Nothing Special's Ouray Colorado Trip, 2018

[Nothing Special]

Wow! That Wall looks like fun! But, I don't think it is something Big Blue would like given his front and rear overhang as well as his stiff suspension, and I'm sure Janey wouldn't.

But the views are amazing! Keep the reports coming, I'm living vicariously.

It wouldn't be undoable in Big Blue. But picking a line that didn't drag the rear bumper would be a challenge. And needing a winch to finish the climb wouldn't be unlikely either. Still, this isn't a trail I'm going to recommend that you drive. But when I get back to your thread I'll let you know how you can still have some fun with it (that Janey will also be able to deal with!).

[Gary Lewis]

It wouldn't be undoable in Big Blue. But picking a line that didn't drag the rear bumper would be a challenge. And needing a winch to finish the climb wouldn't be unlikely either. Still, this isn't a trail I'm going to recommend that you drive. But when I get back to your thread I'll let you know how you can still have some fun with it (that Janey will also be able to deal with!).

I'm in no hurry to get the info on my thread. I'm just having a great time reading your adventures.

As for doing it in Big Blue, I'm guessing that I may want to try it on another trip w/o Janey. Or, maybe I should say "on a trip with Janey but without her on that trail". In an effort to keep the focus here on your trip, more of this on my thread.......

[Nothing Special]

I'm in no hurry to get the info on my thread. I'm just having a great time reading your adventures.

As for doing it in Big Blue, I'm guessing that I may want to try it on another trip w/o Janey. Or, maybe I should say "on a trip with Janey but without her on that trail". In an effort to keep the focus here on your trip, more of this on my thread.......

Ouray Day 4: Engineer Mountain Road - Engineer Pass - Odom Point - Yvonne Pass - Engineer Mountain Road

Since we hadn't taken the time for Engineer Pass the day before we had to do it now (I'm an engineer, and I had bought an "Engineer Pass" cap, so it seemed necessary to get a picture at the top!).

On Engineer Mountain Road we ended up behind two separate groups of FJ Cruisers. There were also a pair of JKUs and a side-by-side ATV stuck behind them too (not an anti-Toyota slam, just that big groups often go slower than small ones). Both groups eventually let us by, and overall it still only took about 2.5 hours to get up to the turnoff to the pass.

(By the way, that picture shows how you get by oncoming traffic. In the foreground is a wide spot that a vehicle can pull into, allowing others by on the left. Then 3 vehicles up there's another spot. And at the end of this shelf there's another place. Some places don't have this many options, but this isn't completely atypical either.)

From that intersection it took only about 20 minutes to go the last 2.5 miles up to Engineer Pass. Nothing too difficult, but it didn't take long and there were great views. Engineer Pass goes down the other side to Lake City, but we turned around and headed back toward Ouray.

Not far back down Engineer Pass there's a short spur that goes on on a ridge. A sign on the end of the ridge identifies it as Odom Point. That was a great place to stop for lunch. While we were up there a side-by-side came up and stopped a little ways off from us for quite a while, then came up and asked "where are we?" We gave them one of our maps and helped them figure out where they were and where they wanted to go. They had come over Cinnamon Pass and had found that it was way more difficult than they were ready for. So boring for my wife was over the top for someone else!

Anyway, here's a view from Odom Point.

Going back down Engineer Pass there's another spur that I read goes to Yvonne Pass. That pass was closed years ago, so it's a dead end now, but the trail supposedly goes to the top of Engineer Mountain. As you go the trail gets fainter and steeper, so we stopped when it got to our limit. Total we spent about 30 minutes going up and down.

Then we just headed back down Engineer Mountain Road. Old hat by now (it took about 2 hours), but that's OK too

By the way, here's a picture I missed from the Imogene Pass trail on day 2. It's been really dry in Colorado, with lots of fires and burning restrictions (no being able to use charcoal required changes to our camping menu). But it did rain quite a bit just before we got there, and we saw these wildflowers. I think only once before have I caught flowers at this good a time. And two days later all the lowers we were seeing were pretty wilted. So it really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

[Gary Lewis]

Ouray Day 4: Engineer Mountain Road - Engineer Pass - Odom Point - Yvonne Pass - Engineer Mountain Road

Since we hadn't taken the time for Engineer Pass the day before we had to do it now (I'm an engineer, and I had bought an "Engineer Pass" cap, so it seemed necessary to get a picture at the top!).

On Engineer Mountain Road we ended up behind two separate groups of FJ Cruisers. There were also a pair of JKUs and a side-by-side ATV stuck behind them too (not an anti-Toyota slam, just that big groups often go slower than small ones). Both groups eventually let us by, and overall it still only took about 2.5 hours to get up to the turnoff to the pass.

(By the way, that picture shows how you get by oncoming traffic. In the foreground is a wide spot that a vehicle can pull into, allowing others by on the left. Then 3 vehicles up there's another spot. And at the end of this shelf there's another place. Some places don't have this many options, but this isn't completely atypical either.)

From that intersection it took only about 20 minutes to go the last 2.5 miles up to Engineer Pass. Nothing too difficult, but it didn't take long and there were great views. Engineer Pass goes down the other side to Lake City, but we turned around and headed back toward Ouray.

Not far back down Engineer Pass there's a short spur that goes on on a ridge. A sign on the end of the ridge identifies it as Odom Point. That was a great place to stop for lunch. While we were up there a side-by-side came up and stopped a little ways off from us for quite a while, then came up and asked "where are we?" We gave them one of our maps and helped them figure out where they were and where they wanted to go. They had come over Cinnamon Pass and had found that it was way more difficult than they were ready for. So boring for my wife was over the top for someone else!

Anyway, here's a view from Odom Point.

Going back down Engineer Pass there's another spur that I read goes to Yvonne Pass. That pass was closed years ago, so it's a dead end now, but the trail supposedly goes to the top of Engineer Mountain. As you go the trail gets fainter and steeper, so we stopped when it got to our limit. Total we spent about 30 minutes going up and down.

Then we just headed back down Engineer Mountain Road. Old hat by now (it took about 2 hours), but that's OK too

By the way, here's a picture I missed from the Imogene Pass trail on day 2. It's been really dry in Colorado, with lots of fires and burning restrictions (no being able to use charcoal required changes to our camping menu). But it did rain quite a bit just before we got there, and we saw these wildflowers. I think only once before have I caught flowers at this good a time. And two days later all the lowers we were seeing were pretty wilted. So it really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Now, this sounds like our kind of 'wheeling. You didn't mention any terribly tough places, but then it was Day 4 so maybe your tolerance for tough going has changed?

But the importance of good maps is obvious. Glad you've stressed that.

And, the wild flowers are beautiful! You got a special treat.

[Nothing Special]

Now, this sounds like our kind of 'wheeling. You didn't mention any terribly tough places, but then it was Day 4 so maybe your tolerance for tough going has changed?

But the importance of good maps is obvious. Glad you've stressed that.

And, the wild flowers are beautiful! You got a special treat.

It did include Engineer Mountain Road (twice), but I didn't talk about it much here since we were on that road 3 of the first 4 days (and we were on it on day 5 as well). Looking at the map, Engineer Mountain Road is by far the quickest way into the trails (except Black Bear and Imogene on the west side of 550), so we were on it a lot. As I said in the day 1 post, Engineer Mountain Road is probably the roughest, most difficult section of the Alpine Loop. Not to get too worked up about it, it's not that bad. But it's not just a gravel road in the mountains.

As to the tolerance for tough going, you weren't far off ("teaser" for days 5 and 7).

[Nothing Special]

It did include Engineer Mountain Road (twice), but I didn't talk about it much here since we were on that road 3 of the first 4 days (and we were on it on day 5 as well). Looking at the map, Engineer Mountain Road is by far the quickest way into the trails (except Black Bear and Imogene on the west side of 550), so we were on it a lot. As I said in the day 1 post, Engineer Mountain Road is probably the roughest, most difficult section of the Alpine Loop. Not to get too worked up about it, it's not that bad. But it's not just a gravel road in the mountains.

As to the tolerance for tough going, you weren't far off ("teaser" for days 5 and 7).

Ouray Day 5: Engineer Mountain Road - Poughkeepsie Gulch - Hurricane Pass - Corkscrew Pass - Corkscrew Gulch

At the end of day 4 my wife decided that the word for that day was "scenery." By the end of day 5 she decided that the word for this day was "Oops." More on that as we go along.

She suggested that we do Poughkeepsie again, but not do the Wall, that we had done that already so let's not push it again, but let's see the bypass, go to the Wall and watch others, and play a little on the easier parts of Poughkeepsie. I agreed to that (happy wife, happy life!).

Starting up Engineer Mountain Road we ran into the first "oops." We caught up to a group of FJ Cruisers where one had gone off the trail. They were up against some small trees and couldn't get back up on the trail. They weren't in a horrible dangerous position, but if they were a couple of feet further to the right (which at least the trees were keeping from happening) they'd probably have rolled a long, long way. They were rigging a winch to pull the front sideways, and easily drove back on the trail with the winch's help. The couple in the FJ were in their 60s, and looked very glad to step out onto (relatively) level ground!

And lest anyone get too worked up about how dangerous this is, it takes some serious daydreaming to stop paying attention to these trails enough for this to happen, especially on the more dangerous sections (which this was not). If you don't want this to happen, just don't drive off the trail!

We started up Poughkeepsie Gulch. During one photo stop a little below treeline were were passed by a white pickup that proclaimed itself "the slowest Tacoma in the world." The driver stopped briefly and chatted about being happy when he sees someone keeping old iron like my '71 Bronco out on the trails. Then an old red Toyota Hilux caught up to him and I recognized Marlin Czajkowski, of "Marlin Crawler" fame. The white truck was his son, now the company president. So that was fun (and got more fun, more on that later).

We continued up and decided to take the main trail up to the Wall (we'd backtrack and go up the bypass later). Turned out there were two groups of about 10 FJs each waiting to get up! We couldn't even get into the open area at the bottom, so we pulled off the side of the approach trail. We watched the groups try the Wall (three attempts and then the winch). Most were trying the line I had done on our day 3 and all were dropping their passenger rear in the hole and getting stopped. A few tried the far right line. Most of them dropped the driver's rear in the hole and "almost" rolled (not really that close, but close enough to be spooky). But the ones that stayed far enough right were able to get up.

The Marlin Crawler trucks were definitely the exceptions. Both crawled up in spite of intentionally putting tires in the hole. Michael in the white truck even got out and watched most of the time while his driverless truck walked up alone!

A couple FJs took the left side of the middle section. A stock FJ needed the winch (the yellow one below). A couple of FJs with solid axles were able to drive up the far left side, but not without some false starts and good spotting.

The next "oops" wasn't too bad, but a blue FJ with solid axles tried the right side of the middle section. That line tips you very close to the rock if you do it right. It tips you into the rock if you do it wrong. I'm not sure if this was right or wrong. He eventually made it up, but I never saw if he had any new rock rash.

By this time a third group of FJs had caught up. We were able to get them to all pull up into the bowl so we could head back down. We then went up the bypass. As noted earlier, it wasn't the easiest trail in the area either. We were following a stock FJ and the passenger got out about three times to spot. We drove it without any spotting, and I know CJs would have no trouble with it, even with two open diffs, but I'm less sure about a fullsize truck. In fact, of all the trails we were on I think the Poughkeepsie bypass might be the hardest one to fit a fullsize truck on.

After lunch at Lake Como at the top of Poughkeepsie we headed back over Hurricane and Corkscrew passes and down Corkscrew Gulch where we ran into the worst "oops." I'm not sure exactly what happened but when we got there there were 2 JKUs stopped in a switchback, a dirt bike laid on it's side at the edge of the trail and a girl on a 4-wheeler stopped in the switchback. On the trail below were two more 4-wheelers with two people looking up. And on the hill between the two trails was another girl trying not to slide down any farther. One of the Jeepers was getting out a tow strap and they had her up to the trail by the time I got down to them.

What we know is that the 4-wheelers were coming up the trail and that the girl jumped off hers, which people were saying was a good thing. Best I can gather is that one of the 4-wheelers on the trail below had been hers, she was coming up hard and ended up going off the trail when she met oncoming traffic. If that's the case, her 4-wheeler fell about 100 feet down to the next trail where it stopped, and she was able to stop herself in probably about 20 feet.

The 4 people on the 4 wheelers ended up getting on 2 of the 3, leaving the one we think fell down the hill. They headed down to "camp" at highway 550. We met one of them coming back up later (and going way too fast, probably over 20 mph on a one lane 2 way road).

The girl in black on the left side of the picture had just been pulled back up to the trail in this picture.

And again, lest anyone think this is too dangerous, keep your speed down. On a narrow road like this you need to be able to stop when you meet oncoming traffic, not coulnt on them being on their side of the (one lane) road. I always do my best to look around corners as best I can. But if someone is coming fast at me I do not make much of an attempt to get out of their way. I'll stop as hard as I can, and maybe edge a little right. But the only vehicles that can go fast enough on these roads to get into trouble like that really are motorcycles and ATVs, and I'd rather be hit head-on by one of them than drive off a cliff.

The last "oops" was much tamer. We met another group of ATVs that was lost. They were the ones I mentioned earlier that had a very detailed map, but didn't know where they were on it. We helped them figure out where they were on their map, got them turned around (since they had missed their turn a mile or two back) and headed down ourselves.

 

[Nothing Special]

Ouray Day 5: Engineer Mountain Road - Poughkeepsie Gulch - Hurricane Pass - Corkscrew Pass - Corkscrew Gulch

At the end of day 4 my wife decided that the word for that day was "scenery." By the end of day 5 she decided that the word for this day was "Oops." More on that as we go along.

She suggested that we do Poughkeepsie again, but not do the Wall, that we had done that already so let's not push it again, but let's see the bypass, go to the Wall and watch others, and play a little on the easier parts of Poughkeepsie. I agreed to that (happy wife, happy life!).

Starting up Engineer Mountain Road we ran into the first "oops." We caught up to a group of FJ Cruisers where one had gone off the trail. They were up against some small trees and couldn't get back up on the trail. They weren't in a horrible dangerous position, but if they were a couple of feet further to the right (which at least the trees were keeping from happening) they'd probably have rolled a long, long way. They were rigging a winch to pull the front sideways, and easily drove back on the trail with the winch's help. The couple in the FJ were in their 60s, and looked very glad to step out onto (relatively) level ground!

And lest anyone get too worked up about how dangerous this is, it takes some serious daydreaming to stop paying attention to these trails enough for this to happen, especially on the more dangerous sections (which this was not). If you don't want this to happen, just don't drive off the trail!

We started up Poughkeepsie Gulch. During one photo stop a little below treeline were were passed by a white pickup that proclaimed itself "the slowest Tacoma in the world." The driver stopped briefly and chatted about being happy when he sees someone keeping old iron like my '71 Bronco out on the trails. Then an old red Toyota Hilux caught up to him and I recognized Marlin Czajkowski, of "Marlin Crawler" fame. The white truck was his son, now the company president. So that was fun (and got more fun, more on that later).

We continued up and decided to take the main trail up to the Wall (we'd backtrack and go up the bypass later). Turned out there were two groups of about 10 FJs each waiting to get up! We couldn't even get into the open area at the bottom, so we pulled off the side of the approach trail. We watched the groups try the Wall (three attempts and then the winch). Most were trying the line I had done on our day 3 and all were dropping their passenger rear in the hole and getting stopped. A few tried the far right line. Most of them dropped the driver's rear in the hole and "almost" rolled (not really that close, but close enough to be spooky). But the ones that stayed far enough right were able to get up.

The Marlin Crawler trucks were definitely the exceptions. Both crawled up in spite of intentionally putting tires in the hole. Michael in the white truck even got out and watched most of the time while his driverless truck walked up alone!

A couple FJs took the left side of the middle section. A stock FJ needed the winch (the yellow one below). A couple of FJs with solid axles were able to drive up the far left side, but not without some false starts and good spotting.

The next "oops" wasn't too bad, but a blue FJ with solid axles tried the right side of the middle section. That line tips you very close to the rock if you do it right. It tips you into the rock if you do it wrong. I'm not sure if this was right or wrong. He eventually made it up, but I never saw if he had any new rock rash.

By this time a third group of FJs had caught up. We were able to get them to all pull up into the bowl so we could head back down. We then went up the bypass. As noted earlier, it wasn't the easiest trail in the area either. We were following a stock FJ and the passenger got out about three times to spot. We drove it without any spotting, and I know CJs would have no trouble with it, even with two open diffs, but I'm less sure about a fullsize truck. In fact, of all the trails we were on I think the Poughkeepsie bypass might be the hardest one to fit a fullsize truck on.

After lunch at Lake Como at the top of Poughkeepsie we headed back over Hurricane and Corkscrew passes and down Corkscrew Gulch where we ran into the worst "oops." I'm not sure exactly what happened but when we got there there were 2 JKUs stopped in a switchback, a dirt bike laid on it's side at the edge of the trail and a girl on a 4-wheeler stopped in the switchback. On the trail below were two more 4-wheelers with two people looking up. And on the hill between the two trails was another girl trying not to slide down any farther. One of the Jeepers was getting out a tow strap and they had her up to the trail by the time I got down to them.

What we know is that the 4-wheelers were coming up the trail and that the girl jumped off hers, which people were saying was a good thing. Best I can gather is that one of the 4-wheelers on the trail below had been hers, she was coming up hard and ended up going off the trail when she met oncoming traffic. If that's the case, her 4-wheeler fell about 100 feet down to the next trail where it stopped, and she was able to stop herself in probably about 20 feet.

The 4 people on the 4 wheelers ended up getting on 2 of the 3, leaving the one we think fell down the hill. They headed down to "camp" at highway 550. We met one of them coming back up later (and going way too fast, probably over 20 mph on a one lane 2 way road).

The girl in black on the left side of the picture had just been pulled back up to the trail in this picture.

And again, lest anyone think this is too dangerous, keep your speed down. On a narrow road like this you need to be able to stop when you meet oncoming traffic, not coulnt on them being on their side of the (one lane) road. I always do my best to look around corners as best I can. But if someone is coming fast at me I do not make much of an attempt to get out of their way. I'll stop as hard as I can, and maybe edge a little right. But the only vehicles that can go fast enough on these roads to get into trouble like that really are motorcycles and ATVs, and I'd rather be hit head-on by one of them than drive off a cliff.

The last "oops" was much tamer. We met another group of ATVs that was lost. They were the ones I mentioned earlier that had a very detailed map, but didn't know where they were on it. We helped them figure out where they were on their map, got them turned around (since they had missed their turn a mile or two back) and headed down ourselves.

Nothing Special's Colorado trip, days 6 and 7: Spring Creek Trail

Those five days ended our time in Ouray for this trip. At the end of day 5 I pulled the Bronco's rear driveshaft and got it ready to be towed again. Day 6 was driving up to Denver and setting up camp at Chatfield State Park. We then had dinner with some new old friends (a couple we met on a cruise last year).

On Day 7 we drive west on I-70, just past Idaho Springs, to Spring Creek Trail. As I noted in the first post in this thread, Spring Creek has a really special place for me. I started reading 4 wheel drive magazines when I was 11. I got my '85 F-250 about 10 years later and did some mild 'wheeling with it in the midwest. But my first "real" 'wheeling trip was in a friends brand-new stock '87 Wrangler. We did a bunch of pretty easy trails (and also a bunch of hiking) for a week before ending with Spring Creek. We made it past what I've recently heard of as Obstacle 3 (although we never saw Obstacle 1), but ended up deciding that discretion was the better part of valor in the boulder field above Obstacle 3, so we turned around and went back.

That was about the time I started building my '75 CJ5, and as I built it I had the specific goal to drive it all the way up Spring Creek. In 1993, less than a month after I finished the build, I went out with a pretty big group of people, but only one other Jeep (also a CJ5). He had to winch over Obstacle 2, and in the boulder field, but I drove my Jeep the whole way!

Edit, added in December 2021: I finally started a YouTube channel, so now I can post a video from that trip with my CJ5 back in 1993.

A year later I was out in Colorado with a friend for a conference, We were in my stock '85 F-250. We did a few days of mild 'wheeling, with Spring Creek being the toughest trail we did. It was a BEAR with two open diffs and no winch, but we did make it.

Then in 2000, at the end of our first Ouray trip, we swung by Spring Creek again, and I ran it in my CJ5 with my wife and (at the time) 4 and 6 year old boys.

Since then we've done much harder trails in the Black Hills, but I've always wanted to do Spring Creek again (and again!). In planning for this trip I looked up video of Spring Creek on YouTube and saw that it might be a lot harder than it used to be (I also got the imaginative names of obstacles 1, 2 and 3).

So on day 7 we started up!

About 0.3 miles up there's a fork to the left that goes to Obstacle 1. I had taken the main trail / bypass on previous trips, but we took the left fork this time. It gets shelfy pretty quick and goes around a corner with a steep wall up on the right, a steep drop off on the left and some boulders and holes in the trail as you climb up. My wife decided to get out and take pictures:nabble_smiley_beam:. The trail then continues along the shelf for a bit before turning right to go up Obstacle 1. I know, pictures or it didn't happen. Well, no pictures and it didn't happen. I think I could have got up it with my son's help spotting (or driving while I spotted). But he wasn't there. And I know I could've got up with the winch. But my wife didn't want me to start up a climb, solo, where I knew I'd need to winch. So we turned around and headed back to the main trail / bypass.

Here are a couple of pictures from coming back down the corner I mentioned. In the first one you can see what happens when you drop the left front tire of a Bronco in a hole with a full tank of gas but you forgot to put the gas cap back on! Look behind the driver's side mirror and you can see that I sloshed a "little" gas out! (I capped it when my wife told me what she saw).

At about 1.3 miles the trail gets pretty shelfy again, and at 1.8 miles we reached Obstacle 2. This had been no trouble for a stock YJ in '87, or a CJ5 with a rear locker in '93 and '00. It was a significantly technical section for the truck with open diffs in '94. But I didn't even recognize it now! I recognized the turn in the trail, and the location. But the trail itself was completely different. Gone was the mild rut that was at an awkward angle to allow you to keep all 4 tires planted. In its place were ROCKS. It still wasn't all that difficult for the Bronco with 2 lockers, but I was expecting this part to not be worth any photos. It was.

And in the last picture, no I wasn't trying to pull a "Marlin Crawler" driverless rock crawler stunt. My wife was shooting videos while I drove, she shot some stills while I was out spotting for myself.

Edit, added December 2021: and here's the video she was shooting:

So we continued on. The trail up to Obstacle 3 is kind of long (1.9 miles / 1 hour). Parts are shelfy, parts are steep. There are a few sort of big rocks, but nothing technical.

Obstacle 3 is at the start of what looks like a switchback to the left with the main trail continuing straight ahead. It's SO different from 18 years ago that I didn't recognize it so I went straight. What looks like the main trail actually dead-ends in about 0.2 miles. So we went back to Obstacle 3 and I felt sick. What used to be a main trail so narrow that it took about a 15 point turn to get my F-250 turned around is now well over 2 vehicles wide. And the obstacle, which used to be a fun challenge with 2 open diffs, now has boulders with holes between them that eat 37" tires. In fact, while we were on the dead end a group of 2 JKUs and a JLU, all with at least 37" tires and 2 lockers, had caught up to us and were starting up Obstacle 3. They made good use of their rock sliders in the process! There were able to get all three up, and offered to help me get over it as well. But it had rained briefly while we were there, there was thunder, it was the last day of our trip, and I don't have rock rails. So as Gary noted, with our tolerance for tough trails waning, we bailed. We were about 1/2 hour down when I asked my wife if she had thought to take pictures. She had put the camera away when it started to rain, and hadn't got it back out again (and lest it seem that I'm blaming her, I didn't think of it until 1/2 hour later either). So no pictures. But I guess that's appropriate since it didn't happen anyway.

So we had to go back down, but at least got to have a little more fun on Obstacle 2. I wish the second picture below showed the left rear, because I'm pretty sure I picked it up quite a ways!

Overall it took us about 5 1/4 hours to drive 8.8 miles (~4.4 each way), which included the stops at the various obstacles and for lunch. It was disappointing to not get to do the trail, but I simply wasn't prepared for the trail as it is now. Next time (and there WILL be a next time!) I'll come in from the top so I can see (and hopefully drive) the boulder field. I'll come down to Obstacle 3 and decide if I want to do it or not, but then turn around and go back out the top (the trail ends on the Mt. Evans Highway 103). And hopefully I'll have rock sliders and some different tires / wheels.

[Nothing Special]

Well, that was the end of my trip. It was a lot of fun. Not as much technical as many of my recent trips have been, and a lot more "trail riding" rather than "fourwheeling." But it was great to go on a 'wheeling trip with just my wife now that we're (sort of) empty-nesters and enjoy it!

The Bronco worked great too. I couldn't be happier with how the new front OX locker complemented the rear Detroit. I left the carb jetted for my 700' elevation home, and it still worked well, even on 13,114' Imogene Pass. My fuel mileage stunk as bad as my exhaust, and it took a lot of cranking and throttle to get it restarted. But it never stumbled while it was running. Although I certainly noticed often having to use one gear lower than I'd have guessed due to lower power output, mostly from the high elevation, but probably some from the rich mixture as well.

I did add some new gouges to my nice aluminum wheels and to my Warn hubs. And I had a hard time finding traction on Poughkeepsie. My plan after my last trip was to get some different tires for 'wheeling. I'm thinking 35-12.50x17 mud tires (maybe Falken WildPeak MTs?) on beadlock rims, and save my '95 F-150 Alcoas with 33-10.50x15 BFG A/Ts for street and very mild trail use. I'm thinking now I might get more serious about that. And I also need to add rock rails.

I added some custom bends to the tip of my tail pipe, but not enough to affect how the engine runs (I did crimp it closed a few years ago!). And I have a HORRIBLE exhaust leak from where the exhaust pipe attaches to the left manifold. That happened on the last trip too. I replaced a motor mount after that, so I need to see if I tore the new mount or else what the real issue is that's letting that happen.

I didn't add any new dents or scratches to the sheet metal, so that's good!

Other than the exhaust, the only issue I had was that my oil leaks got worse, including a valve cover that is leaking oil onto an exhaust manifold. So very soon I'll be digging into that.

So this now ends my trip report. I welcome any discussion / questions that anyone has here. And otherwise I'll get back to Gary's thread.

[Gary Lewis]

Well, that was the end of my trip. It was a lot of fun. Not as much technical as many of my recent trips have been, and a lot more "trail riding" rather than "fourwheeling." But it was great to go on a 'wheeling trip with just my wife now that we're (sort of) empty-nesters and enjoy it!

The Bronco worked great too. I couldn't be happier with how the new front OX locker complemented the rear Detroit. I left the carb jetted for my 700' elevation home, and it still worked well, even on 13,114' Imogene Pass. My fuel mileage stunk as bad as my exhaust, and it took a lot of cranking and throttle to get it restarted. But it never stumbled while it was running. Although I certainly noticed often having to use one gear lower than I'd have guessed due to lower power output, mostly from the high elevation, but probably some from the rich mixture as well.

I did add some new gouges to my nice aluminum wheels and to my Warn hubs. And I had a hard time finding traction on Poughkeepsie. My plan after my last trip was to get some different tires for 'wheeling. I'm thinking 35-12.50x17 mud tires (maybe Falken WildPeak MTs?) on beadlock rims, and save my '95 F-150 Alcoas with 33-10.50x15 BFG A/Ts for street and very mild trail use. I'm thinking now I might get more serious about that. And I also need to add rock rails.

I added some custom bends to the tip of my tail pipe, but not enough to affect how the engine runs (I did crimp it closed a few years ago!). And I have a HORRIBLE exhaust leak from where the exhaust pipe attaches to the left manifold. That happened on the last trip too. I replaced a motor mount after that, so I need to see if I tore the new mount or else what the real issue is that's letting that happen.

I didn't add any new dents or scratches to the sheet metal, so that's good!

Other than the exhaust, the only issue I had was that my oil leaks got worse, including a valve cover that is leaking oil onto an exhaust manifold. So very soon I'll be digging into that.

So this now ends my trip report. I welcome any discussion / questions that anyone has here. And otherwise I'll get back to Gary's thread.

Wow, what a trip! And, what a trip report! I really appreciate the report, and thoroughly enjoy (present tense as I have, am, and will) reading it.

I'm going to compare what you did each day with the map and try to get my head around where you went. And, I'm going to get a map or two for my Gaia app on my phone and see what I can find there in the way of a map to use.

What advantage(s) do you see in the larger and different tires? I'm not thinking of changing tires on Big Blue, but since he has essentially the same size tires you have now I'm wondering what issues I might have there.

As for the rock sliders, that's one reason I mounted the step bars where and how they are mounted. They are seriously solid and don't flex. But, I wonder if they are strong enough to be considered "sliders". (One was apparently used that way before I got them, but I don't know how effective they were.)

If you want we can have any discussion of the above on my thread to keep your focused on your most excellent adventure. Well done!

[Nothing Special]

Wow, what a trip! And, what a trip report! I really appreciate the report, and thoroughly enjoy (present tense as I have, am, and will) reading it.

I'm going to compare what you did each day with the map and try to get my head around where you went. And, I'm going to get a map or two for my Gaia app on my phone and see what I can find there in the way of a map to use.

What advantage(s) do you see in the larger and different tires? I'm not thinking of changing tires on Big Blue, but since he has essentially the same size tires you have now I'm wondering what issues I might have there.

As for the rock sliders, that's one reason I mounted the step bars where and how they are mounted. They are seriously solid and don't flex. But, I wonder if they are strong enough to be considered "sliders". (One was apparently used that way before I got them, but I don't know how effective they were.)

If you want we can have any discussion of the above on my thread to keep your focused on your most excellent adventure. Well done!

I don't mind any additional discussion in my thread. You may want to keep more of it in yours for simplicity, but since it's already split in two and you asked here...

The main think I'm looking for in new tires is to better protect my nice stock '95 F-150 Alcoa wheels. I'm scraping them up too much. I think they're 8" wide with 10.5" wide tires. I want to go with 12.5" wide tires on probably still 8" rims. I'll keep my current wheels and tires for street driving, but have another set for 'wheeling.

With dedicated wheels for 'wheeling (if I do that) I'm thinking I'll get beadlocks. I've never lost a bead at 15 psi, but some pictures have made it look like I'm close. And it would be nice to be able to air down lower for better ride and better traction on the more serious trails (Poughkeepsie is just borderline serious, Spring Creek is very serious now).

And bigger always seems better. I might still stay with 33" tires, but if I can fit 35s, that might be nice on the more serious trails (37s would be better yet, but I'm sure those won't fit without more work, and Lesley doesn't want to have to climb even higher to get in).

And finally, my BFG ATs are just about worn out, so I simply need new tires. If I have two sets I'll probably get more aggressive for 'wheeling and stay with all terrains for street. But even new all terrains would've helped a lot on Poughkeepsie.

Even so, my tires were fine for Ouray. It was Spring Creek where I more felt the need for better (and probably bigger) tires.

So for you in the Ouray area, I wouldn't worry about your tires. Most of the cars/trucks I saw on the trails had some sort of mild all terrain, or even closer to a street tire. As long as your tires are in decent shape just about anything will be fine (although I would recommend at least load range C to avoid sidewall damage, but I doubt that's an issue with Big Blue!).

On the rock sliders, if you start doing really serious 'wheeling, when you intentionally plant a rock slider on a rock to pivot the vehicle around, yours probably won't hold up. But for what you're talking about I think they'll be fine. The only iffy place would be if you tried the far right line on the Wall. You'd probably highcenter and need to drag across, and they might not hold up to that. So just don't do that line!