Colorado 2017 in a 4Runner and a Renegade!

[TexasTJ]

Here is the Google Doc. for the trip.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RblnxO8T0SiuJ7ssPXCy0Uuh7IjjLpqHbx6IM8NFABE/edit?usp=sharing

There will be lots of wheeling and lots of camping, no hotels. Just me in my new 2017 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro (stock) and the best man from my wedding in his 2016 Jeep Renegade Sport (stock). I will update and post pictures as we go.



Trip will consist of:
Cinnamon Pass
Animas Forks
Enginner Pass
Black Bear Pass
Imogene Pass
Yankee Boy
Ophir Pass
Alta Lakes
Stony Pass
Kite Lake
Mount Lincoln (and possible Mt. Democrat/Mt. Bross) 14'ers
Pikes Peak

 

[TexasTJ]

This trip showed me that I don't need to dump thousands of dollars into a rig to take me where I want to go like I have with my Jeep. I am still going to buy some fun things for the 4R, but I don't think I'll be going crazy with mods for it. I was very impressed with how capable the Pro is in stock form, even with the Nittos it did excellent.


Day 1:

Started early in the morning, leaving Fort Worth around 6am for Centennial, CO. to stay with my friend (and best man) for the night. Daniel would be bringing along his stock 2016 Jeep Renegade for some trail fun.




My GPS goofed up and ran me the wrong way, thankfully I realized it and only wasted about an hour and a half of drive time. Made it up to Colorado through Raton, NM.


Daniel was working a late night at the office on some spaceship project (he's an engineer), so I stopped by the Garden of the Gods to kill some time.




Day 2:

The next day we got started early and and made our way to Lake City to run the Alpine Loop (Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass).


Little water crossing.




Some Renegade action on CP.

 

[TexasTJ]

Day 2 Cont.:
Things got interesting quickly, on the easiest trail we would run for the trip. Daniel found out that the little 4 banger and lack of a true low gear would make it a bit of a challenge for the Renegade to make it up the steep hills with rocks bouncing him around. At one point, he came to a stop, in an attempt to get some momentum he backed up to readjust and the next thing I know, he's frantically calling for help over the walkie talkies. Here is what I see when I back down the hill.



Below is a 20-30' drop, while not the worst place to fall off a trail, certainly wouldn't have ended well for the Renegade. We hooked up the 4Runner and prayed that it would be able to pull it back onto the trail, and it did so with ease.

With the Renegade back on the trail we continued on, about half a mile later when we made it to "Oh Point" I noticed that the Renegade had a flat tire...With some of Cinnamon Pass and all of Engineer Pass remaining we put on his donut and continued on.




While we were changing his tire we heard what sounded like the "baaaa-ing" of sheep, we looked over the edge and there were hundreds of them!



Made it to the top


Animas Forks Ghost Town





Engineer Pass
Daniel approved of this pass

 

[TexasTJ]

Day 2 Cont.:





That night we camped at the Nellie Creek trail head, surrounded by Birch and Aspen trees. We had hot dogs for dinner around a warm campfire. We hung hammocks and went to sleep, temperatures got down to mid to high 30*s. My dumb self took pictures of the awesome campsite, but didn't realize that the camera lens cover was on.  :🙂

Day 3: We decided that it was best not to have the Renegade continue on for this trip. We drove to Gunnison and left it there for the remainder of the trip, Daniel jumped in to co-pilot with me.

We left Gunnison as quickly as we could and made it to Ouray.


You know what that means!
Black Bear Pass! I've been waiting to run this trail for a while now, although I always thought it would be in my Jeep, the 4Runner handled it well. The trail is way over hyped in terms of it being scary, I felt comfortable the whole time. The view was fantastic.

 

[TexasTJ]

BBP cont.:


Bridal Veil Falls


We finished up BBP and immediately made our way over to Imogene Pass the trail I was looking forward to almost as much as BBP.


From the rough road leading up to IP you can see the switchbacks of BBP.


On Imogene




4Runner took it look a champ.

 

[TexasTJ]

Imogene Pass cont.:
At the base of IP.


I had planned for possibly four different campsites in this area (Thistledown Campground, Angle Creek Campground, Amphitheater Campground, Ouray KOA). ALL of them were packed to capacity, so we drove back to the trails to look for a spot. We set up camp for the night, tucked away behind some trees. We pitched the tent this night and had some turkey sandwiches for dinner. Temps were high 30*s again.



Day 4:
Packed up camp early and started for Yankee Boy Basin.






We went back into Telluride for some stickers and t-shirts. Then I aired up so we could drive over to Silverton to run Ophir Pass.


Made it to Silverton and stopped for some BBQ at Thee Pitts Again, decent food. Not as good as some Texas BBQ, but I'd eat there again.


Ophir Pass



After Ophir, we made our way over to the Alta Lakes to set up camp for the night.
I saw this CJ in front of the ghost town and thought that it's colors and simplicity made for a nice shot.

 

[TexasTJ]

Camping at Alta Lakes




Shower area.


Quesadillas for dinner.


Apparently they cook s'mores in Colorado differently than in Texas...


Day 5
We packed up camp and headed over to Stony Pass. The CO trails guidebook said that it would be an all day trail, so this was all that was planned for the day. Beautiful trail that makes you feel like you're really far from everyone else. It had 3 fairly deep water crossings.

 

[TexasTJ]

Which lead us to Kite Lake. I really liked this place, which is good because the 4Runner got some nice pinstriping to make it there.











We decided to head back down the trail to find a place to camp.



Right next to the river and a small water fall.

 

[TexasTJ]

Day 5 cont.:
By now it was about 1:30 pm. We hadn't planned for so much free time...I was filling kinda crappy from allergies, so we packed up camp and went back into Silverton for a solid meal instead of camp food. We went to Eureka Station and ordered steak.


Daniel was craving dessert, and as you walked down the street you couldn't help but smell the delicious smells from the Funnel Cake Factory. He ordered the Cinnamon Roll, and I ordered the Black Forest (funnel cake, cherry sauce, hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, and powdered sugar).




Saw a hummingbird hovering about two feet above my head.



We decided to call the trip done. We drove back to Gunnison to pick up his Jeep. Daniel slept in the Jeep overnight and waited for a local tire shop to open up so he could buy a used tire to get him back to Denver, where he planned on buying a set of KO2s.

I was restless, so I decided to head back to Fort Worth. I drove a couple of hours, and pulled over to rest. I did this several times and finally made it home late the next day. I was driving during the entire eclipse, but never noticed anything different.

I got home and assessed the damage. Aside from some nice pinstriping, the worst of the damage was a scrached bumper and a modified exhaust tip. Overall, I can't complain. The 4Runner handled every part of the trails with ease.

 

[TexasTJ]

Here are our camping spots.

 

[badmonkey]

Beautiful!  So ya need a bumper?

 

[TexasTJ]

Beautiful!  So ya need a bumper?

Thanks! I would like to say yes, but the wife says it isn't that bad.... guess I should've backed into the wall during a switchback on BBP. [laugh]

 

[G Beasley]

Thanks! I would like to say yes, but the wife says it isn't that bad.... guess I should've backed into the wall during a switchback on BBP. [laugh]

Black Bear is the only thing out there I am leery of.

 

[TexasTJ]

Black Bear is the only thing out there I am leery of.

Like I said, majorly over hyped in terms of danger. Daniel has never been offroad until this trip, he was more afraid of the Million Dollar Hwy (Hwy 550), with it's lack of railings, immediate drop offs, and higher speed, than he was of BBP or any of the trails.

 

[G Beasley]

Like I said, majorly over hyped in terms of danger. Daniel has never been offroad until this trip, he was more afraid of the Million Dollar Hwy (Hwy 550), with it's lack of railings, immediate drop offs, and higher speed, than he was of BBP or any of the trails.

550 in the snow made me nervous. May have to revisit the idea of Black Bear when we are out there next Summer.

 

[Cameron]

That is some awesome scenery!! Looks like the 4R handled it all well, and looked like a great time!

 

[bobthetj03]

Awesome journey! Thanks for sharing. Hope to hit some of these places next year.

 

[TexasTJ]

Time to plan my TX to Canada trip next. 

 

[G Beasley]

Time to plan my TX to Canada trip next. 

Where in Canada are you thinking?

 

[TexasTJ]

Where in Canada are you thinking?

Banff and Jasper NP. Don't want to get too deep into Canada without other rigs going. Plus a few stops along the way, like Glacier NP.