77blazerchalet
Former Chalet owner
Somebody with a yellow greasepencil wanted to tell us something here. There's four "very"s in the black border at the top....
As promised over in this other thread where I borrowed an internet photo - first, a two-photo panorama taken in 2006 from across the valley, when I was on the "Treasure Mountain" jeep tour with my SOA friends. The Porphyry Gulch road is on the left, the road to the right is the infamous Black Bear road to Telluride.
As noted in the other thread, my Expo vehicle isn't yet to my standards of daily driver status, so I walk on roads like this. The photo below is one of the first switchbacks looking north, Red Mtn #3 in the distance. It's a little hard for my cheap digi camera to balance dark areas with the bright sky, but this is more of a trip report than a photo shoot. Ya gotta be there in person to really appreciate it!
Looking south with the famous Black Bear mountain (and bear silhouette in the trees) to the left, and the paved 550 road to Silverton in the valley bottom. In 35-some years of coming to this area, I never noticed the bear silhouette on that mountain until a jeep tour driver pointed it out to me on the Black Bear / Imogene tour a couple of years ago. Ignore the lighting that makes it look like late afternoon, I started out around 10am.
Here's the gap where you can look north to the Black Bear road. In the center of the long switchback was one of San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours modified Cherokee trucks, while a yellow tourist-hauling Pinzgauer from perhaps these people was rounding the corner at the very top.
When you get near the shelf section and that foreboding sign just up on the right, people abandon their SUVs and walk. This was one of two parked nearby. The Jeep in the next photo is on the shelf here, coming down.
It was one tough Jeep.
Narrow, alright. Exactly the width of your tires, and in 3-dimensions, the dropoff at that little washout is a lot more dramatic. Fall off that to the left and the trees a quarter mile or so down the slope will stop you, depending on how many of 'em you flatten.
Round the corner and you see the bowl. Trust me on this, there is a full size red GMC 4x4 van parked in the upper center, below that V-notch.
Really nice flowers everywhere.
Pt II of my hike follows in the next post here.....
As promised over in this other thread where I borrowed an internet photo - first, a two-photo panorama taken in 2006 from across the valley, when I was on the "Treasure Mountain" jeep tour with my SOA friends. The Porphyry Gulch road is on the left, the road to the right is the infamous Black Bear road to Telluride.
As noted in the other thread, my Expo vehicle isn't yet to my standards of daily driver status, so I walk on roads like this. The photo below is one of the first switchbacks looking north, Red Mtn #3 in the distance. It's a little hard for my cheap digi camera to balance dark areas with the bright sky, but this is more of a trip report than a photo shoot. Ya gotta be there in person to really appreciate it!
Looking south with the famous Black Bear mountain (and bear silhouette in the trees) to the left, and the paved 550 road to Silverton in the valley bottom. In 35-some years of coming to this area, I never noticed the bear silhouette on that mountain until a jeep tour driver pointed it out to me on the Black Bear / Imogene tour a couple of years ago. Ignore the lighting that makes it look like late afternoon, I started out around 10am.
Here's the gap where you can look north to the Black Bear road. In the center of the long switchback was one of San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours modified Cherokee trucks, while a yellow tourist-hauling Pinzgauer from perhaps these people was rounding the corner at the very top.
When you get near the shelf section and that foreboding sign just up on the right, people abandon their SUVs and walk. This was one of two parked nearby. The Jeep in the next photo is on the shelf here, coming down.
It was one tough Jeep.
Narrow, alright. Exactly the width of your tires, and in 3-dimensions, the dropoff at that little washout is a lot more dramatic. Fall off that to the left and the trees a quarter mile or so down the slope will stop you, depending on how many of 'em you flatten.
Round the corner and you see the bowl. Trust me on this, there is a full size red GMC 4x4 van parked in the upper center, below that V-notch.
Really nice flowers everywhere.
Pt II of my hike follows in the next post here.....
Last edited:
Wish we had views like that here in Michigan.:drool: