devinsixtyseven
Explorer
We're gonna go play in the sand again 
.
Anyone else interested?
-Sean
.Anyone else interested?
-Sean
Medano/GSDNM June 1-3
- Thread starter devinsixtyseven
- Start date
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
GF and I are planning on going up that weekend. We are going to camp out on the east side (south of Westcliffe) on Friday night and go over on Saturday, spend some time at the dunes, then head towards Lake City for some fishing.
Are you going East-West or West-East?
Are you going East-West or West-East?
devinsixtyseven
Explorer
Hadn't decided yet, since we're hopefully leaving Friday afternoon. Since the pass is open we might just drive up and camp near the top on the East side or something.
We're planning on playing in the dunes most of Saturday, hadn't thought about what we'd do Sunday but might hike to Medano Lake or something. We'll probably be there all weekend.
We're planning on playing in the dunes most of Saturday, hadn't thought about what we'd do Sunday but might hike to Medano Lake or something. We'll probably be there all weekend.
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
We'll be leaving this afternoon, hopefully NLT 1400 (that's "no later than 2:00 PM" for you civilians out there! )
We still plan on setting up camp on the East side, about a mile from the highway, at a clearing that looked like a good camping spot when I first saw it about 8 years ago. Approximate lat/long is 37d 54' 46.4" N 105d 24' 38.4" W.
We'll be in a Toyota Tacoma, "expedition white", of course with a green Leer topper and Colorado National Guard license plates. You may see our little Australian Cattle Dog Shaila running around like a maniac at the camp site.
Martin and Liz.
) We still plan on setting up camp on the East side, about a mile from the highway, at a clearing that looked like a good camping spot when I first saw it about 8 years ago. Approximate lat/long is 37d 54' 46.4" N 105d 24' 38.4" W.
We'll be in a Toyota Tacoma, "expedition white", of course
with a green Leer topper and Colorado National Guard license plates. You may see our little Australian Cattle Dog Shaila running around like a maniac at the camp site. Martin and Liz.
devinsixtyseven
Explorer
Martin-
We did see you! I'd just forgotten what color your truck was, and which year Taco...
You passed us in the morning, as I was airing down--silver Toyota Tundra with an ARB bumper and black Rhino liner on the roof. Katie and I were in the campsite on the right side of the road, I remember seeing Liz wave through the window and thinking "I wonder if that's them." Hopefully we'll see you guys again!
We had a great time. I sunburned the tops of my feet, and lit a bunch of marshmallows on fire.
:1888fbbd:
We spent Saturday playing at Castle Creek, it was the first time I broke out the shovel, and made a huge mess. With a medium sized, D-handle spade, a guy can divert a substantial amount of water around, and make a pretty big sand castle. I'm not sure how well it works for recovering the truck, but it's great for playing with sand and water...it was like being a kid again, with the hose in the sandbox, but with a BIG shovel this time.
There were a bunch of people sledding, and at least one guy with a snowboard over there, and a lot of kids that kept running off with our sand castle buckets. Darn kids trying to bogart my pail...
The water crossings were about 18" deep...just a guess, they were a little over hub height on a 35" tire, and at one point just barely over the sliders, so maybe 2' tops. Saturday evening, the weather was kind enough to hold the rain long enough to fire up the grill, then it rained while we ate in the truck, and when we were finished it quit long enough to get in the tent...we slept snug in our bed, with visions of crack on a stick dancing in our heads (with grilled peppers and flaming marshmallows!).
Sunday we left to the East, up HW69 to Buena Vista. Along the way, in Westcliffe, Katie's keen malt-shop spotting skills located a small, really tasty shop with easily the best milkshakes we've ever had. The place was called the Westcliffe Stage Stop, where HW69 makes a turn through town. Westcliffe looked like a nice place, we'll be back. The deli/bistro (!) across the street is closed on Sundays (and Thursdays). I had the blueberry, Katie had a PB&C, my only complaint is they don't come in buckets .
We hit OCG...Old Chinaman's Gulch, and OCG hit my front bumper. We met another guy and his dad in a Cherokee, they (and two other rigs already in) had also been led astray by a deceptively simple description in the Charles Wells book--the 4x4trails.net is a better indicator of difficulty with respect to other trails. It was a heckuva lot of fun, tho. Rock gardens galore, one optional obstacle called the Rock Pile where I found I need a locker as well as an exhaust reroute (had to strap back off), an obstacle called The Waterfall which looked deceptively easy but was a little harder with loose dirt and light rain, and a lot of BFRs everywhere. I learned a few tricks from the guys we met, and for a trail like that I think we were all glad to have a few more people along. I've decided I need to move away from the ARB Sahara Bar, as much as I like it...it's a beautiful bumper for overland use, not so much for technical trails. I have a little body work waiting this week :smilies27.
Last item...one of the more interesting things we found from the trip. When we drove through Westcliffe, we noticed a very strange looking cut on the mountainside..."hey, that looks like a ski area." Turns out it's one of Colorado's "lost" ski areas, originally called Conquistador, operated for a decade, then some investors tried to reopen the hill in the early 1990s but closed due to a poor season. No lifts remain, but the slopes are still cut. The current property owner is apparently trying to reseed the slopes, and plans to use the area as a winter resort but without the skiingconfused::REOutShootinghunter)...something about tubing. I wonder if they'd be opposed to someone hiking in, or if the locals ever do...it's probably still owned by someone in Westcliffe, tho the locals were opposed to the resort's initial opening. There are something like 75 "lost resorts" in CO...
Pics later. We got one of those disposable cameras, price included a CD, but ya gotta send it in.
Martin and Liz, hopefully we'll see you again, and say hi in person.
-Sean and Katie
We did see you! I'd just forgotten what color your truck was, and which year Taco...
You passed us in the morning, as I was airing down--silver Toyota Tundra with an ARB bumper and black Rhino liner on the roof. Katie and I were in the campsite on the right side of the road, I remember seeing Liz wave through the window and thinking "I wonder if that's them." Hopefully we'll see you guys again!
We had a great time. I sunburned the tops of my feet, and lit a bunch of marshmallows on fire.
:1888fbbd:
We spent Saturday playing at Castle Creek, it was the first time I broke out the shovel, and made a huge mess. With a medium sized, D-handle spade, a guy can divert a substantial amount of water around, and make a pretty big sand castle
. I'm not sure how well it works for recovering the truck, but it's great for playing with sand and water...it was like being a kid again, with the hose in the sandbox, but with a BIG shovel this time.There were a bunch of people sledding, and at least one guy with a snowboard over there, and a lot of kids that kept running off with our sand castle buckets. Darn kids trying to bogart my pail...
The water crossings were about 18" deep...just a guess, they were a little over hub height on a 35" tire, and at one point just barely over the sliders, so maybe 2' tops. Saturday evening, the weather was kind enough to hold the rain long enough to fire up the grill, then it rained while we ate in the truck, and when we were finished it quit long enough to get in the tent
...we slept snug in our bed, with visions of crack on a stick dancing in our heads (with grilled peppers and flaming marshmallows!).Sunday we left to the East, up HW69 to Buena Vista. Along the way, in Westcliffe, Katie's keen malt-shop spotting skills located a small, really tasty shop with easily the best milkshakes we've ever had. The place was called the Westcliffe Stage Stop, where HW69 makes a turn through town. Westcliffe looked like a nice place, we'll be back. The deli/bistro (!) across the street is closed on Sundays
(and Thursdays). I had the blueberry, Katie had a PB&C, my only complaint is they don't come in buckets .We hit OCG...Old Chinaman's Gulch, and OCG hit my front bumper. We met another guy and his dad in a Cherokee, they (and two other rigs already in) had also been led astray by a deceptively simple description in the Charles Wells book--the 4x4trails.net is a better indicator of difficulty with respect to other trails. It was a heckuva lot of fun, tho. Rock gardens galore, one optional obstacle called the Rock Pile where I found I need a locker as well as an exhaust reroute (had to strap back off), an obstacle called The Waterfall which looked deceptively easy but was a little harder with loose dirt and light rain, and a lot of BFRs everywhere. I learned a few tricks from the guys we met, and for a trail like that I think we were all glad to have a few more people along. I've decided I need to move away from the ARB Sahara Bar, as much as I like it...it's a beautiful bumper for overland use, not so much for technical trails. I have a little body work waiting this week :smilies27.
Last item...one of the more interesting things we found from the trip. When we drove through Westcliffe, we noticed a very strange looking cut on the mountainside..."hey, that looks like a ski area." Turns out it's one of Colorado's "lost" ski areas, originally called Conquistador, operated for a decade, then some investors tried to reopen the hill in the early 1990s but closed due to a poor season. No lifts remain, but the slopes are still cut. The current property owner is apparently trying to reseed the slopes, and plans to use the area as a winter resort but without the skiing
confused::REOutShootinghunter)...something about tubing. I wonder if they'd be opposed to someone hiking in, or if the locals ever do...it's probably still owned by someone in Westcliffe, tho the locals were opposed to the resort's initial opening. There are something like 75 "lost resorts" in CO...Pics later
. We got one of those disposable cameras, price included a CD, but ya gotta send it in.Martin and Liz, hopefully we'll see you again, and say hi in person.
-Sean and Katie
Last edited:
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
There have been around 175 ski areas in CO and only about 20 still operate regularly.devinsixtyseven said:
Conquistador tried to reopen in 1992/93, but snow was horrible. It planned to again in 1996, but that never happened. Sounds like it's gonna be a conference center and retreat.
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lost/conquistador.html
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
devinsixtyseven said:
Sean: Yup, that was us! I remember driving by that silver Toyota and thinking "hey, I wonder if that was one of the people from the ExPo forums?" But we were in too much of a hurry to get to the top (plus Liz wanted to fish so I had to get my 4-wheeling out of the way early!) Next time I'll stop and say hello, at least!
Some of those water crossings were a little hairy for me! There was a full-sized Ford F150 ahead of us on the trail and when he went through the last two water crossings I swear the water was up to the bottom of his door sill! I kept checking to see if we were getting any leaking into the cab, but I have to admit the truck handled it with aplomb!
We only stopped briefly in Sand dunes, which Liz had never seen before. Shaila had a blast except that she doesn't like twisty roads or bumpy trails, and she got sick in the cab of the truck (fortunately, we keep her on a blanket for just these kinds of emergencies.) She loved running around our campsite, though.
After the Dunes we headed West, I wanted to check out the upper Rio Grande valley and do some fly fishing. We stopped in Creede and were given directions to some amazing areas that were great for camping, though not so much for fishing (of course, with the rivers being so high and fast, there's not a lot of good fishing on the rivers now...) However, the Creede/Rio Grande area was magnificent. On Sunday we did more fishing and a little shooting on the upper Rio Grande, and then headed back for the long trip home to Denver. I'll write more about my AAR (After Action Report) in the Toyota forum - basically this was the first time we went overnight in the Taco and there were both good and bad aspects of it.
Anyway, great seeing you there, I know Liz was impressed with the campsite and we will probably go back some time this Summer. At the very least I would assume the water crossings are a lot shallower later in the year.