Summit County, CO -- 2400 mile trip -- Crested Butte to Frisco

[dstevens]

2400 mile trip taking in Crested Butte to Frisco CO. Here's some photos and summaries of the off road trails. Beautiful area.

Town of Gothic. There is a good driving loop Washington Gluch Rd / Gothic Rd (both about 1.5/10). Did not do Schofield Pass as I did not like the prospect of an unknown shelf road with opposing traffic.

Emerald Lake

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[dstevens]

Redstone, off Hw 133. Worth a stop.

Aspen, CO. Everything you think it might be. Counted 80 private jets at the airport.

First of many times driving over 12,000 feet.

 

[dstevens]

Near Dillon.

Bear Scat.

 

[dstevens]

A friendly mountain goat.

Mosquito Pass. About 3/10. Slight shelf aspect but nothing scary.

 

[dstevens]

Webster Pass / Handcart Gulch / Red Cone Pass / Deer Creek / Swan River.

Highly recommended. Best off road day I've had for a long time.

Webster Pass is perhaps 2/10 and easy.

Handcart Gulch is not difficult but has a shelf section at the top, with washouts which tip you downhill.

The bottom of Red Cone is rocky through trees and 4/10. One rock I think was 5/10. The rest is steep, rocky but not difficult. After the summit there is a steep downhill but as I had not read the trail guide I just drove down it without incident. (I think 23 degrees, nothing like this hill at 39.2905, -117.11314 which was 36 degrees I think).

All of these trails are steep, 4LO the whole way, and rocky, but mostly fairly easy. One member of the group did them on 33s but the rest of us were on 35s and 37s. On 35s did not need lockers at any point.

Highlight of the day was a twin engined Navy jet coming up Webster Pass and down the next valley as we were on the summit of Red Cone, passing about 200 feet below us, banking heavily so as to not becoming part of the mountain. Looked like a C-2 but that is a Japanese plane. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. But certainly it was fun to see and must have been a thrill to the crew.

 

[dstevens]

Old dredge near Breckenridge.

Bragging; did 360 miles including a lot of 4LO, and still have half a tank of gas left. (I have a second fuel tank).

Paris Mill.

 

[dstevens]

There are bristle-cone pines above Alma.

Top of Red Cone.

 

[Gomer Pyle]

awesome scenery...even the scat!

 

[dstevens]

(Narration was for grandson).

 

[dstevens]

 

[Ramboy]

Near Dillon.

Bear Scat.

to the “shat scat”. Colorado is having a lot of bear sightings recently due to less foraging available up high, they are coming down to lower levels.

 

[ObiMatt87]

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing. Definitely looking forward to the next opportunity we get to go through a lot of the CO trails. Really enjoyed our last round in the San Juans out of Durango.

 

[RicRecon]

Very cool trip!!

 

[Fishing Jeep]

I recognize the Red Cone and Webster pics. Did Red Cone to Breckenridge last year and tent camped in one of the dispersed campsites off the middle fork of the Swan River just outside of Breckenridge. Great route.

You're right about the difficulty- not bad, but steep and lose rocks in some places.

Did you do Radical Hill? That one is a sphincter pinching route due to the off-camber shelf road.

Next time, if you want something more challenging, try Wheeler Lake between Breck and Alma. Not really any relaxing cruising- just obstacle after obstacle...

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