in this case there were very well defined tire tracks going up through them indicating someone had come through already for the year. I decided to give it a shot and made it through the first 4 dicey areas including a long stretch of undermined ice that I could feel caving out from under our vehicle as I drove up. I was thinking the snow wouldn't be deep enough with the ruts to stop us and the worst thing that would happen is perhaps having to back down an area if forward progress stopped.

At 5.5 miles, only a half a mile from the top, uphill progress stopped in a rather unassuming snow drift that was only maybe 30 feet long. I hit it at about 10 mph, tried to keep momentum but it was literally like hitting a wall. I figured, okay, no problem, put it in reverse and back it out. Nope, both axles spinning. Okay, no problem, turn on both lockers and see if you can get it out. Nope, same thing. At this point we got out to survey what we had accomplished and realized that we had high sided all 4 control arms and our differential with the skid plates also sitting on top of about 2 feet of rotten snow in areas. Long story short, we did get out, but it took probably 90 minutes of digging out all four corners of the car with our folding shovel, removing snow from the area under the rear control arms and differentials, plus using our Maxtrax on the front tires in tandem with stacking rocks on the rear.

We parked our vehicle off the side of the trail and decided we'd walk the final 500 vertical feet and 0.5 mile up the pass for the views. I ran into a couple of Jeeps at the top who had come up the other side who were looking at the first patches of snow wondering if they should go down. One was on 37s with a winch and probably would have been okay, but the other vehicle was a rental Rubicon on 33s loaded up with 5 people. Long story short after chatting for a bit, they decided to not chance it and go back down the south side of the pass where they came from.

After getting back down to Breckenridge, we did a quick run up Boreas which was narrow in a few spots, but passable to cars no problem (it uses a converted railroad bed). The water tower along the way along with the views and historical structures at the top were worth the hour or so it took to get up and go back down to Breckenridge. We wrapped up our day with a banana splitboard stout at Highside Brewery (which was delicious). We also decided at this point that we were done with trying to wheel in the Summit and Lake County area and we'd spend June 17 checking out Vail (which we had never been to despite being avid skiers) before trying to do some trails around Idaho Springs on June 18.

In retrospect, I wonder if I would have made it up if I had aired down my tires (I wasn't psychogically planning for having to go through much snow and hadn't bothered). I also learned that I probably want to buy a second set of boards as things would have been easier for sure with 4 instead of 2. I've had to do sand recoveries before, but always being able to use multiple vehicles with a strap. If we had another person with us or a winch, the situation would have been a whole lot easier to deal with. I simply think I got overconfident given the fact that someone had made it up (or perhaps down) already, but in retrospect I'm thinking it may have been UTVs which likely would have not dug into the snow like my 5800 pound Raptor did.

Rotten snow is no joke!

 

[Badland-Mansquatch-ATX]

Can’t thank you enough for the trail report! I’ll be in Buena Vista soon and Four Mile area Is my backup plan. Hoping snow is melted on Tin Cup Pass and will be asking locals what’s passable when we get there. I’ll be researching your suggestions now. We also plan to do some inflatable kayaking and summit Elbert while we’re there.

 

[AZ_Craig]

Can’t thank you enough for the trail report! I’ll be in Buena Vista soon and Four Mile area Is my backup plan. Hoping snow is melted on Tin Cup Pass and will be asking locals what’s passable when we get there. I’ll be researching your suggestions now. We also plan to do some inflatable kayaking and summit Elbert while we’re there.

I don't know how many days you have and keep in mind we were out already a week or so and stuff was melting quick, but Halfmoon is only about 35 miles north of BV and was a really great day. I highly recommend the Funtreks Colorado book if you don't have it (just make sure not to get the Northern Colorado one which features stuff north of I70).

Tincup looks super neat as does Mosquito Pass (which is apparently often barely passable before August). I was honestly impressed by this area having mainly wheeled around Ouray and Great Sand Dunes NP in Colorado before and definitely want to get back up here later in the summer in the next couple of years.

Our older kid already goes back to school the end of July in Arizona, so it makes longer trips up this way problematic when you really want to wait until the 2nd half of July to minimize issues with snow fields. Our other window is his fall break the 2nd week of October, but you're flirting with too much freezing back up at that point.

 

[Badland-Mansquatch-ATX]

I don't know how many days you have and keep in mind we were out already a week or so and stuff was melting quick, but Halfmoon is only about 35 miles north of BV and was a really great day. I highly recommend the Funtreks Colorado book if you don't have it (just make sure not to get the Northern Colorado one which features stuff north of I70).

Tincup looks super neat as does Mosquito Pass (which is apparently often barely passable before August). I was honestly impressed by this area having mainly wheeled around Ouray and Great Sand Dunes NP in Colorado before and definitely want to get back up here later in the summer in the next couple of years.

Our older kid already goes back to school the end of July in Arizona, so it makes longer trips up this way problematic when you really want to wait until the 2nd half of July to minimize issues with snow fields. Our other window is his fall break the 2nd week of October, but you're flirting with too much freezing back up at that point.

After watching a few YouTube's about Halfmoon, its moved up to the top of my list. I also found Funtreks Colorado on Apple Books and downloaded it as well. Will let you know how the trip goes.

 

[AZ_Craig]

Day 3 (June 19 - Oh-My-God Road, Russell Gulch, Nevadaville Loop and Apex Road) - Finally have time to post my last day up .

Since we needed to head to Denver the evening of June 19 we made a decision to check out some trails near Idaho Springs. We figured nothing would be particularly problematic as Apex Road topped out at about 10500 feet (and everything else was lower).

Oh-My-God Road, also known as Virginia Canyon Rd. is largely passable to passenger cars, but definitely steep, windy and intimidating in spots. We followed the loop described in Funtreks Northern Colorado book, #46 which used Russel Gulch Road to return (which was more of a legitimate easy 4x4 road). This area is absolutely loaded with old decommisioned mines and often decrepit historical structures, sometimes interspersed with homes that are still being kept up. It's quite interesting and very picturesque and makes for a neat 2 or 3 hours to explore. We were surprised to find that Frontenac Mine and Druid Mine had been developed by the Colorado Division of Mining Reclamation with a 1.5 mile round trip interpretive trail to a bunch of historic structures along with both the Frontenac and Druid Mine sites. Our kids loved this and it was a pleasant surprise.

After dropping back down to Idaho Springs to check out Tommyknocker Brewery and lunch at the Clear Creek Cidery, we decided to head up to check out Nevadaville which Charles' Wells has a loop featured for in the same book (#45). The historical structures and ghost town feel to this was kind of neat, but overall we found it a bit underwhelming and it was literally probably the least 4x4 thing I've come across yet in a Funtreks book. This was okay though as this area connected into #40 (Apex Road) which took us up to another "near" ghost town of Apex, CO. Wells' suggested continuing from Apex to Mammoth Gulch Road towards Rollinsville, CO and we found this to be a legitimate slow going 4x4 route with a lot of embedded rock with some great views up above 10000 feet. Definitely still easy, but ended up using low range in a couple particularly rough spots. There's apparently a lot of access to higher elevation stuff in this area off of this route and we'd definitely consider coming back out here to check out trails like Kingston Peak.

Overall, not a particularly adventurous day, but still interesting with a lot of history. And of course, being out seeing things is better than working!

Next up will be returning to the Ouray area at Labor Day. Will make sure to post that one up in a couple of months! Wheeling at home in Arizona is pretty rough in July and August, but hoping for the weather to make some higher elevation stuff reasonable.

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