Alpine Loop, CO

[Chili]

We were there this past July 6-8 which was mid week. We did most of the alpine loop and a few of the other passes. We passed some other vehicles on the trails but I never felt it was crowded. I thought there would have been a lot more traffic on the trails.

That's a little early in the season for the loop, which is probably why traffic was low. Some years Engineer's Pass isn't even open by then. Mid-Week is always best too. Weekends the traffic goes up substantially.

 

[Josh41]

That's a little early in the season for the loop, which is probably why traffic was low. Some years Engineer's Pass isn't even open by then. Mid-Week is always best too. Weekends the traffic goes up substantially.

Thanks for the info, driving out from Massachusetts to visit a cousin in Black Hawk and heading out for a few days on the loop. Very excited. I think July 9-11 this summer.
Anyone with slide-in truck campers?

 

[KTM-Todd]

We were out there last year in Aug in a stock Rubicon 4 door. I didn't see any trails that would be hard with a trailer if you took your time. There was one off camber down hill 180 turn just past California Pass that had a little pucker factor. But I wasn't feeling the greatest that morning and I think that didn't help. The biggest factor will be other drivers. Most don't know the uphill driver has the right of way. RZR's think they allway have right of way. We had one spot on Corkscrew we were heading down hill and came nose to nose with a RAM 1500 four door 8' bed. I had to backup well over a mile to where he could get by. Would not be fun with a trailer of any kind. If it were a jeep or something smaller there were many more places the pass could have been made.

We camped very near Animas Forks, had a great spot. Quite on Thursday night, Friday evening was heavy traffic till just past dark. We are early people so we were on the Engineer Pass road by 6:00 didn't see anyone to well after 10:00. Afternoon was a little busy but not bad by the time we got back to Animas Forks and our camp it was crazy busy 3:00-4:00. We walked from our camp to the old town. I was asked two times what is the fastest way back to Lake City. They had rented jeeps that needed to be back by 5:30-6:00. The one guy understood he was screwed, I told him I thought Engineer would be quickest at 3-3.5 hours. The second guy was convinced that taking pavement would be faster. I wonder what his overage was. But that is what you have to deal with out there. people that have no clue about mountains, driving off road, Being prepared for the weather. The pavement guy had a jeep with no top or doors, t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. I bet they had a cold ride once the sun went down.

We will probably go in August again this year. I hope to have my teardrop camper done for next year and will go in September for the colors. Tent camping in August at 9500' is at my wife's cold limit. We had one night at 29 degrees.

 

[Chili]

Thanks for the info, driving out from Massachusetts to visit a cousin in Black Hawk and heading out for a few days on the loop. Very excited. I think July 9-11 this summer.
Anyone with slide-in truck campers?

We plan to be there around the same time.

I've never seen one on the loop that I recall. Not doing the passes anyways. Might be kinda tight in some places (for passing oncoming traffic) depending on the width of the camper. Not much off camber though (not on the loop proper but I've not taken the roads to Silverton or Ouray), maybe in some of the tighter switchbacks between cinnamon and Lake city.

 

[Chili]

We were out there last year in Aug in a stock Rubicon 4 door. I didn't see any trails that would be hard with a trailer if you took your time. There was one off camber down hill 180 turn just past California Pass that had a little pucker factor. But I wasn't feeling the greatest that morning and I think that didn't help. The biggest factor will be other drivers. Most don't know the uphill driver has the right of way. RZR's think they allway have right of way. We had one spot on Corkscrew we were heading down hill and came nose to nose with a RAM 1500 four door 8' bed. I had to backup well over a mile to where he could get by. Would not be fun with a trailer of any kind. If it were a jeep or something smaller there were many more places the pass could have been made.

We camped very near Animas Forks, had a great spot. Quite on Thursday night, Friday evening was heavy traffic till just past dark. We are early people so we were on the Engineer Pass road by 6:00 didn't see anyone to well after 10:00. Afternoon was a little busy but not bad by the time we got back to Animas Forks and our camp it was crazy busy 3:00-4:00. We walked from our camp to the old town. I was asked two times what is the fastest way back to Lake City. They had rented jeeps that needed to be back by 5:30-6:00. The one guy understood he was screwed, I told him I thought Engineer would be quickest at 3-3.5 hours. The second guy was convinced that taking pavement would be faster. I wonder what his overage was. But that is what you have to deal with out there. people that have no clue about mountains, driving off road, Being prepared for the weather. The pavement guy had a jeep with no top or doors, t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. I bet they had a cold ride once the sun went down.

We will probably go in August again this year. I hope to have my teardrop camper done for next year and will go in September for the colors. Tent camping in August at 9500' is at my wife's cold limit. We had one night at 29 degrees.

We usually stay just below the treeline at ~11,000 and it usually stays above freezing but has dipped below a few times. I've been there in September and it got down to 20 in the same area. That was chilly but stayed warm in the hammock.

I camped at the gate on the Lake City to Engineer side this past December but we were lucky, it only got down to 2*. We were just on cots under the trees though.