Telluride vs Ouray

[76_iron]

Planning a Colorado trip, will be staying a couple days with friends in Colorado Springs then going to either Telluride or Ouray to hit the trails. Want to hit Engineer's Pass and Black Bear, and Imogene but am open to suggestions. Is there any reason to stay in one town or the other?

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[jhackathorne]

Ouray will be a closer start to each of those trails than Telluride will be. Might want to run Engineer and Imogene staying in Ouray and then run Black Bear and stay in Telluride. I wouldn’t recommend running Black Bear without another rig. Though depending when you go you may run into a group or others at the trailhead.

 

[76_iron]

We are going to take your advice and stay in Ouray. Black Bear is intimidating, probably won't try it unless I meet someone at the brewery or something the night before to run with.

 

[Bohica]

Ouray has nice hot springs.

 

[wibornz]

Ouray will be a closer start to each of those trails than Telluride will be. Might want to run Engineer and Imogene staying in Ouray and then run Black Bear and stay in Telluride. I wouldn’t recommend running Black Bear without another rig. Though depending when you go you may run into a group or others at the trailhead.

Why not alone? For all of it it is not a hard trail. There is one off chamber spot. Heck you run the whole thing in 2wd. I think it has a difficult rating because if you mess up on the switch backs, it can be deadly. But for actual like obstacles, there are not really any that require a spot.

 

[wibornz]

If high drop-off don't scare you, Black Bear is an easy trail.

 

[jhackathorne]

Why not alone? For all of it it is not a hard trail. There is one off chamber spot. Heck you run the whole thing in 2wd. I think it has a difficult rating because if you mess up on the switch backs, it can be deadly. But for actual like obstacles, there are not really any that require a spot.

Just to have a spotter on the switch backs is the only reason I say that. I’m not afraid of shelf roads, Bihar first right switch back made me a little uneasy.

 

[wibornz]

Just to have a spotter on the switch backs is the only reason I say that. I’m not afraid of shelf roads, Bihar first right switch back made me a little uneasy.

When you said alone, I thought you meant without another vehicle. I did not think about being alone as nobody in the Jeep with you to spot.

 

[Ratbert]

When you said alone, I thought you meant without another vehicle. I did not think about being alone as nobody in the Jeep with you to spot.

In theory the front trail cam will reduce the need for a spotter. At least that's what my wife is convinced of. She's exceptional at spotting, but does not like to do it.

 

[jhackathorne]

In theory the front trail cam will reduce the need for a spotter. At least that's what my wife is convinced of. She's exceptional at spotting, but does not like to do it.

While I do use my front camera on trails, those switchbacks would for sure not be a place I’d trust them! Depth of field is not that great and going over would be detrimental to say the least! Hell… I was nervous making the turn with a spotter even!

 

[blnewt]

Here was our trip out there last Sept. starting on pg 3 details the order we took, only Badge we didn't run was Black Bear, was hoping to hit it this year but have to make other plans, but we WILL get that one too! We stayed in Durango which gives you a large variety of restaurants, hotels, etc and plenty to do if you want a day or two in town, it will add about an hr. each way to the trails though, but you will get well versed on the million dollar highway
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...d-be-nice-to-meet-w-a-few-others.75076/page-3

 

[jgo138]

We just left Ouray after a 2 night stay. We ran Imogene from Ouray because it’s impassable right past the peak heading towards Telluride. Tagged along with a couple of Toyotas we met at the beginning and it was a great trip. If you run Imogene from Ouray, definitely take the “Alternate Northern Access” off Yankee Boy, which is just a bit further up past the main trailhead. I used Trails Offroad and it was easy to follow. The alternate route was more technical and had a lot of low water crossings.

 

[GATORB8]

We just left Ouray after a 2 night stay. We ran Imogene from Ouray because it’s impassable right past the peak heading towards Telluride. Tagged along with a couple of Toyotas we met at the beginning and it was a great trip. If you run Imogene from Ouray, definitely take the “Alternate Northern Access” off Yankee Boy, which is just a bit further up past the main trailhead. I used Trails Offroad and it was easy to follow. The alternate route was more technical and had a lot of low water crossings.

I ran the opposite end of Imogene this weekend, but looks like they opened it up all the way yesterday per the county website.

I think the lodging costs were less for us in Ouray, and I personally preferred the town and Jeep heavy bar scene.

Don't forget the Alpine Loop (Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass) is there, as well as Ophir Pass a little ways south.

The west end of Engineer is probably the toughest section, running a stock JLUR, there were a couple spots where a spotter was nice. If you take the cutoff from Engineer to Cinnamon (CR 2 down to Silverton) you can skip the complicated stuff.

A lot of the Passes create loops. You can run a combo of two of Ophir, Black Bear, and Imogene that will loop you between Telluride and Ouray. Engineer + Cinnamon will loop you between Lake City and Ouray.

If you start at the Ouray entrance to Engineer, you can probably find a group to join up with so your not by yourself.

While scenic, the east end of Engineer and Cinnamon get a little boring, you may want to just run the west half of each.

Time wise, they were pretty consistent 2-3 hours per pass, Ophir being a little shorter.

In about 7-8 hours we did Telluride to Ophir Pass to Cinnamon to Lakecity to Engineer to Ouray this weekend.

Spotty cell signal, so you may want to have an offline capable GPS. My OnX was giving me issues, but the factory Nav has a lot of the roads in it.

 

[jgo138]

I ran the opposite end of Imogene this weekend, but looks like they opened it up all the way yesterday per the county website.

I think the lodging costs were less for us in Ouray, and I personally preferred the town and Jeep heavy bar scene.

Don't forget the Alpine Loop (Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass) is there, as well as Ophir Pass a little ways south.

The west end of Engineer is probably the toughest section, running a stock JLUR, there were a couple spots where a spotter was nice. If you take the cutoff from Engineer to Cinnamon (CR 2 down to Silverton) you can skip the complicated stuff.

A lot of the Passes create loops. You can run a combo of two of Ophir, Black Bear, and Imogene that will loop you between Telluride and Ouray. Engineer + Cinnamon will loop you between Lake City and Ouray.

If you start at the Ouray entrance to Engineer, you can probably find a group to join up with so your not by yourself.

While scenic, the east end of Engineer and Cinnamon get a little boring, you may want to just run the west half of each.

Time wise, they were pretty consistent 2-3 hours per pass, Ophir being a little shorter.

In about 7-8 hours we did Telluride to Ophir Pass to Cinnamon to Lakecity to Engineer to Ouray this weekend.

Spotty cell signal, so you may want to have an offline capable GPS. My OnX was giving me issues, but the factory Nav has a lot of the roads in it.

That’s hilarious- we saw a crew at the summit on Monday, but it didn’t look like they were working on plowing. Must have opened it a few hours after we headed down. Always an excuse to come back and run the full pass!

 

[GATORB8]

That’s hilarious- we saw a crew at the summit on Monday, but it didn’t look like they were working on plowing. Must have opened it a few hours after we headed down. Always an excuse to come back and run the full pass!

They were replacing the bridges on the Telluride end. They were all brand new up to Tomboy where they had the gate closed.

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