7 day loop through Colorado

[JCMatthews]

I don't quite know how to share our adventure/vacation without it being to blogish. So I will let our pictures do most of the talking. We left Utah for Ouray Colorado on the 21st of July. The first three days were with my brother and his family. Traveling there was uneventful, and we found our campground beautiful. We took a short hike to Crystal falls, cooked dinner, and ran into town for some needed items. We noticed a lot, I mean A LOT:Wow1:, of FJ Cruisers in town. We found out later they were holding the Cruiser summit complete with trail rides and vendor show. Here are day one pictures. Notice in the last one how many FJ Cruisers there are.

 

[JCMatthews]

Day 2 Imogene Pass/Telluride

On day 2 my wife got up early and took some great shots of the mountians as the sun came up. Then we got everything together and drove over Imogene Pass to Telluride. While stopped at Tomboy mine for lunch, some guys driving Cruisers told us how amazed they were that my bother drove his Excursion over the pass. We would here this again. We took the little ones to the park in Telluride to run around and rode the free gondola to the ski area. We drove back to Ouray via the pavement.

 

[JCMatthews]

Day 2 Continued

Notice how accurate the NUVI is in its elevation reading. The kids loved rock hunting at Tomboy Mine ruins.

 

[JCMatthews]

Help

I have a video that I would like to post, but it was accidentally taken sideways. Does someone out there have a program that will allow you to rotate video? If so can I email it to you and have you rotate it for me and send it back?

 

[fishy97t100]

I have a video that I would like to post, but it was accidentally taken sideways. Does someone out there have a program that will allow you to rotate video? If so can I email it to you and have you rotate it for me and send it back?

windows movie maker can fix that

 

[roverrocks]

Nice adventure!

 

[Kya]

Awesome looking times! The San Juans are amazing.

 

[JCMatthews]

windows movie maker can fix that

I looked into that today, it comes with Vista that I don't have and I could not find a download.

 

[JCMatthews]

Day 3 Mineral Creek to Engineer Pass

I realized that we did not take really any pictures on the way up. We got so busy driving we forgot to stop and see the beauty. That usually happens when traveling with my older brother. He gets in a hurry and no one feels like they can slow him up. Mineral Creek trail is rougher than Imogene. Once it connects with the trail up to Engineer pass the road is pretty good. Once again we were tied up with some FJ Cruisers. They stopped and let up pass. They told us that they were on a picture tour and would be stopping a lot. We realized that the pictures included their FJs and that having a Ford Excursion in the the background made the trail not look so tough.
We took video on top and when I get it on You Tube I will post it. Again on the top a gentleman from Oklahoma riding a Polaris RZR could not believe that my brother was up there in his Excursion. Notice however that he broke a sway bar link somewhere along the way. Could have been the day before on Imogene. On the way back down, we came across a freshly hosed CJ5. He had hit the puddle per his daughters request, and had killed the motor. Something with the coil and too much water. I easily pulled him to drier ground, and then had to hurry back to the Ouray hot springs.

 

[JCMatthews]

Days 4 and 5 Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Ouray Sunday morning so that we could attend church in Montrose. Then we headed east to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We spent the next two days there and back Monday in Montrose stocking up for the last few days on the road. I found out first hand why it is called the Black Canyon. I waited hours Monday morning for the sun to reach the river for a photo, and finally had to give up. They say that there are areas of the canyon that never see the sun. We really enjoyed this quiet National Park.

 

[Falkon]

Awesome JC! I want to move out West soooo bad.

 

[BigDaveZJ]

There USED to be a significant number of logs blocking off that bog at the intersection of Poughkeepsie and Mineral Creek. Bummer to see those are no longer there, as there is no need to travel through the bog. Tread Lightly!

 

[jim65wagon]

Looks like a great trip!

 

[JCMatthews]

Day 6 Black Canyon of the Gunnison to Marble Co.

We had a great time at the BCGNP, but it was time to move on. We headed southeast around the canyon toward Gunnison. We then headed north on hwy 52 toward Paonia. We had never been here, but the map showed it as a scenic byway, and my wife wanted to see Paonia. Hwy 52 was beautiful. It wound up over Maher pass with amazing views of the canyon 1800 ft. below and the reservoirs that have been created in it. We stopped at the top of the pass at a rest area and had lunch. We watched as a stormed rolled in over the San Juans. It was amazing to watch. We then headed down the other side to Hotchkiss where we junctioned with hwy 133 to Paonia. We did not get any pics in Paonia, but we stopped at this hippy orchard that my wife had read about and enjoyed empanadas and fresh fruit. We then continued on Northeast over McClure Pass (8,755 ft.) We thought that we might stay in a free campground at the top of the pass, but it was early and we decided to continue on. As we turned southeast to come down McClure, my wife realized that we were looking at te Nothern slope of the Maroon Bells. These mountians were on her "hope to see" list. At the bottom of the pass there was a road heading south along the mountains which we followed just to see what we'd find. We found Marble Colorado pop. 107, with an RV park. I will use the term "RV Park" loosely.

 

[JCMatthews]

Did I mention wildflowers?

The wild flowers were in full bloom in the high country.