I’ve been out there three times (in three years), but driving the 4×4 roads in the San Juan Mountains never gets old for me. And it’s definitely one of the things I looked forward to showing Becca while we were in Colorado. After arriving at the Ouray KOA late the night before (after spending time in Rocky Mountain National Park), I wanted to make our first and only full day in Ouray really count.
Driving up Mineral Creek to Engineer Pass
Run
ning portions of the Alpine Loop was the best way to explore and enjoy some of the best terrain, views, and wildlife the San Juans have to offer. As I’ve done in the past, I relied heavily on my Colorado 4×4 Trails Book from Funtreks to help plan and validate the day’s route. If you are going to explore the area, invest in the book!
Because the whole loop is about 65 miles and can take 7+ hours, I chose to cut the “loop” part out, and hit some high points, in this order:
- Mineral Creek
- Engineer Pass
- Henson Creek
- Backtrack through Engineer Pass
- Animas Forks (old abandoned mining town)
- California Pass
- Hurricane Pass
- Corkscrew Gulch
Engineer Pass
From a difficulty perspective, the only part of the trail that is challenging at all is Mineral Creek, which is rocky and requires some concentration, but is do-able with a stock high-clearance 4×4. The rest of the route could be done in just about anything (I was following a new Dodge Durango for part of the way down Engineer Pass).
Henson Creek, California Pass, Hurricane Pass, and Corkscrew Gulch
Overall we spent about 5 fantastic hours on the trails, enjoyed the views, saw some wildlife (chipmunks, marmot, deer), and took a TON of photos. Make sure if you’re ever in the area, carve out a day to get out on these roads. If you’ve flown in, there are plenty of local rental places to snag a jeep for a day and get out there (even the KOA rented jeeps!).
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