Completed: 2 Weeks through the West

[tonic21]

Awesome shots man, I wish i had did more, off the main road stuff last year driving from VA to CA. But i'll be going back across country again in about 18 months.

[Trail X]

I'm jealous Rob, I'd like to do the trip again tomorrow!

Even if you stay on pavement, get off the interstate and take some back roads. It's amazing what you can run into. Interstates are efficient, but due to that efficiency you miss a lot.

Why so many damn pictures of food!

You've blown my diet darn it!



Hmm, What a wonderful trip.

Lil "Coop" did good by you two, too.

Sorry about the diet Randy! Just think of it this way - skinny people have less chance of survival after an apocalypse since they can't use stored up fat!

Yes Coop did a great job. I honestly expected SOMETHING to go wrong, but we had wonderful luck. The most annoying thing was that the fridge drew down the rear battery after the Grand Canyon. Luckily the fridge works as a cooler too, so nothing got too warm until we got back to Colorado springs. But by that time we only had drinks left in there. I had just used too small of a wire, and the input voltage couldn't charge the battery fully.

[Chutes]

I love the full documentation of this trip. It's giving me big ideas.

Also I love the pictures of the food. Food is one of my favorite ways to experience different parts of the country.

Well done!

[tonic21]

I'm jealous Rob, I'd like to do the trip again tomorrow!

Even if you stay on pavement, get off the interstate and take some back roads. It's amazing what you can run into. Interstates are efficient, but due to that efficiency you miss a lot.

Actually next time im going to have the Coast Guard ship my motorcycle, no trailer , and take off, so ill be doing some exploring.

I may have to revert back to this thread once i start planning the trip back to the east coast, hoping to get stationed in Baltimore next, but we'll see

[Trail X]

Finally finishing up this trip...

To recap, it was Wednesday. We spent the previous night in Durango. We both agreed that Durango was definitely someplace we wouldn't mind returning to someday.

Today we needed to make it to Pueblo, CO. We had two options, north through the San Juan Mountains, or west towards the Great Sand dunes. Seeing as we don't know when we would return to this area, we decided to take the "scenic route" over the mountains to Gunnison via Cinnamon Pass.

The highway towards Cinnamon Pass (the million dollar highway) was quite steep, twisty, and turny. My truck didn't really like it much, on some climbs it refused to go above about 15-20. That's ok, I watched the temperature gauge and let the truck do the heavy lifting. We were in no real hurry despite the distance we needed to cover today.

This was a pull-off along the highway, between Durango and Silverton.





We passed through Silverton, and instead of heading on up the highway, we split off at Silverton along a county road towards Animas Forks.



The scenery along county road 2 was pretty incredible. Unlike anything I'd seen before.













This is Animas Forks.



I took a few pictures, but I was eager to get up the mountain.



Here's the split between Engineer and Cinnamon. It was a hard call between the two, but I thought Cinnamon might be better for us (being our first time on these mountain shelf roads).



The views from this road were just ungodly. As you can see, the slope was pretty steep. You'll get a better perspective once I get the dash cam footage up. Passing people was quite intersting, especially for Megan, who was on the downhill side. She would release a barely audible squeak whenever we went a little off-camber or got a bit close to the edge.



The landscape really changes when you pass around 11,000 feet.



Where are the trees?





Summit, 12640 ft. It was cold and windy... evidence below!



From the summit.



The route back down was gorgeous too, because you descend downward into this long valley. Incredible. The colors were just unbelievable.











I didn't take many pictures between that last picture and air-up. Mainly because there was a very unexpected shelf road during the next section. Basically, we were hanging onto the side of a cliff face, on a little rock shelf. Butt was clenched. Much more intense than the roads even above 11,000 feet. I didn't even see this on the maps! Heck, 300 yards before the shelf began, I tried to talk Megan into driving! I think there's some dash footage of this section, but I definitely didn't document it well enough. Megan held on tight, and sounded like she was in labor during this section.



We stopped in Gunnison, CO, not really knowing where to eat, but knowing we were starving. We ended up stopping at a little dive called "Mario's". We were in good company there... I still wish I would have introduced myself to these guys:



Excellent little surprise! The wings were awesome, and the pizza was better! No doubt, it gets two Downing thumbs up.



We cruised into Pueblo that night, with the plan to have a "resting day" the next day in Colorado Springs before the drive back east.



The drive east was interesting. We decided to drive straight from Colorado Springs to our family in West Virginia. No stopping except for dinner, gas and snacks; it was 1327 miles, and 22 hours.



Dinner was worth the stop though. We were heading through Kansas City about 8pm, and stopped at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ. Well worth the line-out-the-door wait. Best ribs I've ever had. Next time that's all I'll get though.



I'll wait to post the video from Cinnamon Pass, then try to write up some sort of inspirational ending. I hope you guys enjoyed the photos, because I posted all this for you.

[onelow1ton]

Amazing pix James. Seeing this stuff really makes me want to make a trip like that

[plaen]

Excellent post James, and I see you made it during the best time of the year, when the aspens were changing.

I know the exact spot you were talking about with the shelf on cinnamon, engineer is a pretty easy pass, but both moderate for stock vehicles. I should get down there and do all those trails again, It's been about 5-6 years since I was there. Made it a week long camping and off roading trip, those 2 are my favorite trails. There's a few by crested butte that just barely beat them in my book, along with the ever dangerous schofield pass, the trip to it is worth the detour to take it, I would not suggest it to anyone in a stock tb, even maybe not any tb, as It's barely wide enough to take an older jeep on. Even then, there is 3-4 jeeps in the river.

More reading http://www.marbletourismassociation.org/four_wheeling.html#schofield that's from the marble side, another good trail up to the town of crystal.

Next time anyone is out here, send me a pm, and I'll gladly run some trails around the state.

Thanks for sharing, I'm glad to hear the trip was successful, it's always nice to see other peoples opinions and pictures of Colorado, since I'm quite biased, and absolutely love the state.

[Trail X]

Finally got the video all cooked up. It had to bake overnight.



Ok, now for the inspirational ending:

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And you're the guy who will decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets, look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
You're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find ANY you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.

Out there things can happen and frequently do,
to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along. You'll start happening too.

You'll be on your way up. You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers, who soar to high heights.

So...
Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
You're off to Great Places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So... get on your way!

- Dr. Seuss

[gotspeed1]

Awesome!! Makes me want to get out right now, even after a 12 hour shift!!

[plaen]

Awesome!! Makes me want to get out right now, even after a 12 hour shift!!

Lol, it would be awesome to get out there, but I hear that the san juans are getting hit hard with snow in the last couple of months, so I doubt the trails are open now.

I really want to get out some, but the snow is limiting any offroading for me, plus my truck isnt ready for some off roading.

[v7guy]

I don't reckon I'd be too enthused about meeting another vehicle on some of those roads. Thanks for postin the pics and video.

[mikekey]

This has me brain storming new ideas to re-attempt our trip we tried a year ago. We both now officially have the time off early August.... hmmm.... Might be asking questions about portions of your route.

[Trail X]

Ask away! I'll help out as much as I can. Hasn't even been a whole year now and it already feels like a faint memory...

[mikekey]

Still have your itinerary or a list of the resources used to plan your trip? We where looking at that part of Colorado. My original idea last year was maybe a tad bit too over enthusiastic.

We do know we're looking at areas to do some light off roading, like intro-level #3 or high 2.5.

We're know we are planning 12 days so far, so our trip wouldn't be as huge as yours.

At this moment I'm debating going into Utah or heading towards Yosemite and Grand Teton area... Seems like there is more off road if we head into Utah though. Tough call. I need come up with some options, and sit the wife down and hammer out what she'll feel most comfortable doing so I can work out a full plan.

[Trail X]

Plan some driving days, and plan some non-driving days.

I'd recommend the N. rim of the grand canyon, if you're willing to head that far south. That was probably our favorite location. If I were to go again, I'd probably spend a couple nights there instead of rushing through it. I'd also consider death valley for some real raw natural beauty.

I do have an itinerary from the trip, but it wasn't kept up to date once we hit the road. Should be able to be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... kWFE&pli=1

[mikekey]

Thanks for the help James!