[UTmike]

This July my girlfriend and I, my brother (LT4x4), sister-in-law, and friend took our 3 Jeeps on an 8 day offroading/camping expedition through the San Juan Mountains surrounding Ouray and Telluride, CO. The weather was perfect and there were no major mechanical failures (only a broken sway bar). The trip included taking on Cinnamon Pass, California Pass, Hurricane Pass, Corkscrew Gulch, Black Bear Pass, Alta Lakes, Gold King Basin, Imogene Pass, Yankee Boy Basin, Engineer Pass, and the dreaded Poughkeepsie Gulch. We also climbed the 14,150 foot Mt. Sneffels.

Here's a couple video clips I put together:

This is a clip from the first half of our trip over Black Bear Pass

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This is the second half of our Black Bear Pass day, including "The Steps" and the switchbacks

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This is a quick view from the top of Imogene Pass, and then us trying to get through a snow drift on the way to the base of Mt. Sneffels in Yankee Boy Basin

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This is us getting up "The Wall" in Poughkeepsie Gulch

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This is just a quick view from the top of California Pass

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And now for the pictures...


We spent the first day driving from Texas to South Fork, CO where we camped for the night. From there it was a short drive to Lake City and Cinnamon Pass to start off the next day on the Alpine Loop.

Lots of Jeeps on the Alpine Loop Today


Our Jeeps right outside of the Anamas Forks ghost town



My Jeep ontop of California Pass


A group shot from ontop of California Pass, overlooking Como Lake and the South Poughkeepsie Gulch trailhead.

[UTmike]

This was our camp in the mountains outside of Ouray.


My two best friends!


The girlfriend ontop of Black Bear Pass


My Jeep ontop of Black Bear Pass

[UTmike]

More Black Bear Pass


Overlooking Telluride in the distance



Heading down the switchbacks

[UTmike]

Passing Bridal Veil Falls on the end of Black Bear Pass



Our 11,000 foot camp in Gold King Basin



Starting up Imogene Pass the next morning coming from the Telluride side

[UTmike]

The Jeeps look pretty small on the side of that cliff on the way up Imogene Pass






We got up really early to drive to the base of Mt. Sneffels so we could make our climb up this 14,150 mountain. We took Yankee Boy Basin to get as close to the mountain base as possible. A snow drift covered the trail towards the end of the trail and we tried twice to get through it, resulting in us being delayed 2 hours while we try to get unstuck. All of the rocks we tried to anchor the winch to kept breaking and moving.

[Mindvirus]

Man that looks like fun. You just gota love Tom Cruise's house. I wonder if he has a jeep, or just uses a helicopter.

[UTmike]

More pics of me stuck in the snow on the base of Mt. Sneffels





Finally got the Jeep out and got ready to hike up the mountain, 2 hours later than planned

[UTmike]

This was the most physically draining thing I've done in years. We climbed straight up this thing!



Some of the views along the way. Since we got a late start the clouds started rolling in on us, pushing us to keep up a strong pace so we could summit and get back down before the rains



Finally made it!

[UTmike]

The rain rolled in hard right as we were getting back to our Jeeps after the climb. We were a long way out from Ouray and the heavy rains were washing out our trail on the side of the cliffs right in front of our eyes. Fortunately we made it through the washouts before they became impassable. It was definitely one of the scarier times of the trip.



The next day we started out on Engineer Road and then hit the dreaded Poughkeepsie Gulch! It started off fairly tame.

[flowrida2480]

man that looks like an awesome trip. the views alone make it worth while, looks like you had fun.

[UTmike]

We got to "The Wall" on the Poughkeepsie Gulch trail.





It was a little muddy at the base of the wall, making it very difficult to get up it. After two unsuccessful attempts it was time to break out the winch.

[UTmike]

After I got up I turned around and got in position to winch up the other two Jeeps


My brother going to town on "The Wall!"

[HankyDanky]

That is an awsome looking trip man! Might have to make a plan to go up there some time soon.

[UTmike]

After getting everyone up "The Wall" we continued South. The rest of Poughkeepsie Gulch wasn't exactly easy either. Poughkeepsie Gulch lead us back to California Pass which we took to Anamas Forks and up to Engineer Pass.



We camped a couple miles outside of Lake City on Engineer Pass.



The next day we headed to The Great Sand Dunes National Park and camped out on Medano Pass.


And after 7 nights and 8 days we packed up and drove 16 hours back to Texas. Hands down, the best week of my life! If anyone wants to know some of the details or you want more pics let me know. We had about 1600 pictures and 2 hours of video.

[krawler00]

Wow! Fantastic trip! I bet the star gazing was something else too! That is a trip I want to make someday. You could stay out there forever!!