We recently returned from an eleven day trip to Colorado. I started planning this trip back in December of 2022. While we didn’t do a lot of camping on this trip, we were constantly on the move. We never stayed in the same place two consecutive nights. As I mentioned on a recent episode of my podcast, this trip had a duel purpose. First, we wanted to see places where we had never traveled before and second, build a good foundation of information to help plan future trips. I think this trip knocked it out of the park on goals. We had a blast. Are there things I would do differently? Of course. Are there places we’d like to spend more time in, certainly!
Let me take you on a journey through the first 5 days of this amazing trip.
Day 1 & 2 Tennessee to Colorado
We left on Thursday, June 15th and headed West on I-40 through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. We drove as far as Elk City, OK before we called it a day. We made it to our hotel around 4pm and just in time for a pretty intense storm to roll through the area.
We had a great night’s sleep and got up bright and early and continued West! Once we made it to Amarillo we turned Northwest towards New Mexico. What a beautiful drive North of Amarillo.
Once we crossed into Colorado we trekked North up I-25 to Walsenburg, CO where we turned West towards Great Sand Dunes National Park.
What a beautiful area. It was very interesting to read about how the dunes were created. We drove through the campground and found that the layout is pretty tight and you definitely have very little room between your neighbors. It would be good for one night but not much longer than that. We spent a couple of hours in the area before we headed to our destination of South Fork, CO for the night.
Day 3 & 4 – South Fork & Creede
We woke up on the banks of the Rio Grande River in South Fork, CO Saturday morning. After having a breakfast burrito, we headed up into the Rio Grande NF for a little bit of exploring along FS 600. We had a short rain shower as we were leaving South Fork that turned into snow as we made it up to higher elevations along 600. This would be the only precipitation we would encounter the rest of the trip!
Creede, CO has to be one of the highlights of the trip. We rolled into town around a little before lunch. We drove straight up Main and onto the Bachelor Loop. Along this loop (503) are numerous old mining structures. We turned East off 503 onto 502 and boy what a difference, the road turned into a narrow two track with challenging switchbacks. What a fun trail and SO beautiful! We found our way back to town and stopped in at the Creede Hotel and Restaurant for lunch. Paula had a salad and I had a bison burger. For the better part of the afternoon we wandered in and out of shops in town. Later that afternoon we stopped in the Spare Keg Brewerks (recently changed the name to Square Peg Brewerks)to try out some local brews. We had the Valley Vibe IPA 8.5 abv and Rained Out IPA 6.8 abv. The beers here were very good. This will be the first of several brewery visits we will make on this trip. Chad Morris and Ashlee Kimble popped in on their way to Lake City. Our paths crossed in Creede and while we didn’t get to wheel or camp with them on this trip, we hope to meet up again very soon.
For dinner we had pizza at the Old Miner’s Inn on Main in Creede. Our waitress was the same gal who waited on us across the street for lunch. Small town, gotta love it. We enjoyed a few more beers before turning in for the night.
Day 5 & 6 – Lake City, Engineer Pass & Silverton, CO
We woke up and headed for Coffee on the Fly for pastries and coffee. What a beautiful morning. It was 47, sunny and not a cloud in the sky as we sat and watched the other early risers stirring about on Main Street. Once we finished off our delicious pastries we headed back up to the Bachelor Loop where we finished the West half from the day before. We found some amazing dispersed campsites towards the end of the loop. These sites look down over the town of Creede with 360° views of the surrounding mountains.
We hit Hwy 149 and headed West. We crossed the Continental Divide and Slumgullion Pass before stopping at Windy Point Observation Site. What an amazing view. Breathtaking!! It will not be the last time my breath will be taken away on this day.
Lake City would be our stop for lunch and boy was it good! We stopped in at the Packer Saloon and Cannibal Grill. We had chips and queso and SWEET TEA!! Finally 5 days into the trip and I was able to order SWEET tea! I had the Colorado burger and Paula ordered the Grilled Jalapeño Poppers. Everything was so good and service was amazing! What a breath of fresh air. Air that will become scarce in the next couple of hours.
Engineer Pass 
After lunch we made the short drive to the start of the trail that leads to Engineer Pass. Once we passed the EP sign we pulled over and aired down. The first half of the ride on the way to the pass was scenic. Another beautiful view around every turn. Do you know what else was around every turn? Side-by-Sides. Where do I begin? From tailgating to not understanding proper trail etiquette, they are a nuisance. What makes this even more dangerous is most SXS operators that we encountered were RENTERS. It was a real struggle to stay focused once the trails started to narrow because you don’t know what stupid act these morons were going to do next. It honestly took away the enjoyment for me.
The Summit
The only issue we had coming up from the Lake City side was, like I said, were the side by sides. It was an easy drive up. There were HUGE snow banks on either side of the trail for the last quarter mile or so. The trail had only been open a couple of days before we arrived. Once we made it to the pass we spent a few minutes taking in our surroundings. I wish I had been more “in the moment” while at the pass . I walked over to a Jeep that had just arrived from the Silverton side to ask the driver how it was coming up and he said he was still pretty shook up. The last mile or so was very tricky and he was thankful he was going down the way we came. This was not what I wanted to hear. He was thankful to have the last hour behind him. From what I could see there was a lot of snow across the trail heading down towards Silverton. This portion of the trail is very narrow. If we encountered more idiotic sxs operators we would have an issue. He suggested we go back down the way we came. Well, we were staying in Silverton so our only choice was to push on. I did not want to go the long way down to Silverton. Our only choice was to go down, and just try and take it slow.
The Decent
I decided to pull out and follow a JLU down to Silverton so I could watch his line and at least have someone nearby in case things got, dare I say it, sideways. In theory this was a great plan, until the JLU driver took off at a faster pace than I was comfortable with. We started heading down the snow covered trail and had only gone a few hundred feet before, you guessed it, SXS’s expecting us to back up a very VERY narrow part of the trail in 12’’ of snow. The Gladiator immediately wanted to kick its ass end towards the edge of the shelf. NO BUENO! I was able to get tightly against the slope/snow bank to my left and I gave the idiots the edge. Once they passed we started down again and the JLU we had decided to follow, checked out. He was obviously a local and he was really moving at a fast pace. Within the first 5 mins he was out of site for the rest of our decent. The snow and slush on the trail was really problematic once I reached a series of switchbacks. The first left hand switch back that I came to had a rut across it and as I tried placing my tires into the rut the passenger rear tire came up what felt like two feet in the air. We started seesawing and came very close to rolling. I backed up and was able to stabilize before picking a new line. I am an experienced “wheeler” but I have never felt like I felt in that moment. I am not afraid to admit this really shook me to my core. Knowing we had only gone about a mile from the summit and we were really struggling with the trail. The next three or four switchbacks were HORRIBLE but I didn’t get as tippy. Our decent felt like it took forever to complete. Once we made it to Silverton, we walked a couple of blocks to dinner, knocked the edge off with a tasty Blind Load IPA at Golden Block Brewery. Sadly I don’t remember what we had for dinner. Panini’s maybe? We slept really well on this night. The next morning we would be heading to Ouray via the Million Dollar Highway, oh goodie….
To be continued……….