Mile High Jeep Club Annual All 4 Fun, Leadville, CO

Seven Days in Leadville, CO for All 4 Fun - the annual off road gathering organized by Mile High Jeep Club.

What do you get when you combine dirt, mountains, streams, old mines, ghost towns and hundreds of off road enthusiasts - a week of ALL 4 FUN!  We attended the Mile High Jeep Club (MHJC) Summer event called 'All 4 Fun' which was their 51st year of putting on this event which rotates around 4 or 5 locations each year.  We loaded up the RV Friday and arrived  at Leadville on Saturday to register and set up our campsite with about 300 other Jeep / off road lovers. They set up a large tent to gather everyone for raffle drawings, a couple dinners and vendor show to make it a family and group event and they do a good job organizing this event.

MHJC run about 20 different trails ranging from easy to difficult and each one running daily for five days.

 

Thanks to our friend, Bill, we had a camping spot with plenty of room and great views.

 

 

1st trip: We started out with Clohesy (Cloyses) Lake (we found two different spellings for this lake & unsure which is correct) which was south of Leadville about half way to Buena Vista. It started out easy on dirt roads going past Clear Lake and up the canyon to Vicksburg and Winfield which are a couple preserved 1880's mining towns that, like a number of old 1880's towns/buildings, are being saved and restored and even being furnished with original items to promote the history of the area around Colorado.

 

Historic town of Vicksburg, CO:

 

 

 

 

 

Historic town of Winfield:

 

 

 

We did a couple creek crossing to start the trail.

Made it up to the lake at about 11,100 feet in elevation and very scenic.

 

 

2nd trip:  The second day we chose to adventure to Mount Princeton driving about 4 miles along a one lane shelf road.

One of the only true completely clear days and the views at 12,300 feet overlooking Buena Vista to East and the Collegiate 14'teener around and Mount Antero to the West.

Just another couple thousand feet up to the top of Mt. Princeton only accessed by foot.

 

After finishing the group run we drove to another 1880's mining town of St. Elmo, which is also in the stage of being preserved.

Following the creek up to St. Elmo, we enjoyed some great water / creek views.

3rd trip:  The third day we signed up for the  Mount Zion trip and we weren't disappointed with the great views over looking Leadville and Turquoise Lake. (Even though it was a little hazy)

Looking down on Buckeye lake from about 12,200 ft for lunch break.

 

Our bonus trip for the day was taking a road less travelled by exploring and found this old miners cabin.

 

4th trip:  The fourth day was a run called Birdseye Gulch and up to Mosquito Pass. Starting up the shelf road looking down on Birdseye Gulch and Leadville.

Mosquito Pass is the highest drivable pass at 13,185 ft, and as we drove slowing up to the summit a cold front blew through and we were driving through cold wind, snow and hail for a few minutes.

About 2 miles over the pass we stopped at the North London mine and tram house.

 

After coming down we did some more exploring of the old Leadville mining area and checked out some old cabins.

Interior of one of the buildings equipped with stove and original ceiling cloths and old wall paper.

 

The area had an abundance of old mines that dot the area which were fun to explore.

Final trip:  The last day we went on Half Moon Creek trail.  This trail had water crossing, great views and amazing mills and mines throughout the area.

 

 

 

At the head waters we came on to the Champion Mill site which is one of the largest mills around in great shape.

It started in the 1880's and ran up in to the early 1900's and still has equipment inside the mill.

 

 

We then went on up to the Champion Mine at about 13,000 ft. where they ran a tram system to get the ore down to the mill and a view looking down on Independence Pass road.

The inside of the mine cabin / bunk house with the stove still in place.

Nice view from the mine cabin.

 

Some of the wildlife and flowers on the trail

A view back down on the large mill building

Coming off the trail at the water crossing.

The event ended on a week of great trail runs and we had to head home. Until next year  which is being held at Silverton, we had fun and thanks to MHJC for the great event.
Hope you enjoy the photos.       

 

Happy travelling ! 

 

Jeep ride through Engineer Pass near Silverton, CO

Engineer Pass, Silverton, CO

After enjoying our mine tour and breakfast at the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine we headed toward Silverton but made a detour near the Red Mountain Pass on a bypass at the Ghost Town of Ironton to explore the standing old buildings.  Settled in 1883, within three weeks three hundred buildings were being built.  Ironton was a major transportation junction between Red Mountain and Ouray in addition to having some of its own mines. Ironton had a peak population of over 1000 and had two trains arriving daily from Silverton. There were many chain stores from the nearby cities of Ouray and Silverton. The town lived into the first part of this century and has slowly faded since then (Ghosttowns.com).

And some great scenery around the area.

As we continue to explore we drove by some of the old mines in the area with great views of the area.

We stopped at Yankee Girl mine that was one of the richest silver producers in the area where they hit a natural column of silver ore so pure that it didn't have to go to the mill and went straight to the smelting room for melting into ingots.

Then after lunch in Silverton, we headed up the road to Animas Fork and the start of Engineer Pass.

 

 We saw some of the local wildlife in a bunch of the Marmots running across the road ahead of us.

And this male grouse that was strutting his stuff for a hen sitting in the bushes next to him beside the road and they didn't react to us driving by...

As we made our way up Engineer Pass we noticed we had the road to ourselves which gave us time to stop and enjoy the area and take photos.

 Once we took some photos along this tall snow drift we then continued down the other side and into Lake City and back to the house in Montrose.

 We had a great day out exploring the back roads even thou none of it was 'rough' four wheeling !

 More to come as the summer goes on.... Enjoy your travels !