Colorado in an FJ Cruiser

I'm looking forward to a week driving the trails between Ouray, Silverton and Telluride, Colorado next week. In years past Poughkeepsie Trail has claimed a couple of rigs:

You'll note that both of these incidents took place at night. In both cases, it had been raining and there's a rock wall on Poughkeepsie Trail that you need to winch over.

The driver put a lot of effort into customizing his Toyota FJ Cruiser. You can see him trying to assess the damage. He came off the mountain that night with somebody else.

That's what it looked like after we tipped it right-side up the next morning, early.

My rig, winching up the wall at Poughkeepsie Trail. You can make it without a winch line if the rocks are dry. However, they seldom are up there. The rigs that rolled (top of page) tried it at night, in the rain, without a winch.

I may make the night run on Poughkeepsie again this year. It depends on whether or not it's raining - and whether or not people call me a wimp if I don't do it. See how easily I cave to peer group pressure?

This year I'm leading three trail runs at the Toyota FJ Cruiser Summit event :
Thursday - Black Bear Pass to Ophir Pass
Friday - California Pass and Corkscrew Gulch
Saturday - The Alpine Loop (Engineer and Cinnamon Passes)


None of those runs are particularly difficult. I'm told that Black Bear Pass is closed from the Summit down the switch-backs, so we'll just run up over Ophir Pass (about 13,000 ft) and pause for the cause at the Black Bear Summit and check out Bridal Veil Falls.

The road to Yankee Boy Basin is not difficult, but it's cut out of living rock. I've been told that it's closed toward the top due to heavy snow. I've been there summers when the snow is still deep and others when you can get to the top (there's a snow lake up there) and can drive around the lake.