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Old 10-22-2020, 04:12 PM   #1
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Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route

The end of September some and I spent ten days exploring the area along the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route. We had a great time. Here are some highlights of the trip. You can read the full report and see additional photos on my blog. I will get some video posted on YourTube of the trip in a few weeks.

The western wildfires were still burning when we started the trip. As a result we had only one clear and starry night.


We stopped at Woods Lake for lunch and to enjoy the view.


Some of the mine ruins on the way to Animas Forks.


Animas Forks ghost town sits in a beautiful valley.


There were many high mountain streams with beaver lodges and dams in them.


Ophir Pass


On the way to Animas Forks we came across a sober reminder to drive carefully, a wrecked ATV, and pay attention to the road. It is easy to get distracted by the scenery.


There were lots of cold high mountain lakes.


We traveled over 11 mountain passes ranging between 10,000 and 13,000 feet.


The views were fantastic.

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Old 10-22-2020, 05:12 PM   #2
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Very fun! Woods Lake is captivating...excellent photo.
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Old 10-22-2020, 07:42 PM   #3
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Nice trip report! Thanks!
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Old 10-22-2020, 10:18 PM   #4
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I really need to check that out, I'm off for my winter road trip soon, but I assume all that will be snowed in pretty quickly. Great photos............
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Old 10-23-2020, 03:11 AM   #5
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Nice, thanks for posting.
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Old 10-23-2020, 04:53 PM   #6
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Good stuff Larrie!
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Old 10-24-2020, 09:31 PM   #7
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Glad you liked the report. As I was driving around in my Jeep I kept wondering if the van could have made the trip. I believe the answer is yes if you were careful. The first section would give a wide vehicle pin striping from the overgrown bushes. There were some very tight switchbacks going up a couple of passes which would have required multi point turns in a van. There were also some washouts and ruts that may have needed rock stacking and spotting.
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Old 10-25-2020, 05:57 AM   #8
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larrie,

Just for info, how would you rate Hagerman Pass against the others in terms of difficulty?

I did Hagerman in my van. Was thinking about the entire BDR.

Thanks.
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Old 10-27-2020, 11:03 AM   #9
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Chris,
Without a doubt Hagerman was the roughest due to all the embedded rock. The others seemed to have less rock. They all have some tight switchbacks that you will need to look at and try to pick the right line to make the turn. All the switchbacks had space to back up and try again. Tin Cup Pass had a really bad washout on the east side just down from the top. Others had some bad ruts in spots.

One of the things I did differently on this trip was to leave my video camera running during the time it took do drive up and down the passes. This should give the watcher a realtime view of what the route looks lie to drive. Will be working on getting those videos up on YouTube over the next couple of weeks.
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Old 10-27-2020, 03:21 PM   #10
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Larrie,

Excellent. Thanks much for the info. Totally agree about the rocks on Hagerman.
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