Durango Colorado - Jeeping in a Rubicon - 6/24/2013 - Part 3

Our campground, Alpen Rose, had a strange system where both doors opened to the same common area.  Its called a buddy system and usually only reserved by two RVs traveling together.  As luck would have it our "buddy"  neighbors, Rusty and Stephanie had a Jeep Rubicon.  So Mark asked Rusty about Jeep Trails.  Rusty told me with all the questions Mark asked he started to feel sorry for him so Rusty invited us to tag along with his Harley friends - John and Rhonda, Ken (lovingly called Bugger) and Linda and Rick and Claudia.   Not one to turn down a great offer like this we quickly arranged to rent a Jeep Rubicon in Ouray and at 6:10 AM we set off for our first Jeep adventure to the back country of the San Juan Mountains.

Turned out they ran out of two door Jeep Rubicons so we ended up with this four door bad boy!
















Ken and Rick shared one Rubicon so Linda and Claudia had to stand up in the back in order to see anything.  We could hear them giggling all along the route!!

Rusty led the way to Camp Bird and the first thing we come to was not a puddle of water but a several foot deep stream.  That's "Rubi" in front of us - Rusty and Stephanie's Rubicon.  If we hadn't seen them go through this we would have turned around thinking we were on the wrong route. 

 

Oh My - were our first thoughts - we're going over that Rocky field - but the Jeep Rubicon was so steady that we bounced right up there and barely felt a bump!  This road, if you can call it a road, would eventually take us to Imogene Pass.

 

But first it took us past some streams and then to one amazing waterfall!  All that snow at the top of the mountain has to go somewhere when it melts.

 

You know we need to have a "we were there photo" so thanks to Stephanie here it is:

We followed Rubi no matter what and here we are on what we would barely call a road.  There are definitely no stripes to guide you, its pretty narrow and its a long way down so you have to keep it steady.

 

And here is one amazing tunnel we had to pass through - the RV would not make it!!

 

We're slowly making it up to the top of the pass - its easy to see that we are up so high that we have passed the tree line.  This is the first time I have ever been physically above the tree line.

That crack in the snow is actually where the road is!

And here we are on that very road - the snow is a lot deeper than it looks from a distance.

We finally made it to the top at 13,225 feet.  Here is the info on the Garmin to prove it!

 Yup, here we are at the top and  I have three layers on and I am still shivering!!

But, oh what amazing perspective you have from this elevation!

 

The road down to Telluride is just as treacherous so its imperative that you have to take care to keep all four wheels on the path!

The other thing that Rusty told us was that the uphill vehicle has the right of way - but here's what happens when you are both on level surface but its only one vehicle wide.  Our Jeep felt a bit wider than Stephanie's and Rusty's so we felt like we were going to tip right onto this yellow Jeep!

 

Here you can see back to Black Bear Pass which the Jeep Rental place told us not to go on so it must be really scary - you can see all the tight switchbacks as you go down the slope!  I don't know if we would have made it through this route!!

 

But, finally - after a few white knuckles scary moments, we are making our way down to Telluride - we can start to see the ski slopes - they look so low in comparison to the mountain pass we just came through!  That's because they are!

 

We made it to Telluride and stopped at Maggie's Bakery for lunch with the entire caravan.  Stephanie just had to have this photo to prove we were in Colorado!!

 

Here's one of me and the ladies - they are all dressed up in their "biker chick" look and here I am in my " IZOD" golf look.  But I felt honored to be included in this photo.

 

Before Stephanie and Rusty left Durango we all went out to Steamworks Brewing Company for dinner. Stephanie and Rusty are from Louisiana so we all ordered the Cajun boil - Wild Texas shrimp, Alaskan Dungeness Crab,  Andouille Sausage, corn cobs and new potatoes.   Yes, that is our dinner dumped on the table.  No plates - just grab it with your fingers!  We had a great time and we definitely look forward to seeing Stephanie and Rusty again when we are in Arkansas.

 

 

Well, that's it for our first foray into Off Highway Vehicle tours.  We had a great time and really enjoyed our day.  A special thank you to Rusty and Stephanie for inviting us along.  And, thanks to John, Rhonda, Rick, Claudia, Ken and Linda for sharing their jeep trip with us.

Now on to our next Durango adventure.