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How long does it typically take to run these San Juan trails?

Chocolate Thunder

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I’ll be wheeling in the San Juan Mountains area of Colorado later this year. I’ve never been there before so I’m hoping that locals or those who regularly wheel those trails can help me plan.

I know there’s all sorts of factors like weather, traffic, road conditions, different drivers, etc. that make it impossible to say exactly how long it would take to complete a given trail. However I’d like to have at least a general idea so that I can plan.

How long should I plan to take to wheel each one of these:
  1. Black Bear Pass
  2. Imogene Pass
  3. Alpine Loop (clockwise?)
  4. Ophir Pass
  5. Poughkeepsie Gulch
  6. Yankee Boy Basin
  7. Cinnamon Pass
  8. Last Dollar Rd

Thanks!
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JayJay

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If you do Facebook the following group is an excellent source of information:
Alpine Loop Trail Riders Association - Silverton
Be forewarned though that there is a minimal amount of religious talk in the group. If that would bother you it's best to stay away.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

Chocolate Thunder

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Thanks for the suggestion, but there’s is no force on earth that would compel me to interact with Facebook. I just don’t; I never have and don’t foresee that I ever will. For most folks that’s probably a great idea though so I appreciate it.

Since posting I did find some information on Trails Offroad that has times on it. I’d still love to hear firsthand from those who’ve done it though.
 

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I generally motor on slow and steady wherever I'm wheeling. I dislike wheeling popular trails on weekends and have found you never know how long with crowds. The San Jauns get stupidly crowded. As a couple of weekday examples. First time to the area I did Ophir from 550 to Telluride in my Tundra/FWC popup which was easy, no waiting on the single lane part and over before lunch. So I continued on from Telluride and included Imogene Pass west to Ouray and was done before dark. Imogene Pass was much slower going but you could include Yankee Boy Basin without doing Ophir. I did a combo of Black Bear to Telluride and Imogene Pass to Ouray in my JLR and was back to camp near Silverton before dark. From 550 trailhead I did Engineer Road to Lake City back via California Pass, Corkscrew Pass to 550 before dark. I've combined other trails in the area into loops that concluded before dark which is my thing.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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I generally motor on slow and steady wherever I'm wheeling. I dislike wheeling popular trails on weekends and have found you never know how long with crowds. The San Jauns get stupidly crowded. As a couple of weekday examples. First time to the area I did Ophir from 550 to Telluride in my Tundra/FWC popup which was easy, no waiting on the single lane part and over before lunch. So I continued on from Telluride and included Imogene Pass west to Ouray and was done before dark. Imogene Pass was much slower going but you could include Yankee Boy Basin without doing Ophir. I did a combo of Black Bear to Telluride and Imogene Pass to Ouray in my JLR and was back to camp near Silverton before dark. From 550 trailhead I did Engineer Road to Lake City back via California Pass, Corkscrew Pass to 550 before dark. I've combined other trails in the area into loops that concluded before dark which is my thing.
This is helpful. Thanks.

We’re staying in Ouray. I was planning to maybe try to run Black Bear-Imogene-Yankee Boy in a day. Alpine Loop and Poughkeepsie Gulch on another day.
 

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This is helpful. Thanks.

We’re staying in Ouray. I was planning to maybe try to run Black Bear-Imogene-Yankee Boy in a day. Alpine Loop and Poughkeepsie Gulch on another day.
We stayed in Ouray last year and ran some of the trails mid week. We must have had a fluke because it was busy all week with the big guys rolling their shop rigs.. RK, Outlaw, and Savvy to name a few. Strange for a Tuesday-Friday thing. Possibly pre running trails for Jeep Jamboree the following month. By the time they all left, the weekend was quiet. Anyways, we did some of the trails you're going to tackle. I can say, if its not horrendously busy and start at the trail head by 8am you can easily do Black Bear Pass to Imogene to end it in Ouray to call it a day. We also chose to have lunch in Telluride though. Ophir is the one kind of out of the way. We ran the whole Engineer Pass that took most of a day. We were going to run up to the summit then back down and tackle Poughkeepsie Gulch, but my buddy was having some issues so we decided against it and finish out Engineer pass instead. I guess it's all about how efficient the trails will be when you get there. Some areas bottle neck (bad vehicle choice, lack of experience, accidents, bi directional despite preferred direction) but after running Black Bear Pass and Imogene we were ready to call it a day and grab a bite and a few drink for the night. Plus who doesn't want to enjoy the views if time permits. Even if you may not get a chance to tackle it all, I guess its a reason to go back.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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We stayed in Ouray last year and ran some of the trails mid week. We must have had a fluke because it was busy all week with the big guys rolling their shop rigs.. RK, Outlaw, and Savvy to name a few. Strange for a Tuesday-Friday thing. Possibly pre running trails for Jeep Jamboree the following month. By the time they all left, the weekend was quiet. Anyways, we did some of the trails you're going to tackle. I can say, if its not horrendously busy and start at the trail head by 8am you can easily do Black Bear Pass to Imogene to end it in Ouray to call it a day. We also chose to have lunch in Telluride though. Ophir is the one kind of out of the way. We ran the whole Engineer Pass that took most of a day. We were going to run up to the summit then back down and tackle Poughkeepsie Gulch, but my buddy was having some issues so we decided against it and finish out Engineer pass instead. I guess it's all about how efficient the trails will be when you get there. Some areas bottle neck (bad vehicle choice, lack of experience, accidents, bi directional despite preferred direction) but after running Black Bear Pass and Imogene we were ready to call it a day and grab a bite and a few drink for the night. Plus who doesn't want to enjoy the views if time permits. Even if you may not get a chance to tackle it all, I guess its a reason to go back.
Excellent. You brought up something in your post that I was curious about as well. You mentioned “bi directional despite preferred direction”. I know that Black Bear Pass becomes one way at a point, going east to west down the switchbacks into Telluride. I didn’t notice that any of the other trails are like that, but what’s the preferred direction of each one?
 

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Excellent. You brought up something in your post that I was curious about as well. You mentioned “bi directional despite preferred direction”. I know that Black Bear Pass becomes one way at a point, going east to west down the switchbacks into Telluride. I didn’t notice that any of the other trails are like that, but what’s the preferred direction of each one?
You hit the nail on the head for the direction on Black Bear Pass which is a one way to the summit until you're a couple switch backs down towards Telluride. The rest seems to be bi directional. What we did was start the trails off the 550 that were accessible except for Imogene. A majority of the traffic observed traveled from Telluride to Ouray. Once you make it up to the summit we also noticed that there was more traffic heading to the summit from the Ouray side. From what I gathered most of the people on that end were only doing half (Ouray-Summit-Ouray). If we go back in the future and take on Poughkeepsie Gulch, I would start at its trailhead off Engineer Pass (a mile or so in). That way you can just take fork in the road to decide to either take on the Wall or the bypass to avoid circling back. Most spots on these bi directional trails are wide enough or with enough turn outs to navigate some of the traffic. Ophir for example down the back side has a vast view of the way up and down, it's 1 lane with very little turn outs, so everybody has to be wait on each other, potentially time consuming. We only had time for Ophir, Black Bear Pass, Imogene Pass, and Engineer Pass. We had to ax Poughkeepsie because my buddy's 4Runner was giving him issues which put us a day behind. I wish I could give you more insight on the other trails you wish to run, but I am sure others will chime in with better experience than I do. I hope any of this helps. If you use Gaia, I have the trails we set out do that trip marked and mapped out. If you want any of that shoot me a PM and I can send you what I have and you can add to it from there.
 

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Hey CT,

I ran all of these but Poughkeepsie Gulch in 2020. Below are the times from my Gaia tracks.

Here is a link to the trip journal I put together on that trip: 5 days of wheeling in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado | Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) - Rubicon, Sahara, Sport, 4xe, 392 - JLwranglerforums.com
  1. Black Bear Pass ~ 3.5 Hours
  2. Imogene Pass ~ 5.5 Hours (Long stop for lunch and was with a large group at the JJ.)
  3. Alpine Loop (clockwise?) ~ 9 hours (Includes Mineral Creek, Engineer pass, Cinnamon Pass, Hurricane pass and California pass. Started and ended on Hwy 550)
  4. Ophir Pass ~ 1 hour 40 minutes (With large group at JJ)
  5. Poughkeepsie Gulch - didn't run
  6. Yankee Boy Basin - 8 hours (Ran Yankee Boy, Governor and Sidney basins with many stops due to the JJ group. I expect you could do this in half to 2/3 of the time)
  7. Cinnamon Pass - ran this with my Alpine loop run.
  8. Last Dollar Rd ~ 2 hours (stopped twice, once to grab a snack and once to get some drone pictures)
 
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Chocolate Thunder

Chocolate Thunder

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Hey CT,

I ran all of these but Poughkeepsie Gulch in 2020. Below are the times from my Gaia tracks.

Here is a link to the trip journal I put together on that trip: 5 days of wheeling in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado | Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) - Rubicon, Sahara, Sport, 4xe, 392 - JLwranglerforums.com
  1. Black Bear Pass ~ 3.5 Hours
  2. Imogene Pass ~ 5.5 Hours (Long stop for lunch and was with a large group at the JJ.)
  3. Alpine Loop (clockwise?) ~ 9 hours (Includes Mineral Creek, Engineer pass, Cinnamon Pass, Hurricane pass and California pass. Started and ended on Hwy 550)
  4. Ophir Pass ~ 1 hour 40 minutes (With large group at JJ)
  5. Poughkeepsie Gulch - didn't run
  6. Yankee Boy Basin - 8 hours (Ran Yankee Boy, Governor and Sidney basins with many stops due to the JJ group. I expect you could do this in half to 2/3 of the time)
  7. Cinnamon Pass - ran this with my Alpine loop run.
  8. Last Dollar Rd ~ 2 hours (stopped twice, once to grab a snack and once to get some drone pictures)
Thanks Brian! That’s exactly what I was looking for. I hadn’t seen your thread, I’ll have to check it out. I expect I’ll be much faster than any Jamboree group. Just trying to plan out days.
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