Tag Archives: Mountain Passes

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The World Famous Green River Formation, for oil shale, not beauty

The World Famous Green River Formation, for oil shale, not beauty

About fifty million years ago the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River did not exist.  The area was surrounded by the Wind River Mountains, the Uintah Mountains, the San Juans, the Uncompahgre Plateau, and the newly formed Rocky Mountains.  This huge area had no outlet to the sea.  The climate was similar to our current Gulf Coast, warm and moist.  During the six million years we are exploring, things changed.  Lakes formed and receded, land rose and subsided, and through all this the surrounding highlands were sending their sediment into the lakes.   

The Green River Formation is the result of all the sedimentation.  It is up to ten kilometers in depth, thinner at the margins.  At first the lakes were fresh water, but later became saline, leaving large deposits of carbonate rocks.  The trona deposits at Green River, Wyoming are some of the richest in the world.  The margins are sandstone and conglomerate interlaced with the fine silt that filled most of the basin.  The formation is rich in the fossils of the abundant life in the lakes.  They are world famous for their variety and abundance.   

There was an anoxic layer at the bottom that preserved the organisms settling there.  The lakes were abundant in blue-green algae.  The remains of the algae are the source of the oil shale deposits the region is known for.  The oil shale is there in millions of barrels, but it is expensive to extract the petroleum from the rock.  It may never be commercially viable, but the formation has been extensively studied as a result.  

Green River Formation Map

Green River Formation Map

Standing in my home town of Fruita looking north, the white cliffs behind the Book Cliffs are the Green River Formation.  The Roan Plateau is huge, but does not attract visitors like the red rock country to the south.  A huge exposure is the highlands west of I-70 from Rifle to DeBeque Canyon. 

My interest is from visiting ranchers and hunting in the Douglas Pass area in my youth.  Most of our visits were to ranches in the Green River Formation.  The elevations varied greatly.  The ranches were along West Salt Creek, but there were back country roads that went from sagebrush desert to piñon-juniper to oak brush shaly hillsides with sandstone rims to high country timber with world class mud.  In fact, the mud is world class everywhere in the region. 

Back before four wheel drive became common, there was a pile of rocks at the bottom of every big hill.  Load them in the back of your pickup, go where you planned, and unload them on the way home.  There is a network of canyons with side canyons branching off.  All of it is fine deer habitat.  My favorite places were at the head of a canyon with the wind in my face and a view of the LaSal Mountains and the Uncompahgre Plateau in the distance.  Flat, wooded country gives me the creeps. 

Access to a lot of the country is difficult.  Most of the land is BLM land, but the early ranchers homesteaded the choice land that had water.  The private land meant locked gates.  We knew some of the ranchers, family friends.  Hunting season was a big deal.  There were maybe a dozen or more people, hunting during the day and drinking and playing poker at night.  The big ranch house had a big kitchen with a wood burning stove along with the stove in the big main room.  There was a light plant in the shed next to the house.  It looked like no generator you see these days.  There were also lots of Coleman lanterns when the light plant failed.  Good times and lots of venison.  The unheated bunkhouse was upstairs. 

Douglas pass was up the main road, gravel in those days.  It isn’t that high by Colorado standards, but made up for it with the switchbacks up the head of the canyon to the summit up through that shale.  When the shale is wet, it moves.  The road trapped the runoff, wetting the soft shale, and most every spring one or more places slid.  The mountainside now is braided with old road cuts.  It wasn’t much of a main road in the 1950’s, but now there is so much oil and gas development that the road is a paved state highway that the highway department spends money on. 

The road crosses the desert above the Highline irrigation canal before it goes into the canyon.  It is on the Mancos shale, responsible for all that flat desert in Colorado and Utah that turns to grease when it is wet.  There was one hill the road went over then descended into the wash on the north side.  That meant the road was on a north facing slope for a distance.  That hill was named Coyote, because it could bite and gnaw on you if it was wet.  A bit farther north was a ten or twelve foot high rock on the side of the road, all by itself.  

The county employee maintaining the road in those days had his grader blade scrape on that rock every time he bladed the road.  It would leave a bump, so he would have to drag dirt over to level things out.  One day he got fed up and dug that rock up and moved it off the road.  It was probably a two day project, but he never had to fight that damn rock again. 

After I could drive, I ran around that desert quite a bit.  I learned how to drive a two wheel drive pickup in that greasy stuff from my father.  He was the telephone man in Fruita, responsible for maintaining the toll line as far as Cisco, Utah.  That meant navigating two ruts through the cheat grass and sagebrush.  He could put a two wheel drive pickup into places that were a challenge for a Jeep.  Rocks in the back, chains if needed, put it in second gear and putt along.  He seldom used the granny gear or used the gas pedal.  Those old Chevy sixes would just lug their way along.   

I am as guilty as any back country explorer for spending most of my time in the Rocky Mountains or the Utah red rock country, but the Mancos Shale and the Green River formation are calling me.  I just need to see if my tire chains are in good shape.  I think I will go over Douglas Pass, loop around and look the Piceance Basin over. From Rifle I will go down to Plateau Creek (my father and grandfather said platoo crick) and up to Collbran to look at the big slide.

Backpacking in the San Juans

Getting Off at Needleton

Getting Off at Needleton

My backpacking days are over.  I’m old, I have a titanium knee, and I hurt in lots of places.  The inspiration for this piece is Reese Whitherspoon’s Wild.  The movie is about a woman who decided to pull her life together by backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail.  She did it and found herself on the way.  I didn’t find myself backpacking, but had some experiences that are still with me.  I even had some parallel experiences, the main one being: don’t go on a long backpack with boots that don’t fit unless you enjoy pain.

On a long trip through the San Juans, my boots were too small.  We took the narrow gauge train from Durango to Needleton, just a stop on the line halfway to Silverton.  We got quite a few looks from the flatland tourists as we got off for a trail into a canyon a long way from anywhere.  From the trailhead it was several uphill miles to Chicago Basin in the heart of the Needle Mountains, where we planned to spend some time.

Don't Buy Them Too Small

Don’t Buy Them Too Small

About halfway, we came across some guys helping their friend with a badly sprained ankle to get to the railhead.  He was in serious pain, unable to put any weight on his ankle.  His friends were looking pretty strained.  That first trail is where I began learning about my boots.  It was the seventies when you had to have those massive European climbing boots for a walk in City Park.    I think I spent something like $200.00 for them.  I was determined they would fit OK once they were broken in.  Hint: those things could be so worn out the soles are falling off, but they won’t be broken in.  There was only one thing to do, keep walking.

Chicago Basin

Chicago Basin

Chicago Basin was miraculous.  It is a large glacial basin ringed by mountains, three of them fourteeners.  Windom Peak, Sunlight Mountain, and Mt. Aeolus.  The area is full of thirteeners, not as famous, but challenging.  It is steep country.  Most of the San Juans are volcanic, but the Needles are the cores of ancient mountains, much older than the relatively recent volcanos.

In the 1970’s, the United States Geological Survey was changing from 15 minute topographical maps to 7 1/2 minute maps.  The map for the Needle Mountains was somewhat behind in the revisions.  It was published in 1900.  No color, no modern changes to man-made features, but still useful for navigation. 7 1/2 minutes is roughly 7 miles.  It is possible to walk through the area covered in one day.  The Needle map was 15 minutes with a note to add eight feet to each elevation.  No GPS in those days, just triangulating from one peak to another.

The Needle Mountains are one of the most remote mountain ranges in Colorado.  A big glacier once sat in that basin at the foot of those mountains and ground away for a long time.  There are lots of places in the Rocky Mountains with great views, and Chicago Basin is right up there.  The other good thing is that it is hard to get to.  Keeps the riffraff out.  We had the basin to ourselves, even during the backpacking boom.

Columbine Pass

Columbine Pass

As a bonus, the weather was good.  When it was time to leave, we thought a good breakfast was in order.  Pancakes and coffee.  Lots of both.  We struck camp and headed over Columbine Pass.  The trail switchbacks up that glaciated wall to a summit over twelve thousand feet high.  Hint number two: don’t climb a steep trail at high altitude with a stomach full of pancakes.  They didn’t feel like pancakes, they felt like lead in there.  I guess suffering is one of the aspects of backpacking.

The descent led us to Vallecito Creek, and a long hike to Vallecito Reservoir, where my father gave us a ride to the car in Durango.  Now, it is day hikes or four wheeling.  The knees are the first to go.

Four Wheel Drive Equipment

Willys Jeep Wagon

Willys Jeep Wagon

I have been involved in four wheeling since childhood.  Stuck up to the axles and high-centered in Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, and Wyoming.  I like to get out where the country is wild and there aren’t too many people around.  My favorite places are mountain passes in Colorado and the vast red rock country in Utah.  I am not a hard core rock-crawler with a vehicle jacked up in the air with near tractor tires whining and rumbling down the street.

I have had International Scouts, Nissans, Dodges, and my current Toyota Tacoma.  There is a long succession of Jeeps I have ridden in and driven.  I have also been stranded in them.  So, no Jeep for me, I just don’t trust them.  There are lots of choices in four wheelers, but not as many choices for cheap four wheelers.  I’m cheap.

1953 Chevy 2wd

1953 Chevy 2wd

I buy base model vehicles.  I even bought one without air conditioning.  4x4s aren’t particularly cheap, but it is not necessary to spend $50,000 for a nice rig.  My Dodge pickup had a small engine.  Oh, wait, it wasn’t even four wheel drive, although I treated it like it was.  I guess my willingness to use a two wheeler goes back to my youth, when we had a 1953 Chevrolet pickup.  That was in the days when the only 4x4s were old military Jeeps and the venerable Dodge Power Wagon.  Both were capable, but slow and fairly unreliable (35 mph in the Jeep, about 50 in a Power Wagon).  Dad and I went hunting and fishing in that old Chevy.  Dad was an amazing driver in the bad stuff.  He used to maintain the telephone line from Fruita to Cisco, Utah across that adobe desert in a two wheel drive pickup.  Up in the Bookcliff area, there used to be a pile of rocks at the bottom of a bad hill.  If it was muddy or snowy the driver would stop, load the rocks in the back of the pickup, go about his business, and unload the rocks at the bottom of the hill on the way out.

Two times we went places in that old Chevy where no sane person would go without four wheel drive.  Once, we were deer hunting up in the Douglas Pass country after a storm.  The road was muddy with that slick stuff Western Colorado is famous for.  We drove down into a saddle that was steep at either end.  We couldn’t get up the hill.  A newer pickup came by that had a limited slip differential, new at the time, and went right up the hill.  We had to put the tire chains on.

Battlement Lakes Road

Battlement Lakes Road

The other adventure was going fishing at the  Battlement Lakes road on Grand Mesa.  That road wasn’t steep, but was full of big rocks and mud holes.  It was narrow, with little room to maneuver around obstacles.  Dad put that old pickup in second gear, not even the granny gear, and mostly idled along thar road with that old Chevy six lugging along.  The rocks in back rolled around and smashed my good spinning rod.  We met some guys in there in a Jeep.  They could not believe we got in there with a two wheel drive pickup.  I don’t think the fishing was very good that day, but no matter.

Scout I

Scout I

After he retired, Dad got into four wheeling.  His first one was an old Jeep station wagon with a 283 Chevy V8.  That thing was good in the bad stuff, but leaked oil and had some ignition problems.  The next one was an International Scout I.  Pretty primitive, but capable with one exception.   There was a place on Elephant Hill in Canyonlands named Scout Slot.  It was narrow, in solid rock with a ledge that was in just the right place to break the transfer case of a Scout.

After that was an older model Jeep Cherokee.  It was pretty good, and it went around the White Rim Trail with some friends.  Next was a Scout II.  It was good, but one night coming off Elephant Hill it quit.  Dad and I walked to the Canyonlands Resort and got the owner to tow us with his Ford pickup.  We bounced a short distance and the Scout started.  The carburetor float must have been stuck and bounced loose.  I sold the Scout for the Dodge pickup.

2009 Tacoma

2009 Tacoma

I did two wheel drive for a while then bought a Nissan Frontier.  It was capable, lasted quite a while, then I crashed it on ice in Glenwood Canyon.  Now it is the Toyota.  It is good, but I gave it a dent on Pearl Pass.  Now I have a Detroit Trutrac limited slip differential which should help.  Summer is coming, and I’m ready to get out there.

 

 

 

A Volkswagen in Italy

I had a good U.S. Army career, all three years of it.  I was in electronics school for almost a year, on the Jersey Shore and in Huntsville, Alabama.  Then, it was the USNS Buckner to Germany.  I was trained on an obsolete missile system and my first duty station was with a unit that operated another obsolete missile system.

1963 VW

1963 VW

The unit was about to go out of business, so they were pretty lax with us.  I bought a car.  A new 1963 Volkswagen, black.  It cost $1389.  I paid cash with 20 Deutschmark bills (about $5.00 back then) in a paper bag.  Freedom!  At least part of the time.  This was unusual for an unmarried junior enlisted man. We also had real jobs doing electronics, so they didn’t mess with us too much.  I could get away evenings and weekends most of the time.  I was stationed in Aschaffenburg,   Bavaria for five months then in Hanau, Hesse.  Something like 28 kilometers apart on the Main river, they were different cities.  Bavarians just seem happier.  Those Hessians were nice people, but more reticent.  Did Martin Luther bring that about?

Palatine Hill, Rome

Palatine Hill, Rome

After I was in Hanau for a few months, two buddies and I did a big road trip to Rome.  What a trip!  We did some of the standard tourist things, but G.I.’s on the loose in Europe see the places from a more earthy perspective.  There was Michelangelo’s David in Florence and the whores on the Palatine Hill in Rome.  2000 lira for us, 1000 lira for a local.  The whole thing was so sordid I could not partake. I liked Switzerland.  Nice people, great scenery, and so orderly.  We partied some in Zurich and got to talk to some of the locals.  Everyone knew we were American soldiers, of course.  The haircuts gave us away.  Then onto a train that carried everyone’s car through the St. Gotthards Pass tunnel to Italy.

Milan Traffic (modern)

Milan Traffic (modern)

We loved Italy.  Beautiful country, from the Alps to Tuscany and Rome.  Wonderful people.  Warm, friendly, helpful, and lots of wine.  The most striking view was approaching the walled city of Siena from the Tuscan countryside.  The most terrifying experience was driving in Milan during rush hour.  We got onto a traffic circle in downtown Milan that had about eight cars abreast, all jockeying for position.  Italians are good, aggressive drivers, and drove those little Fiat 500s like they were Ferraris. We were out of place in that VW.  It just didn’t fit in.  We also had engine trouble.  It would start missing and stuttering until it lost enough power that we would have to go to a shop about every 300 miles.  That is where the language problem really took over.  There was no language problem in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, but the Italians had no English.  The best I could do with Italian was the phrase book and some Spanish. The Volkswagen’s ignition points were burning up.  We could communicate that and get new points, but we couldn’t get across to them that it was a chronic problem.  So, for the rest of the trip it was new points every 300 miles.  The mechanics were all eager to help, but the language problem was too much of a barrier.  Back in Germany, my mechanic fixed it in about 30 minutes by replacing a burned spark plug wire. I learned about having difficulty while traveling and still having a good time.  The car trouble added to the adventure.

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

We were in Rome several days, staying in a Pension not far from the Vatican. One night we hooked up with some local college students who took us to the suburbs, no tourists, and a great time.  Sitting here thinking about Rome, lots of images come up even sixty years later, but the Roman Forum is most memorable.  It was the center of the world for a long time.  I steeped myself in the history. Going back to Germany, when we crossed from Italian Switzerland to German Switzerland, we dropped into a beautiful glacial valley.  At the head of the valley was a Gasthaus.  Wiener schnitzel, pommes frites, and beer never tasted so good after all that tomato sauce and wine. That trip remains one of the highlights of my life.

Part Three, the Keystone XL Pipeline

Pipeline Construction

Pipeline Construction

When I was growing up in Fruita, Colorado in the 1950’s, the El Paso Natural Gas Company built a 26″ natural gas pipeline from north to south through Western Colorado. In flat country, laying a pipe is fairly straightforward.  To lay a pipeline, dig, lay pipe, weld, wrap, and backfill.  In the Colorado Plateau, the pipeline not only goes from point to point, it goes up and down.

North of Fruita, The line had to go over Douglas Pass. As Colorado passes go, it is no big deal.   Not that high, but near the top there is steep and unstable ground famous for landslides.  The trenchers, welding machines, side-boom tractors handling pipe, and bulldozers; all had to be winched up and down the mountainside.  That is a slow, expensive process. To us in Fruita, it meant that our little town had lots of pipeliners for several weeks.

I mostly saw the pipeliners in Hill’s Cafe, where we often had dinner. The stereotype is that pipeliners are a wild bunch, but we didn’t see it in the cafe.  They were quiet, well-behaved, some prayed before eating, and I liked them.  After all, if you are from Bald Knob, Arkansas, how wild can you be?

That pipeline brings gas from Wyoming, Western Colorado, and Eastern Utah to markets in Texas and the southwest, including California. To my knowledge, it has few problems and quietly does its job.  I think that pipeline has shaped my thinking about pipelines in general.

Today there is much oil and gas development in North Dakota and Alberta. A pipeline network exists to deliver crude oil from there to the refinery complex on the Gulf Coast.  It can’t deliver all that is being produced.  Proposed is a new line, the Keystone XL Pipeline that would run west of the existing line, picking up crude from the Williston Basin in North Dakota as well as the synthetic crude from the Alberta tar sands.

There is a lot of opposition for several reasons. One reason is fear of leaks.  Big spills, contamination, fire, ground water contamination, and all the risks that go with moving lots of nasty stuff that burns.  That Alberta synthetic crude is even nastier than regular crude.  Its carbon footprint is much higher than oil from traditional sources.  It is thick and has to be heated to separate it from the sand.  Most of the crude oil refined here in Denver is tar sand oil.

Oil Car Train

Oil Car Train

The fact is that as long as demand for petroleum products stays high, that Alberta crude will go south, but in rail cars if the pipeline isn’t built.  Here in Denver, there are many tank car trains headed south, competing with coal trains for right of way.   In the upper Midwest there is so much oil traffic that farmers are having difficulty shipping their grain.  Pipelines are safer than rail cars for shipping petroleum.

Some of the opposition is for environmental reasons. Tar sand crude is bad.  Pipelines are bad.  Fossil fuel is bad.  All true.  The solution is not stopping pipelines, but reducing demand.  How to reduce demand?  Make fossil fuels more expensive with higher taxes.  Use the tax money to develop alternative energy and transportation.  Build rails not freeways.  Tell that to Republican legislators.

In the meantime, I think the pipeline is the best alternative until our energy policies change.

Pearl Pass Part Two

North Side to Summit

North Side to Summit

In Part 1 I discussed the history of Pearl Pass and my family connection. I also covered the four wheel drive experience travelers have on the pass.  I have been rambling around the Rocky Mountains most of my life.  There is a lot of good country here.  I am fortunate to have spent time in some of the Rockies from New Mexico to Alberta.

Some of the best pieces of mountain country are the Elk Mountains. I have not spent much time there because of Aspen. A Western Colorado native, for many years I harbored a prejudice against ski area development.  Aspen is the ski town that started the Twentieth Century Gold Rush, this time mining tourist pockets.  The place is just too rich for a small town boy.  Over time I lost my bias, but still tended to avoid the Aspen area.  I have never been to the Maroon Bells.

Living along the Front Range influenced not visiting the Roaring Fork Valley as it is a four hour drive to Aspen from Denver. Rocky Mountain National Park and the Collegiate Peaks are a lot closer.  Recapturing my interest in my family history has drawn me to Pearl Pass.  If Grandmother Pearl could drive a wagon over the pass in 1887, I should do it as well.

Pearl Pass has seen no change in the last 130 years. Between Aspen and Ashcroft the road is paved and there is development, but once on the four wheel drive road it is as it was.  It goes between the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness and the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness.  Together, they harbor the largest cluster of 14,000 foot high peaks in North America.

Sandstone

Sandstone

That huge area of high mountain wilderness means wild. Pearl Pass is one of the wildest places I have ever visited.  Up high, what you see is almost all above timberline.  To the east, the mountains are granite, what I am familiar with in Colorado.  To the west is sandstone.  Layered sandstone, capped with basalt.

To me, that layered rock seems wild, out of place. It is gray, with a hint of red.  When I see sandstone I expect red or tan.  The view is so striking and beautiful I am at a loss for words.  I have been trying for days to come up with a description that matches what I saw.  The pictures will give you an idea, but cannot portray the impact of so much wild space with little human influence.

One reason for the view is because the Elk Mountains are west of the central Colorado?????????? Mountains and get more moisture. The glacial cirques are huge, creating a series of basins surrounded by many high peaks 13,000- feet or higher.  The pass itself is 12,700 feet high, surpassed by Mosquito Pass for example, but unsurpassed in sheer majesty.

I am now committed to more exploration of the Elk Mountains. There are Taylor and Schofield Passes that are four wheel drive accessible.  A winter drive to the Maroon Bells is on my list.  I may even break down and get out and walk.  My backpacking days are over, but there are lots of day hikes.  Lots of people on the trails, but most of them are nice people.  The high passes are for solitude.

Pearl Pass Part One

Road to Ashcroft

Road to Ashcroft

On Wednesday, September 3, I drove over Pearl Pass.  Pearl is one of those four wheeling trips that have been on my list for a long time.  My grandmother, Pearl Willits Shanks, drove a team and wagon over the pass when the Willits family moved from north Texas to Colorado in 1887.  Pearl was 12 when she drove over the pass.  She may have been a Texas girl before Pearl Pass, but she was a mountain girl after that.

The road was built as a toll road in the early 1880’s from the railhead in Crested Butte to the newly discovered silver mining area in Aspen.  It was in use until the railroads came to Aspen in the late 1880’s.  The main use was hauling coal from mines at Crested Butte to Aspen.

Today the road is much like it was in the nineteenth century.  From the start of the four wheel drive portion until it drops into the valley on the Crested Butte side it has no dirt, just rock.

Pearl Pass

The Bad Ledge

Fist sized rocks, baby head sized rocks, rock ledges, big rocks in narrow places, and big rocks in the middle of the road. One can grow tired of rock.

It is also narrow, made for wagons a long time ago.  There is no room for error. In reading about the pass, most of the reports involving trouble were where a vehicle got too far to the side.  When that happens, there better be good help available, because it is a long way to the bottom if the vehicle rolls over.

I was able to drive over all those rocks with no real damage to my Toyota Tacoma other than losing a mudflap.  The forest ranger had suggested a Jeep Rubicon.  I find my Toyota does just fine, although I may add a limited slip differential someday.

The Road and a View

The Road and a View

At the Summit

At the Summit

This is probably the most difficult road I have driven.  Steep, narrow, and did I mention rocky? I will do it again.  The history is important to me, the story of my family.  I spent the afternoon on that road marveling that a 12 year old girl from flat Texas could marshal the courage to drive a wagon over that hill.

I don’t know how long the entire trip from Crested Butte to Ashcroft, 10 miles from Aspen, took the Willits family.  I do know that they misjudged the time it would take to get over the highest part and did not get off the hill into Ashcroft until 11:00 PM.

That road is scary enough in daylight.  At night?  It is good that horses are better at seeing at night than we are.  Once I got down into the timber on the Crested Butte side, the alternating sunlight and shadow made it hard to see any serious obstacles. I can just imagine what Pearl was feeling.

I have given you some history and road condition information about Pearl Pass.  My next piece will be about the other big attractions.  The Elk Mountains that the pass traverses are some of the most spectacular and geologically unique mountains in Colorado.  Next time.

Over Passes and Through Woods

West from Mosquito Pass

West from Mosquito Pass

I have already written about nearly killing myself on Mosca Pass the week of August 24, 2014.  After that little adventure, I continued my trip as planned.  My goal all year is to get over Pearl Pass, the one my grandmother drove a wagon over when she was 12 years old in 1887.

Pearl Pass often does not open until late in the season every year, and 2014 is no exception.  There are two snowdrifts blocking the road just below the summit.  Maybe later in September.

There are lots of other passes, however, and I went over 13 or 14, depending on how you count.  Passes go over the divide between two drainages.  For example, Pearl Pass marks the divide between the Roaring Fork River that goes to the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, and the Taylor River that drains to the Gunnison River in Gunnison.

The complication is at Ute Pass, which marks the divide between Fountain Creek and the South Platte in South Park.  Right near there is Tracy Hill, not called a pass, but is the divide between the South Platte and the Arkansas Rivers.  So, did I go over one, two, or three passes when I came from Woodland Park to Cripple Creek?

So, here is the list:  Ute Pass, Tracy Hill, Mosca (I just went to the summit), Medano, Poncha, Marshall, Waunita, Cumberland, Cottonwood, Mosquito, Red Hill, Kenosha, and Guanella Passes.  Let’s call it 13 or 14 passes.

From Denver, I went via Deckers (probably going over yet another pass) to Cripple Creek and down the Phantom Canyon Road to Highway 50 outside Florence.  Then I drove to Wetmore (and another pass) and to the wet Mountain Valley and Mosca Pass, where I camped.

Next morning it was Medano Pass, first crossed by Americans in 1807 when Zebulon Pike, searching for the Red River, groped his way into the Rocky Mountains, over the pass, and wintered in the San Luis Valley, mistaking the Rio Grande for the Red.

Medano is interesting and worthwhile, with a long drive through private property to Forest service land and the climb to the summit.  It is four wheel drive, but not too bad, and not marred by those annoying ATV’s buzzing around because they are not allowed into the National Park.

From the summit, the road descends down the

Medano Creek

Medano Creek

Medano Creek canyon, which burned in 2010.  It recovering nicely.  The road crosses the creek several times and is sandy lower down.  I had no problems ignoring the Park service signs telling me to lower the pressure in my tires for better flotation in sand.  I have always thought that is for Californians, not us mountain people.  I met no other cars.

From the sand dunes I went up the vast San Luis Valley and over

Marshall Pass

Marshall Pass

Marshall Pass, the narrow gauge Rio Grande Railroad route into the Gunnison country.  I like old railroad routes.  I then bounced over more bad roads to Taylor Park, intending to go over Taylor Pass.  I started up the steep four wheel drive road, decided my sore body had had enough, turned around, went over Cottonwood, and got a motel in Buena Vista.  That hot shower sure felt good.  I found chicken mole enchiladas in a restaurant there.

The next morning was Leadville and Mosquito Pass.  The Lake County people are missing out not promoting the roads around Leadville for off-roading.  Taylor Park is overrun with ATV’s.  I met no one on the roads above Leadville.  Good for me, bad for depressed Leadville.

Passes 8-14 003Mosquito Pass is world famous, and the road is a challenge.  My stock Tacoma was fine, but the road is steep and very rocky.  They ain’t called the Rocky Mountains for nothing.  It is a spectacular trip, with views of some of the tallest mountains in our state.  I will do it again.

From Mosquito Pass I went down to Fairplay and home via Guanella Pass, another of my favorites.