Jeep rolling off Black Bear Road

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Our friends in Colorado have a nice place just down the road from Tincup. Now it's summer only (mostly) since he retired and they have a more civilized winter place in Steamboat. Anyway he spent practically his whole life in TP and doesn't want to give it up, but he says that in the summer the ATVs and motorcycles scream up and down the valley all day long.

I haven't been back up there since we left 20++ years ago, and I don't know if I even want to because I want to remember it the way it was, though I'd like to visit them some summer/fall now that we have our pickup & topper. We did visit once at their place in Steamboat. They came up here once a few years ago and were amazed that we all could walk up the county road a mile and back and not have even a single car pass.

The atv traffic is pretty ugly up there. Just how it is now. Sharing the trail is the reality.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by Zoomad75

The atv traffic is pretty ugly up there. Just how it is now. Sharing the trail is the reality.

I'm glad I got in on the last few years of the good old days. Back then the equivalent of an "ATV" was a flat fender jeep, plus the "newer" Scouts, Broncos, Blazers, Wagoneers, and pickups. One time I went with some friends in their jeep into the basin up on Jenkins Mountain, but that is all locked up in the wilderness now.

I hauled logs over Cottonwood Pass before they rebuilt it. Well, they were working on the east side the last year or two before I quit. Spent a lot of time stopped waiting on construction. And that new paved road around the dam really changed the character of things. I remember when it was one narrow lane with only a few pulloffs. Now I hear it's pavement all the way from Gunnysack to Byooney

We've got to go down to Monte Vista for an "errand" hopefully next year if the world doesn't fall apart. I suppose we will try to do a little visiting and sightseeing along the way. Maybe drive over Cumberland and stop in at our friends' cabin.

[mongocanfly]

Then theres that guy with the gps...
https://durangoherald.com/articles/3...-engineer-pass

[1976gmc20]

GPS again - ha ha ha ha ha ha hah!

Engineer Pass is known as one of the most difficult and steep backcountry roads in the area, reaching a peak elevation of 12,800 feet, which requires a four-wheel drive and high-clearance vehicle.

When I went over Engineer in the 1970s in my 73 K/20, there was a 47-55 2wd Chevy pickup following us and not having any trouble.

So unless it's changed a lot, I would say it's one of the easiest backcountry roads in the area.

[1976gmc20]

Also, there was a fatal plane crash in Ingram Basin a couple weeks before this jeep accident. They took off from Telluride Airport in a non-turbo Bonanza and tried to fly straight up over the pass without circling to gain altitude. Sad


Edit: actually, the plane crash was only five days before the red jeep accident. Time is all warped out of shape in 2020.

['63GENIII]

Really thought it was going to be the Jeep taking the video that was going over the edge. The red one caught me off guard!

That video was giving me the willies when things were going right! The conversation after between the driver and his GF was probably not all that great either.

Zoomad - "It's ok going up but coming down from the summit is three distinct straight downhill sections that get worse as you go. The last section is the worst as it is like coming down on marbles with a lumpy uneven surface. I had my hands full so I neglected to take shots coming down."

There isn't a bucket big enough to hold all of the "nopes" that I'd have for that! Just the thought of that downhill.... yeah, no way.

[jjzepplin]

Old school tune about this trail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzWyZ-jM9Is

[mongocanfly]

Wow...I never heard that one zepp...!

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Wow...I never heard that one zepp...!

You've been missing out!

[1976gmc20]

Webster isn't bad, but it's not always open.

Actually we would be more likely to take the "shortcut" over Mosquito Pass. I do NOT want to ever again go over Hoosier and through Breckenridge because of the crazy traffic.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Actually we would be more likely to take the "shortcut" over Mosquito Pass. I do NOT want to ever again go over Hoosier and through Breckenridge because of the crazy traffic.

Actually, Hoosier wasn't bad when we came back off of Webster/Red Cone. It was certainly better than coming back out of Aspen over Independence Pass. I've driven many a pass on dirt that I'd rather go over than hit Indy again. Pretty, but the uppity Aspen people won't give an inch where it gets tight out of town.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by Zoomad75

Actually, Hoosier wasn't bad when we came back off of Webster/Red Cone. It was certainly better than coming back out of Aspen over Independence Pass. I've driven many a pass on dirt that I'd rather go over than hit Indy again. Pretty, but the uppity Aspen people won't give an inch where it gets tight out of town.

We were going down the 15mph switchbacks on Hoosier following a belly dump jake braking his way down the hill, when some jack-hole in a big SUV gets up right behind us - literally about two feet like he thought he was going to just make us drive right through that semi!

And then the weird zig-zagging through Brokenridge - what's up with that ???

That's another reason I traded off the little car and went back to a full size pickup for a travel outfit: people just try to run over you. Like "hey, you're not using all your lane so I will just use the rest of it!" At least in a pickup you get some respect.


I've never been over Independence and only been to Aspen once. One time a guy that I was working for at the time wanted to take his early 70's K20 over Taylor Pass and a bunch of us rode along. I had my 1980 K10 by then and there was no way I was going to risk tearing it up on those rocks. So we get over and took the ridge road down and by then he needed gas so we drove down into Aspen for fuel. Must have been quite a sight for those movie stars when they saw a bunch of dirty loggers riding in the back of that beat up old blue pickup

Coming back over to TP he put a big gouge in the side of the bed near the fuel cap.

[Zoomad75]

Taylor is a fun trail for sure. The snow levels and resulting melt changes that trail every year. I don't think I've seen it the same way any time we've tackled it. The climb out of the creek has been really easy one time and crazy hard the next. Last time we took it I let my then 17-year-old son take the wheel of my old '75 K5 over it. Only stalled it once at the hard spot and by some miracle, the body came out untouched.

We camped on the Aspen side of the pass that night. The next day we were on fumes and really needed some fuel. Only place to fill was right in Aspen. We got lots of nasty looks from the folks at the gas station. Admittedly, the K5 was pretty crusty and not quite up to the supercar levels of vehicle quality Aspen is known for. We boogied right out of there. Taking Indy out of Aspen is the quickest way home for us. We didn't realize that just outside of town the road is narrow enough two cars can barely pass by going in opposite directions. It's paved, but the road is cut out of the side of the mountain and for some reason, they couldn't go much wider. It's well marked to tell you it's narrow, but the upper crust types don't fall under those rules I guess. Our side was on the edge, with a guardrail that I was within inches of touching (the kid was watching for me) and spme lady coming the other way in a Range Rover was driving over the center line and into what little of a lane I had. She had the balls to deliver a crusty look my way like I was the one in the wrong.

Next time I do Taylor I'll go back via Pearl Pass to Crested Butte. At least it won't have any traffic over it.

[1976gmc20]

lady coming the other way in a Range Rover was driving over the center line and into what little of a lane I had

I guess it started a long time ago. We were coming home from shopping in Gunnison one winter while my wife was (not! ) expecting the twins. Taylor Canyon was pretty clear so our K10 was in 2wd. Somebody coming down in a Wagoneer (the "Range Rover" of those days) with Texas plates came around a corner way over the center line and I had to dodge to avoid a head on collision. I tried to pull back out but without 4wd couldn't get steerage and got sucked in really deep in the ditch. Snow was up to the window on the passenger side. I dug and dug until my shovel handle broke and then some different folks in another Wagoneer came along and took us to their fancy house to warm up. That little rich subdivision (I'm sure you know where I mean ) had a year round caretaker (a local guy) and he came and got us out with a K20 pickup. He had to chain the back of his pickup to a tree across the road and winch us out. It's a wonder some other idiot didn't come along and make a big wreck! All of this must have been before the big snow slide that winter and I wrecked my knee trying to get the tracks back on a dozer.

I tried to go up Taylor Pass in my brand new 1973 K20 early in the summer. The water was really high and I couldn't get traction to drive up the waterfall coming out of the creek crossing. It was impossible to even see the rocks to try to figure out where to steer. For some reason I never got around to trying it again, until fall 1980 when a bunch of us rode up there with Johnny Hale* in his "old" pickup (which maybe 5-7 yrs old at the time already looked like a wreck because he had used it so hard).

* long gone I'm sure so I feel free to post his name but no one here would probably have known of him anyway