Backpacking Colorado in August

[plainjaneFJC]

My wife and I are looking for a place, or multiple places near each other were we can drive the FJ cruiser in off the beaten path, car camp, and do day hikes of 5 to 12 miles in Colorado. We did the west maroon 4 pass loop last year, and wanted to try something new this year. Maybe 3 to 4 days worth of hiking different mountains fairly close to each other Suggestions please! Keep in mind the FJ will be brand new so my wife would throw a fit if I beat on it, but some unimproved roads, shallow water crossings would not be too bad for her.

 

[Flagster]

I have made this suggestion before in other threads but Highland Mary lakes SE of Silverton, CO (weminuche wilderness) is one of my favorite escapes...enough trail length to do 2-5 days...great fly fishing...and endless mining roads/fs roads...just a suggestion

 

[ssssnake529]

2nd the recommendation for the Weminuche wilderness. Much less crowded than many other beautiful spots in Colorado.

 

[Flagster]

Only drawback is sometimes you run into livestock outside the wilderness area...last time I was up above Silverton I couldn't sleep because of all the sheep baaing

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Thank you, will will look into this a little further.

 

[Christophe Noel]

You might enjoy taking your new FJ over Cinnamon Pass outside Silverton and over to Lake City. It's a bit busy, but pretty and tame enough your wife won't feel like you're flogging your new rig. Then just outside Lake City you could access the trail system around Uncompagre Peak. It's an easy 14er, and a fun day hike. From there you can access a ton of trails. All very high alpine trails. I concur with the suggestions to visit the Wiminuche Wilderness. It's beautiful. Tough to go wrong in that part of the state.

 

[Flagster]

There are some shallow water crossings on many of the mining roads around Silverton... they will be fairly shallow especially with this years snow pack...I thought they were deep when I did them a few years ago but I was in a subaru...they would probably barely touch the rim of your FJ

 

[BretEdge]

I'll third the Highland Mary Lakes recommendation. That area is beautiful.

Another option would be to drive the FJ into American Basin off of Cinnamon Pass, camp in the parking lot/trailhead and climb Handies Peak the next day. We did that w/ my 2 year old son last summer and it was a blast. If you approach A. Basin from the Lake City side the road is pretty mild until you reach the creek crossing going into A. Basin, which probably wouldn't be too bad right now because it's been so dry.

One more suggestion: Drive the FJ up to Clear Lake and spend the night. Get up the next day and drive back down the road a couple miles to the low switchback, park there, then hike into Ice Lakes Basin. It's easily one of the prettiest basins in the San Juans. One caution: the marmots at Clear Lake have an appetite for hoses and wires and they'll climb into the undercarriage of your vehicle in the middle of the night for a snack. I've got a rooftop tent on my FJ and we woke up one night to the truck rocking back and forth. I scared a whole damn pack of marmots out from under the truck when I climbed down the ladder!

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy!

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Thank, but we have a baby due any day now, so traveling is on hold. She was pregnant when I originally posted, but didn't know it yet.

 

[BretEdge]

That's great, Scott! Our son is 3 1/2 years old. If you need some inspiration and tips on maintaining your adventurous lifestyle after the baby arrives, you should check out my wife's blog: Adventure Tykes. She started it after we had our son, when many of our friends and family warned that our days of hiking/backpacking, road tripping, camping, canyoneering, mountain biking, etc. were over. Our son hasn't slowed us down a bit!

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Thanks