Gold In The Hills

September, 2016
Montrose, CO via Rimrocker Trail to Naturita, CO.
Return via back roads from Norwood to Dolores and back to Telluride, CO.

Gold in the hills ! Our eyes were on overload with the beauty of the golden color of fall leaves on our weekend trip from Montrose, CO via the newly opened Rimrocker Trail to Naturita, CO and return via Route 145 from Dolores to Telluride. 

 

The Rimrocker Trail is a road that allows you to enjoy 160 miles of off-pavement travel while experiencing the many different stunning landscapes that connect Montrose, Colorado to Moab, Utah. The roads on the eastern half are graded gravel roads that are two vehicles wide and would easily be traveled in a non four-wheel vehicle. We had heard that it was a fantastic destination to travel through the aspens during their fall color changes as well as some fantastic views at the overlooks. 

 

Between Montrose and Nucla, the roads travelled are mainly graded roads that would be suitable for most vehicles which started west of Montrose as the 'Divide Road' crossing the Uncompahgre Plateau at about 9500 foot in elevation.  Along this segment there are countless trail spurs on each side of the road that looked inviting to explore as the terrain is evergreen forest with a variety of aspen trees with many options for camping near green meadows.  Dropping off the higher plateau down in to red rock country to the town of Nucla.  The roads change from dirt to pavement as you pass through the town and then revert back to dirt nearing the canyon trails. Nucla is from an era of the start of the nuclear age in the 40's as Uranium mines dot the landscape with signs of mining equipment here and there. 

We decided to only drive the Colorado half of the Rimrocker trail, ending at Highway 141 and the Dolores River crossing.  We'll save the red rock and Utah portion for another weekend trip. 

 



View of the Delores River and Utah near the end of the Colorado portion of the  Rimrocker Trail at Highway 141.

Road shots of Delores River on return trip through Delores, Rico & Telluride.

Fall is an amazing and beautiful time in Colorado with the abundant of color experienced in the past four weeks.  The colors are slowly fading and falling from the trees to mark the start of winter.  We hope this will not be our last adventure to Colorado in the Fall.

 

Until next time - Enjoy your adventure.

Owl Creek Pass Fall Colors

Owl Creek Pass, Colorado
September 25, 2016

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.”

— Charles Dickens

As we returned from the Gunnison area we decided to turn off on the Cimarron Road to take a quick 40 mile dirt road trip on the Owl Creek Pass through the Uncompahgre National Forest.  We had enjoyed this road during the summer and pledged that we would return for the Fall colors.  So let the photos begin.

The route offers many good views of the rock peaks known as Chimney Rock and Courthouse Mountain.

The colors of Colorado are beautiful.  We plan a couple more Fall trips before winter sets in.  Until next time get out there and enjoy an adventure.

“I am rich today with autumn’s gold.”

— Gladys Harp

Happy Fall Ya'll

Kebler Pass Road, Colorado
September 25, 2016

It's Fall in Colorado and we were exicted to get out there and celebrate the changing of the colors.  From Montrose, CO we traveled Highway 50 to Delta; St Rt 92 to Hotchkiss and then St Rt 133 to the Kebler Pass Road.  It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the turn off point enjoying the smalls towns as we went through along the way like Hochkiss, Paonia and Bowie.

 

References indicated that the Kebler Pass Road is an old railway grade.  The two-lane gravel road goes up and over Kebler Pass and currently is a popular route for anyone travelling between Crested Butte and Carbondale, Paonia, Delta or Montrose. Beautiful aspens, the surrounding West Elk Mountains and the Ruby Range create a scenic drive with endless photography options. The drive welcomed us with golden, brilliant orange and red leaf colors.  We found exactly what we were hoping to see.

 

Kebler Pass Road - Easy driving

 

 



Side excursion to Lost Lake. Beautiful area. Would be great for summer camping.

 



 

 



 

 

What is left of the Town of Baldwin. Founded in 1881 when gold was discovered. The whole town is privately owned with No Trespassing signs posted.  Too bad.  Would love to explore the old buildings.


 

  Our photos do not do the area justice on

 the magnitude of the colors offered during our drive.

Thanks for joining us on our Fall adventure. 

Enjoy your day!

....More Jeep Fun !!!!! Part 2

July 30, 2016 - August 6, 2016
Empire, CO
All-4-Fun - Mile High Jeep Club
Part 2



After coming down from Santa Fe Peak we ran Chihuahua Gulch which offered meadow type scenery with several water crossings and ended at the Chihuahua hiking trail. 

 

Our 4th trail was the Argentine Pass/Waldorf Road is one of Colorado's historic trails which connected Georgetown with the mines of Chihuahua Gulch .  The town of Waldorf was a mining and milling camp around 1910.  When the ore stopped, the town simply died. The scenery was impressive with wildflowers and magnificent vistas. Argentine Pass is 13,207 feet in elevation.

Waldorf  mining and milling camp area.

 

 

 



Abundance of flowers

 

 

 

Our friend, Bill, ran with us on the Argentine trail. Smile for the GoPro!

 

Our last trail was led by Bill, our friend we have known since our college days.  He was a great trip leader for the Saints John-Swan River Loop trail.  The trail ventured up to the top of the alpine tundra offering amazing views, old buildings, rolling fog and mountain goats.

 

Jack and Bill at base camp

 

 




Log cabins near the Wild Irishman mine

Old miner sighting.... 

Mountain Goats

Old miner's cabin converted to a wilderness hiker's layover

Old two story cabin at Swan Dike mining site.



 

Just a little foggy.

 

 

As you can see from the photos there were many places that made us feel like we were on top of the world.  It was a great week filled with fun times.  Can't wait until next year.

 

 

 

 

Until next time - Enjoy your adventure !