Continental Divide Overland Route and the Alpine Loop in Colorado - Picture Heavy

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Just realized that I never posted this here ... feels wrong since I used as much of the information I gathered here to plan and execute this trip. So here it is the trip I took down to the San Juans via the Continental Divide, with a stopover in Denver. Took place at the tail end of June of this year.

Day One - Alberta/BC
From the Highwood Junction in Alberta to the BC border at Roosville and into Montana.

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So the route as suggested is a hodgepodge of various roads and trails that get you driving or riding close to the Divide as much as possible. I've got a lot of issues with the route they chose and I'll point it out along the way. Above is the route that I took. The suggested route starts in Banff and I had no plans of backtracking just to take a different Highway to where I did start.

I started at the Highwood Junction. When I pulled into Longview there was still a sign saying that the pass was closed. While trying to look up if it was indeed closed (I had seen pictures from only a few weeks previous from cyclists friends encountering a wall of snow) someone passed and informed me that the sign was wrong and it was indeed open. 5 minutes later I was pulling off onto the Forestry Trunk road and the first gravel of the trip.

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I've driven the Forestry Trunk Road countless times but this was the first time with my daughter and I planned on stopping a few times and trying to check some things out. For the first half, before the 'Hump' at Savanah Creek and Hwy 532 there wasn't a whole lot but the views were still incredible.

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My daughter Piper had never seen the summit of Hwy 532 before. Colloquially known as "the Hump" it offers a spectacular view from the mountains, down the foothills, out across Chain Lakes and into the prairies. I'd recommend it to anyone, there is also a few hikes from there that are worthwhile as well. Though it was incredibly windy ... Piper was a fan.

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We headed back to the 40 and chased a couple waterfalls. Spots I had never bothered to stop before but I was hoping Piper might be entertained because this was going to be a LONG drive. The first one we stopped at was Livingstone Falls. Not sure if this one looked any different before the floods of 2013 but it's a nice enough little waterfall now. It doesn't have a dramatic plummet from a cliff but simply cascades down a 45 degree angle of smooth rock.

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Next we headed off for Old Man Falls. A fellow tourist at Livingstone had recommended them though, "he hadn't been in years". It didn't appear to be a long detour so we took off again and headed back northwest following the Old Man River away from the 40. For the life of me couldn't find the damn thing. Not sure if the floods did a number on it or if I was looking in the wrong spot. Piper and I stopped again anyway along the Old Man River and threw a couple rocks at the Old Man. She also grabbed a bouquet of dandelions for her mother who we would be seeing in four days in Denver.

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We hammered back to the 40 to continue on way. Back in the day, I would've taken Dutch Creek and Atlas road down to the Pass and maybe even in to BC. However, they have "decommissioned" the road and made it much more interesting for truck travel. As of last year it could still be done but I was on a timeline and didn't want to risk having to back track nearly as much. Still wanting to have a bit of fun on the drive, I instead took a turn west onto the SW section of the Daisy Creek trail.

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Not a particularly technical trail, it does provide some great views and longer hill climbs. The hill climb (or descent) on Wedge mountain being one of my favourite sections to photograph. It's one of those rare instances where it looks worse than it is. And the greenery around it is always nice too.

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After the climb took a few moments to soak up the scenery. It was becoming obvious though that the clouds were starting to take over and the rain would soon be starting. We were not making very good time and we had to keep moving. The only thing that would speed us up was seeing as how the mountains to the south of Hwy 3 were getting covered in clouds there was no way I would be stopping to take a socked in photo of Crowsnest Mountain from McGillvary.

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From here it's only a small descent to the McGillvary staging area. If I wasn't on a timeline and with my daughter I would've taken the route around 7 sisters. Perhaps then one of the 4x4 passes over the divide into BC. With rain coming and many miles before the US border crossing to go I rejoined the GPX track of the Continental Divide route. This was the #3 Crowsnest Highway and a paved mountain pass. Even though it began to rain slightly, we stopped at the "World's Largest Truck" roadside attraction in Sparwood. Far from being the "World's Largest Truck" anymore, there are a few bigger Cats up in the mines in Fort McMurray but it is a nice excuse to stop, stretch your legs and grab some photos. With a little perspective it barely looks bigger than the Cruiser.

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Of course when I take photos of it with Piper it truly shows off the scale of the big truck. Even if it isn't the biggest anymore, it is still large enough to drive over a normal vehicle and not even alert the driver there was something underneath.

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The GPX track stay on the #3 all the way to Fernie. This was a bit of a disappointment as there are some great trails both to the north and south of the #3 that are worth exploring. I would hazzard a guess that the trail was mostly developed on a computer and not from first hand knowledge of the area. Certainly taking one of the 4x4 passes to the south or north of Hwy #3 and then hitting the Corbin road and linking those trails would've been superior. I was already losing time though and I've decided to improve upon this route for the next time I take it.

Once hitting Fernie, we stopped for a quick bite and then we were back on the trail. Instead of taking the #3 to Elko we took to a trail/gravel road on the other side of the river. While much more lush, it also afforded little in the way of scenery.

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Once you hit Elko, you're back on the highway. You pass the highway turn off and take some back roads that get you somewhat closer to lake Koocanusa but don't actually take you there. All in all, this is simply taking backroads for the sake of taking backroads. Driving an extra 30kms of highway to take an unnecessary 15mins of dirt/gravel roads. If you're interested in taking this overland route, I'd skip this section entirely. Once again, I think the route would've been better served by linking #3, Corbin Road and hwy #93 to the border (or a different border crossing - more on that in Day 2). Regardless, you join Hwy #93 from the west just before the bridge south over the Elk River.

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We had an uneventful border crossing at Roosville. Drove another section of road around the Eureka airport that seemed unnecessary. Hit Eureka as the sun was dipping behind the mountains to the west. I then made haste to our campsite. The GPX files that I had of the route came with a number of waypoints for gas and camping spots. I cross referenced them with a website called FreeCampsites.net. That was I could gain a little bit more information on them before I drove down the wrong road and into a "Hills Have Eyes" sort of scenario.

We ended up camping at a spot called Rock Lake. It was a bit of a drive in on a single lane gravel road but were happy to find no one camping there that night. It was dark and couldn't really see anything that was going on in the area or what the views were like. It was late though so I quickly set up the rooftop tent. Piper and I falling asleep until the morning to get some views of the little Rock Lake and get started on Day 2.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Day Two - Montana
Favourite part of the divide trail. Also, the last day I truly followed it. Too many dead ends, false starts and snowed in passes. An adventure I would normally be up for but not while on a timeline with a 3 year old. Some of the best views of the trip ... even with it being completely socked in the whole time.

At Rock Lake

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Rock Lake is a campground that is maintained by the National Forest Service in the states. It's certainly not random camping by any means, there are clear places they intend for you to camp with firepits and pit toilets. The above pic is when I finally pulled into the site late on the first day.

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This is the view I woke up to. Had an idea because of the name of the site that there would be a lake. Didn't know it would be this picturesque.

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Close up of the cabin across Rock Lake from the campsite. Lucky bastard. Not only does he/she get to live in a cool spot but they also get to wake up to a view of the cruiser in the morning.

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Didn't fully set up the tent. When on the move I find it to be far more of a hassle than anything else. Unfold the damn thing hop up inside and then fall asleep. This is okay when it's just me. I really need to get better at estimating the time it's gonna take to get from point A to B because when you're travelling with a kid they expect to be able to more than just sleep when it comes to camping. They want to eat a camp meal, play around the lake and the camp site and maybe even have a fire. We didn't do any of those things ... at all ... during the whole trip. It's gonna become a theme.

NF Road 114;

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The route laid out by the GPX tracks and minimal research I had done before hand had me headed back towards the border and towards Glacier National Park. It started off as a regular paved road and then it dropped down to a single lane paved road. This is something I haven't seen since I was on the British Isles. It weirds me out a little to think that it's used enough to be paved but not enough to necessitate two lanes. They simply provide turn outs every now and again and if someone is coming the other way ... American courtesy rules I guess.

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Didn't actually take any photos of the paved section but that soon dropped away too. Single lane gravel road. For the most part, that is the best way to describe this thing. A road. Scenic but very much a road.

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As we got higher up, was shocked to find more and more drifts of snow. I rounded a corner and came up behind a front end loader that was clearing downed branches off the trail / road. I stopped the cruiser and went to talk to the guy on foot. I think I came close to giving the guy a heart attack. He clearly didn't hear me over his machine and was also not expecting anyone to be up there. After a quick conversation, he had informed me of some bigger drifts up ahead. Had he not been there, I might not have attempted them being on my own with my daughter but danger be damned we jumped over the remaining drifts and made it past the summit of the pass.

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Can't stress enough what a beautiful drive this was. The pictures don't do it justice. The mist and clouds would move to and fro, exposing and then concealing the scenery. It was a great drive.

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The end of the road in the National Forest and joining back with more two lane gravel. I didn't use my chainsaw on this trip but there were more than a couple reminders along the way that made me thankful I had at least brought it.

Getting on to the North Fork Road;

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Getting onto the North Fork road was interesting as I came across this sign. VERY tempted to go check out the border crossing but I was already behind schedule and hadn't made very good time at all. Looking into it a little further it's the Flathead/Tailcreek crossing and it was closed in 1996 due to a flood. I definetly want to go back and check things out ... it'd be an interesting bit of history and I can't imagine that the crossing is any bigger than the DelBonita crossing in Alberta. I also can't imagine that many if any people actually used this crossing so it makes sense that they closed the damn thing.

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The route suggested by the GPX track didn't stick with the North Fork Road. It actually curled back towards Whitefish ski hill, the town and the Highway down into Kalispell. It seemed a little counter-intuitive as it was actually heading away from the Divide. If the scenery was anything along the North Fork Rd, I'd be happy though.

Attempt to head back to Whitefish;

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So the trip back towards Whitefish was a bust. Complete and utter bust. I'm sure heading down into Whitefish would've provided some spectacular views and scenery but unfortunately I never got to see it. The above picture was after I had already wasted half an hour driving maybe 2kms up hill through this snow. I definetley couldve prevailed an made it the whole way, but if I wanted to make it to Denver in four days and not eight something was going to have to give. The GPX track went down into Whitefish and then across to Columbia Falls. The North Fork Rd, drive directly into Columbia Falls. So I ended up backtracking back to the North Fork Rd and took that all the way back into Columbia Falls. This drive is gorgeous. As I had put myself EVEN further behind I didn't take any photos but I'd recommend checking it out if you're in the area.

South of Columbia Falls;

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A sign along the route. Cyclists follow much of the same route and in fact I'm guessing the Overlanding community mostly stole this route from their work. I passed countless cyclists while following the GPX track.

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The route followed Hwy 83 for the most part but wound through between Flathead and Swan lakes. However, despite being on the sides of mountains and near to some beautiful lakes we never got a chance to see them as the tree cover was all but complete here. It was also VERY slow going. If on any sort of timeline, I would suggest sticking to Hwy 83

Morrell Mountain Lookout attempt;

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We touched Hwy 83 and crossed to the East and back towards the divide around Seely. We were taking Cottonwood Lakes Rd and it was far less winding and we were able to make up a bit of time. When I saw a sign proclaiming a Fire Lookout I decided to throw all that away and take the spur up Morrell Mountain.

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You could tell the views would be incredible but ran into another road block in the form of more snow drifts. Though, with some work, I could've overcome these as well ... just didn't have the time.

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Broke my heart a little as it was obvious that the views would've been spectacular. This panorama was taken only 3/4s of the way to the top.

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Stopping to smell the Bear Grass. After passing a couple of meadows filled with these flowers, I decided to stop and take some photos. However, we had used up so much of my time that we abandoned the rest of the route for that day and made a run for Helena. Where we would stay in a hotel. Sacrilegious!
 
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Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Day Three and Four - Little bit of Montana / Wyoming and Colorado
Taking byways and not the Overland Route or Highways. A middle ground between the two.

I had drastically underestimated the time this trip would take to complete fully. We had a day and half to make up serious ground and we still planned on stopping quite a few times to see the sights. Something had to give. The Coninental Divide actually heads back west towards the Idaho border before curling back east towards the NW corner for Wyoming. The decision was made to abandon the official route. Instead we took what was called the Backroad into Yellowstone. A road that travels almost directly south from Helena.

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Max exhausted at the beginning of the day. She might be getting a little too old for these kind of trips

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The western slope of the Montana Rockies don't look too different from the Eastern slope of the Alberta Rockies. Beautiful either direction you look at 'em.

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We stopped here to stretch our legs and get a look at Quake Lake. In 1959 an earthquake created a landslide that completely blocked the Madison River forming a new lake. Comparisons to the Frank Slide are inevitable because of the visual similarities.

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Piper hamming it up in front of the slide.

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The cruiser posing in front of the slide.

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The cruiser posing in front of Quake Lake with the slide in the background.

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Piper posing in front of the slide and lake. Very cool little spot and it was great to finally have some weather to take advantage of.

Yellowstone
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Next up was Yellowstone and all it's springs and Geysers. Piper really liked this old school, school bus. The Yellowstone Nation Park rangers use this for tours.

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Piper loved the **** out of all the Geysers and springs. If you get a chance to check this place out I highly recommend it. Couldn't tell ya the name of this little geyser but the place has tons of 'em. I will suggest not taking your dog with you. Puppies are not allowed on any of the boardwalks and we were forced to leave Max in the truck. Luckily only for very short periods and in the shade with her new kennel style setup in the back of the Cruiser she had it pretty good all things considered.


Listen to my "talking to Piper" voice!


That kid really likes geysers and bubbling water.

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Buffalo / Bison in Yellowstone! It looked so cold that I wanted to take it to a ranger station but I was able to resist the urge. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...any-more-bison-after-putting-calf-in-suv.html

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So the big draw in the park is of course Old Faithful. For me it was this beer and a good meal but I digress.

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And that's Old Faithful ... from the cafeteria lol. When travelling with a child some compromises need to be made.

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The sun setting on Yellowstone and Old Faithful. Once again, we had not made the ground that we needed to. It was well worth it but still.

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On the way out we crisscrossed the Divide multiple times. In hindsight I wish I had stopped and got photos every time we crossed or at least counted but let's just say it was a lot of times.

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With Piper on the verge of falling asleep in the cruiser and needing to make up some time. I drove through much of the night. Took the above photo while taking a pee break next to Jackson Lake. I would end up avoiding speeding tickets with my Canadian charm, driving midway through Wyoming and stopping at Fyre Lake at 4 in the morning to camp.
 
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Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Fyre Lake and Day 4;
So after a bit of confusion about where to spend the night, somewhat fueled by the fact that I was driving until 4 in the morning, I made it to our campsite at Fyre Lake. Both times that I set up camp, I've been doing it in the dark so I have had no idea if the spot I'm picking is a good one or not. It was muddy though, I knew that much.
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A few hours later, I awoke to scope out my spot. I peaked down the ladder and confirmed that the ground I had chosen to park on was wet but not swamp land.
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Not many feet from the base of the cruiser was swamp however. About 200 feet past that though;
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Just past the swampy mud ruts was Fyre Lake.
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Not a bad spot to wake up to. The views and spots were all awesome so far on this trip.
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Full disclosure; I have not idea which photos of Fyre Lake are ones that I took and which ones were Piper's. While I took down the tent and packed the truck she made sure to document the camping area as well.
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After looking at the map and the Continental Divide track, it appeared I could take a NF road south and join back up with the route. We had made decent time during the night and had not gotten up super late. We headed down the road from Fyre Lake and tried to get on the NF road but there was this gate. To the right was an incredibly muddy trail that I had witnessed a few full size trucks heading down. It didn't show up on my maps, but if it curled to the south I was willing to bet that it would hook up with where I would need it to. It didn't curl south. :(
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Back on the road that rose out of Lander, Wyoming. This road was pretty awesome though I did catch up with a Mustang that didn't realize that his convertible could go around a corner at more than 5 miles an hour. The cruiser could pull the switchbacks at 20 (really wish I had the Tacoma). After burning up all our extra time it was time to get hauling ace towards Denver. Still had about 6 hours to get there on the straight line route and though we could've tried to reconnect with the CDR it would've eaten all our reserve time.
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After we got down into the basin there was about 4 hours of driving through this. Very pretty but it all looked like this. Next time I come through the area, I'll have to check out the Continental Divide part of the trail as well as South Pass which is part of the (or even the start of) the Oregon Trail.
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As you can tell, I wasn't really stopping to take any more photos. It was go go go after the road block / gate fiasco. I did come across a lady pronghorn on the highway. More specifically, the driver ahead of me encountered the beast. I just cursed at him for slowing down so much. It did give me a chance to look around and spot her boyfriend off in the brush. Stopped and took out the tripod and zoom to try and get a pic. He finally stood up and looked at me after cursing in his direction. Though the photo kinda turned out it made me really wish I had a proper tele-photo zoom lens.

That was it for Wyoming. There was more cool stuff I could've taken photos of. I should've taken photos of the town of Sinclair, Wyoming. For those that venture into the states you might remember filling up at Sinclair gas stations. Well;
The town was originally called Parco, after the Producers & Refiners Corporation (or PARCO) which founded the refinery and the company town.[6] It was renamed Sinclair after PARCO was acquired during the Great Depression by Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. The original refinery, located in the center of the town, remains in use to this day.
It's quite a site, supposedly has a population of 450 or so. It looks bigger than Red Deer with the refinery in the centre of downtown. Like a cross between the Scotford refinery in Edmonton with the look of Calgary's downtown skyline.

The other photos I wish I had taken had to do with the geography and topography of northern Colorado. Some of the hills seemed built out of rocks that we placed by giant stone masons. Incredible scenery. Passed through the same area on the way out but it was pitch black.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Denver;
Skip this post if you're only in it for the truck n' trail stuff. I get it.

Won't bore you with a bunch of info about Denver proper. It's about 2.5 times the population of Calgary but is similar in a lot of ways. It's a town the sits high in the hills, almost another 2000 feet higher above sea level than Calgary. It sits a little closer to the Rockies, maybe about where the west edge of Cochrane is. However, it's downtown is kind of a drag. Well the downtown is fine, but the skyline is ****. It has a somewhat decentralized hub and it isn't nearly as dramatic as Calgary's. It makes Calgary's look like Metropolis in comparison.

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They do have a bit more public are in the core though and it seems they embrace it which is kind of nice. Especially when juxtaposed against the common refrain from Calgarians, "My taxes paid for that?!?". Above is the Big Blue Bear or more officially "I See What You Mean", a giant blue bear that peers inside the Colorado Convention Center. Often "vandalized" by other artists, the town has embraced that as well. Recently giving back a large blue **** that someone had placed under the bears ***.
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They've got a walking street / mall similar to Stephen ave which is nice but, and I might be biased, doesn't seem as good as the Calgary version. I took a bunch of photos while we walked around in the core of the city. I tried to be fancy and go black and white with 'em.
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It was really hot when we were down there. Like this Calgary heat wave is a good 5 degrees cooler than what Denver was. My pasty Canadian self was gonna catch on fire so we did check out a couple air conditioned things while we were down there.
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The REI flagship store for instance. REI is to the States, what MEC is here. On steroids.
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It's the Bass Pro Shops for the tree hugging crowd. Pretty cool. It was housed in this really old warehouse with vaulted ceilings. They'd added three floors of merchandise as well along the one side. The place was huge. If you've seen the architecture of the new Gear Shop location, it's similar but MUCH bigger.

Another air conditioned thing we checked out was the Aquarium;
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It's kind of interesting as I've never been to a privately run Aquarium before. Been to Vancouver/Victoria and Seattle and they were nice (and educational). This was different, it was almost setup like an amusement park. It's privately run and while I think the Aquarium pays for itself, how they make money is from an attached restaurant.
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Unfortunately, because the wife was working during the week and I was basically looking after two babies all day, I couldn't really check out any of the more mature things to check out in Denver. No bars, brew pubs or craft beer tastings. :(

That was Denver. I return to our regularly scheduled truck/offroad adventure.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
One place I did get to check out just outside of Denver was Slee Offroad. There was some correction bushings that I needed for the front lower control arms / radius arms and I picked up a bunch of Frontrunner Wolf Pack boxes. Side note - If you're getting the Frontrunner transit bag ... it's not waterproof on its own. If you're getting one, you might as well get the wolf pack boxes at the same time.
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Heading to the San Juans - June 19th;
Left the comfort of Denver a little after noon on that Friday.
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The scenery along the drive was incredible. It was very cloudy around Denver as we were leaving town and every community we passed as we gained in elevation was eneveloped in the clouds so we didn't get the best views right around Denver but after we popped back down from the mountain range and headed for the San Juans the skies cleared up and we were treted to this view. These here are a portion of the Collegiate Peaks.
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The landscape was varied, from desert to lush forest to high alpine all within very short spaces. The Cruiser parked in front of some desert looking hills the one way;
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Max sitting in front of farmland in the valley and the aforementioned Collegiate Peaks. She looks so smart.
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A little further south was where we planned on camping for the night before getting down to the trail head. An area called Poncha Springs. On a whim we drove the other direction because of a sign that promised Sandwiches. The sign led us to the town of Salida. Wish I had gotten more pictures from this place. It had a very Moab vibe and we were there during some sort of Art Walk. Very cool little town if you happen to be in the area. The pizza and craft beer at Amica's is top notch as well.
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We found our spot to camp a little west of the highway and Salida and a little north of the highway and Poncha Springs. Very cool little spot. It was similar to camping along the bluffs of the Ghost River valley down Transalta Road.
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The view from the tent, out over the edge of a bluff and down into the valley below.
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The crepuscular rays coming through the early morning cloud cover and into the valley.
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I've been wrong many times before and this may be no different but I believe that this is one of the Collegiate peaks but now looking at it from the South. We ate the small boxes of cereal that we had picked up in Salida for breakfast, quickly packed our tent and then headed for the San Juans.
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On the way, we crossed the divide again. I really should've kept count. Interesting side note about mountain passes. The highest paved mountain pass in Canada is Highwood Pass at 7,237ft. The TransCanada Highway uses the Kicking Horse Pass and is only 5,390ft at it's highest point. Monarch Pass in comparison is 11,312ft.
The Alpine Loop - Wager Gulch;
As soon as I was looking into this trip there was only one destination or trail that I had in mind for this weekend. Black Bear Pass. Was planning on following that with Imogene on the way back. Well ... it became clear before I left that neither of those trails would be open during the window that I had to be down in Colorado. Using the Funtreks guides and some advice from here and other forums (don't bother looking this is the only forum that matters), we decided on tackling the Alpine Loop. The Alpine Loop is network of trails that pass between Ouray / Silverton in the west and Lake City in the east. Time wise, these worked out perfectly. Lake City was significantly closer to Denver and by using Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass as a there and back trail (aka the Alpine Loop) it made it so that our commute back to Denver the following day would be shorter as well.

It still pains me that I wasn't able to tackle Black Bear Pass. Coming down the switch backs over Bridal Veil falls remains on my bucket list.

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Using the Funtreks guide was a big help but there was one small problem. We were using it in conjunction with the Funtreks app and that created a small SNAFU to start the trail. The Funtreks app allows you to get directions to either the beginning or end of the trail and their respective trailheads. Since we were doing the two trails as a loop, we would be starting at the end of Cinnamon Pass. The problem was that the Funtreks team had put the end of the trail, not at the actual end of the trail, but at the end of an optional spure trail. We were about 1km down Wager Gulch before I figured out the weirdness of the situation. We probably would've skipped this section and continued on down the road to spend time in Animas Forks but life is an adventure and because of the mix up, we skipped Animas Forks instead.
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We were on the trail the same day as an Ultra Marathon that was taking place out of Lake City. Nothing like running 50miles. And there is definitely nothing like running 50miles at between 10,000 and 13,000 feet.
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Damn Marmots. Always pestering Max.

 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
The Alpine Loop - Cinnamon Pass;
After doing the Wager Gulch spur trail, we rejoined the main part of the Loop and Cinnamon Pass.
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Driving along the trail was the opposite of difficult. It is a gravel road. The part within the valley is smooth as butter and appears to service some cabins and possibly some minor mining operations in the area. The views were awesome though. The trail in the Valley open enough to see the terrain around us. Here is the Crusier parked in front of Quarter Peak (13,674ft)
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The Cruiser as we pass one of the false summits of Wood Mountain. This was not a busy time of year for these passes and still we were passed by in the other direction constantly. I can't imagine what these trails are like in July and August when the kids are out of school and everyone is on vacation.
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Random waterfall we passed as we started to gain elevation up to the summit of Cinnamon Pass.
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The Summit of Cinnamon Pass (12,640ft). At this point, it was the highest point I've ever been while still with 2 feet touching the ground. For reference, the highest point at Sunshine is 8,960ft. Elaine and I watched the sunrise from Haleakala on Maui at 10,023ft (which is easily the biggest elevation gain we've ever experienced) but this was another 2 and 1/2 thousand feet beyond even that.
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Looking back at the valley from which we climbed to get here. You can see a few of the switch backs and the trail in valley WAY down below. After this we would head down towards the ghost town of Animas Forks and the start of Engineer Pass.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
The Alpine Loop - Engineer Pass;
The west side Cinnamon Pass has a steeper grade and is the slightest amount more challenging. At the very least you really need to pay attention to the road and try not to get lost in the views. The gravel road has sharper edges and veering off of them would result in catastrophe.
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On the way down to Animas Forks, and looking at the time, the decision was made to skip the ghost town. This was made easier by the fact that the road to Engineer Pass was accessible before fully descending down there.
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The views from this side of the pass were even more epic if that's even possible. By being higher up and the valley falling away below you allows for views of the peaks all around us.
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We passed more than a few vehicles on this trip and at some of the tighter sections it was necessary to allow some to pass and others allowed us to pass them. Everyone was beyond courteous and never had an issue with anyone we passed.
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At about the same elevation as Engineer Pass is "Oh Point". We didn't catch on right away while reading the guise book but you understand as soon as you drive out there. You basically drive along a goat trail and there is a large circular section of gravel ontop of the false summit of Engineer Mountain. Almost 360 degree views of the San Juans and the Colorado Rockies. Wish I had taken a few more photos from this spot.
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And now this here is the highest I've ever been while still putting 2 feet on planet Earth. Not to beat a dead horse but for comparison; the height of the tallest mountain in Alberta is Mount Columbia at 12,274ft. Still no where near the height of Mount Logan in the Yukon at 19,541ft. Maybe a side trip for next year on the way to Tuk?
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Piper and Max enjoying the sunshine (and being out of the truck for a bit). Sadly no more snow for these two to play in but they seemed to enjoy themselves none the less.
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Looking back up at one of the false peaks of Engineer Mountain and Henson Creek.
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About to get back into Lake City. Engineer Pass dumps you right back into town. It was perfect timing as we were ready for dinner and the guys and gals from the Ultra that we had seen were starting to cross the finish line in the town park. After Elaine cried a bit we got a bite to eat on a patio that allowed dogs ... BONUS!
After dinner we headed back from whence we came. Back towards Denver. Using that website I mentioned earlier we found a camping spot a little ways north from Lake City. We followed the Campbell Creek north with the highway and when the highway turned east we followed the Campbell Creek north into a canyon not too different then the Henson Creek one pictured above. Unfortunately, the site we picked I didn't really read fully and it was designed for hikers and backpackers. We backtracked back down the single lane gravel road and almost immediately found a little random single car camp spot. Seemed perfect for us and had a firepit, bear proof bin and picnic table all for ourselves. All the pictures I took turned out really blurry. In my exhaustion, I hadn't changed some settings on the camera that made it virtually impossible to take photos in low light. Live and learn.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
The Drive Home - At least the start of it;
In the morning we awoke to our first chilly morning of our time in Colorado. This was also helped that the tight canyon that we were camping in wasn't getting any early morning sun. With us parked virtually against the canyon wall meant we wouldn't see direct sunlight again until we packed up and left site.
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There was sun to be had as soon as we escaped the canyon. We drove back the way we came. We stopped at a few touristy places along the way including the Monarch Crest Tramway, pictured in the background of the Monarch Pass photo from before. Even then we were not at a higher elevation than we had been up Engineer Pass.
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I like food a lot. I also really like kitschy road side attractions. This hot dog stand in the shape of a hot dog was a match made in heaven. Pretty good stuff. On another side note, it really seems that people from Colorado have an affinity for the Big Apple. There are a few Denver downtown streets that steal their names from New York and then this. For what it's worth, this place is nothing like Coney Island.
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Elaine was flying out this night from Denver with our youngest and I would be driving back with Piper. It seemed like an excellent opportunity to use some of the facilities of the Denver Westin such as a shower for myself and a swim for Piper. A huge shout out to the valets at the Westin for allowing me to park the cruiser up front and in the shade while I went and had a shower. After that Piper and I were off.
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As I was driving into the sunset the reds and oranges in the sky were overwhelming. Got a decent view of a silhouette of Long's Peak from the Highway on the way out. This was the last thing I would really see on this trip. Instead of taking 4 days to get home, I had decided to make a run for the border instead. It was pitch black through the rest of Northern Colorado, Wyoming and a good portion of Montana. Piper was more than a little irritable once the sun came up and she realized we never stopped to camp. An overly long breakfast and park pit-stop for Piper in Great Falls and we were back on the road. The longest wait time I've experienced at a border crossing didn't do anything to better Piper's mood either. Between the delayed border crossing and the long breakfast and park visit ... my dream of beating my wife home on the airplane was dashed. We got home safely about 16 hours after leaving the airport hotel and very glad to have a couple days to recuperate.

This was an awesome trip and reminded me that I don't need to make a lot of excuses about going for a drive. If I can offer any advice it would be the following;
  • Be Patient (especially if travelling with kids). The route you may have chosen may have delays and might need some detours. Your travelling companions might need more time out of the truck than you do
  • Take as much as you need and no more. I WAY overpacked for this trip. You obviously don't want to take to little. But almost as bad is taking too much stuff.
  • Just get out there and explore! Regardless if the trip is long or short, if you can make it work ... just go. It is totally worth it.

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask! Considering all the help I received for my questions about Colorado on here, it's the least I can do to pass it on.
 

unkamonkey

Explorer
Nice report and welcome to the areas I spent much of my time in growing up. It's interesting that a lot of young girls have to wear their Pink Princess dresses while out. It's always interesting to see how others view this area. I suppose a person can get a bit used to it and then it is time to see it through another persons eyes. Some times I open up my eyes and appreciate what is out there.
 

Doc McCoy

Untitled Offroad
Nice report and welcome to the areas I spent much of my time in growing up. It's interesting that a lot of young girls have to wear their Pink Princess dresses while out. It's always interesting to see how others view this area. I suppose a person can get a bit used to it and then it is time to see it through another persons eyes. Some times I open up my eyes and appreciate what is out there.

I have to say for the sheer pleasure of driving ... Colorado might be my new favourite spot. The varied terrain and the views are spectacular. Linking that with a trip through SE Utah and Moab might be one of the trips I'm gonna try and make happen next year. When I can do Black Bear, Imogen and the others I missed out on this trip. There is just too much awesome not to go back.

Great report - a very interesting read. And it was cool to see all those Cruisin' Off Road bumpers/sliders everywhere! Local shop that I'm a big fan of.

Really enjoyed your photos, too. What camera/lenses did you use on this trip?

Thanks! Yeah, wheeled with Jason from Cruisn' Off Road during a Cruise Moab in ... 2012 (?). He might not remember me but I was the guy who stalled his bobbed Tacoma on the Golden Crack (multiple times). We were wheeling with Ryan C who owned this Landcruiser at the time and was very impressed with the build quality of his stuff. When Ryan went to sell it a couple years later we had to snap it up. Despite me not buying the stuff directly from him, he's alway been great to deal with any time I've had any issues (minor maintenance on the gas struts for the swing outs). I also must have video of him crossing the crack in his Cruiser before the accident but I can't find any of that footage.

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Both the trucks exploring Golden Spike.

95% of the photos were taken on a Sony a6300. The lenses are all over the place. Before getting to Denver, almost everything would be shot on the 55mm Zeiss full frame e-mount lens with some shots using the 18-55 kit lens from an older Sony Nex-5 camera. I love the 55mm but you need to zoom with your feet and it has no image stabilization in the lens. In Denver I picked up the 24-240mm e-mount full frame lens. Now it's all I use lol. Not the sharpest lens but with the super zoom and the image stabilization it works really well for the jump out of the truck, take a quick pic, and then jump back in the truck. I take far fewer blurry pictures now lol.

wow wow wow... beautiful family and great pictures! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks for checking it out!
 

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