Stranded on Imogene Pass for 3-Days

The following story provides proof that what we have written about high country weather being very dangerous.  You really never know when a deluge of cold rain will come down and fill all dry washes and streams.  

Snow storms in late spring or early in the fall can shut down many of the roads and trails we drive in the summer.  If you happen to be in the wrong place, you may become part of the white landscape as happened in the story below.

When we tell you to "Go Prepared", it comes from many years of high mountain experience.  PLEASE take this advice extremely seriously.  Your life may depend on it!!

From the PostIndependent

Serving Glenwood Springs and Garfield County, CO

Floridians stranded for three days on Imogene Pass

September 14, 2003

Heather McGregor
GSPI Managing Editor

In late August, part-time Glenwood Springs residents Don and Nan Seaton took a fun trip in their Land Rover over Ophir and Imogene passes in the San Juan Mountains.

So when their son and Danish daughter-in-law, Daryl and Jane Seaton, came for a visit from Florida last week, Don and Nan encouraged them to take the same excursion.

Caught by a massive cold front and snowstorm that pummeled all of western Colorado, Daryl and Jane spent three days and two nights trapped just below the 13,120-foot summit of Imogene Pass between Telluride and Ouray.

A rescue helicopter pulled them from the mountain midday Thursday and flew them down to Telluride, where Don and Nan were waiting.

“It’s kind of amazing what you can accomplish when you have to,” Daryl Seaton said Saturday, speaking by cell phone while waiting at Denver International Airport to catch a flight back to Florida. “You just look back and go, `Wow.'”

For his mom, the waiting without knowing was the hardest part.

“You want to help, but you can’t,” said Nan Seaton, who had high praise for the search and rescue crews and sheriff’s offices in Telluride and Ouray.

Don and Nan are former owners of the Caravan Inn in Glenwood Springs. They now own the four Sea Wake Resorts on the Gulf coast of Florida and divide their time between Glenwood Springs and Florida. Daryl and Jane, married 23 years, live at Oldsmar, Fla., and manage one of the resorts.

Nan said Daryl and Jane (pronounced ya-NAY) drove to Ouray and then over Ophir Pass to Telluride on Monday, Sept. 8. They called from Telluride Tuesday morning, and said they’d call again when they got down to Ouray that afternoon.

“Then we never heard from them,” Nan said. “So about 7 p.m., we called the sheriff’s offices in Ouray and Telluride.”

A search and rescue crew set out from Ouray that evening, but couldn’t even get halfway up the pass because of blowing and drifting snow. Searchers tried again on Wednesday, coming from both side of the pass. They got very close but couldn’t find the car in the raging blizzard.

Meanwhile, Daryl, 43, and Jane, 42, huddled in the Land Rover, a soft-topped 1994 Defender 90 model. Luckily, Nan had stocked the car with blankets, boots, down jackets and hot packs, and Daryl and Jane were wearing wool clothing.

While they were driving up the pass on Tuesday, it started to sprinkle snow. They drove over the summit and got about four minutes down the east side before getting blasted by the storm.

“It was a total white-out, winds blowing 50 to 60 mph,” Daryl said. “I got out and tried to guide the car down the road, when it slid down the hill. That was it. We were done. We were going to wait for them to come get us.”

The couple stuffed underwear and paper towels into the cracks of the soft top and settled in for the night, thinking they would be rescued the next day.

“I can’t explain how bad it was,” Daryl said. “It sounded like a freight train. It would go dead calm for about 30 seconds, then you could hear it coming like a train and it would hit us.”

High winds rocked the car, and they worried that it would be blown off the road. In fact, blowing snow packed in around the Land Rover, but it shook with every gust, he said.

Don and Nan headed over to Ouray Wednesday morning, and hung out at the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office while search and rescue crews made their second attempt at finding the stranded couple.

“I cannot tell you how good they were,” Nan said. “They kept us informed. They said, `Good or bad, we’re going to tell you everything.'”

On the mountain, Daryl and Jane realized their rescue would take longer.

“It never cleared up. It was a grueling day, mentally. The gusts of wind never stopped, and we knew they weren’t coming,” he said.

From the sheriff’s office, Don and Nan could hear about the rough weather conditions searchers were dealing with: high winds, deep snow and visibility of no more than 10 feet. The searchers gave up, and planned to try again Thursday.

On Thursday morning, with the temperature in the Land Rover hovering at 18 degrees, Daryl saw an opening in the storm. But his cell phone battery was dead.

He first tried to charge it up from the car battery, using turn signal wires from the dashboard. Then he took a close look at the battery, and saw that it was a 3.7-volt type. The car’s 12-volt battery wouldn’t work.

“Then I saw my camera. I had just bought a new battery, and it was a 3-volt.”

Using Band-Aids from his parents’ survival kit, he taped the signal wires onto the two batteries, and the cell phone immediately began to charge up.

“We were pretty excited,” Daryl said.

He waited a half hour for it to charge, put on boots and hiked back up to the summit in hopes of getting a signal.

From the car, Jane heard Daryl say, “Dad! Dad!”

At the Ouray sheriff’s office, Nan heard her husband’s cell phone ring. It was Daryl.

Two days of tension and worry dissolved into whoops and tears.

From Telluride, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office sent a rescue helicopter up to Imogene Pass, while Don and Nan drove around from Ouray.

Because Seaton had a fishing license, there will be no bill for his rescue, said Jennifer Smith, spokeswoman for the San Miguel County sheriff’s office.

Daryl and Jane were taken to the Telluride Medical Center, where Daryl was treated for frostbite and his Jane was treated for exhaustion.

Then the family drove back to Glenwood Springs, where Daryl and Jane recuperated Friday before leaving for Denver Saturday morning. On their way to the airport, they drove through another snowstorm.

The Land Rover is still parked in the snow on Imogene Pass, but the staff at the Glenwood Springs Land Rover Centre is itching for a chance to go retrieve it.

Daryl said San Miguel sheriff’s deputies told him that if the vehicle stays on the pass until next summer, marmots will eat all the soft materials – the soft top, the seats, steering wheel and wires in the engine.

Mvcvccc9iDon is coordinating a plan with the Ouray County Sheriff, Nan said. They think there’s a good chance the weather will lift, and the snow will melt enough to drive the vehicle off the mountain, she said.

“We’ve got to have a break in the weather. But if it’s accessible, we’ll go get it,” said Randy Tuggle, manager of the dealership.

“That vehicle can be driven down on its own. It’s a matter of getting the right equipment up there to make a path, things like snow ladders and tire chains,” he said.

“It’s up to Don and the sheriff’s department,” Tuggle said. “We don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s safety, but the majority of my staff are trained in extreme off-roading and recovery. That’s something the manufacturer does for us. As for volunteers, we are more than willing to attack the task.”

Contact Heather McGregor: 945-8515, ext. 517

hmcgregor@postindependent.com

 

 

Delores Point / South Beaver Mesa

By Jerry Smith

March 22, 2017, the team of Tom/Connie and Jerry struck out for the Delores Point and South Beaver Mesa trails.  These trails are in the neighborhood of Gateway, CO.

After a quick stop in Gateway, we proceeded up the John Brown Road through John Brown Canyon.  It is a steep grade up a well-maintained county road through a deep and narrow red canyon.   

The Gateway Canyons Resort from Delores Point

After passing the Whirlwind Uranium mine, we proceeded out the Delores Point Mesa to GPS the routes that would be run for Rock Junction 2017.  Rock Junction is the Grand Mesa Jeep Club’s annual three-day trail event held the three days before the first Saturday in June.  That day is reserved for the Rocky Mountain Off Road Expo.

Up until we turned and started along the east rim of the mesa, all was good.  The rim section has severely overgrown trees reaching out well into the trail.  This slowed progress to a crawl and was very noisy as the branches screeched across the paint and top.  This will require several hours of trimming before we can offer this trail to our guests.

The Grand Mesa Jeep Club must annually pre-run no less than five trails before Rock Junction.  Winters and Spring can be very hard on many area trails.  Downed trees, rock falls, overgrown brush, and erosion can 

put a trail out of commission until we come along with the necessary maintenance.  Our guests come to drive the trails, not to do maintenance.

This is the Sheep Creek Trail.  The road easily seen in the bottom winds its way to just below the vertical cliffs at the top of the picture.  This narrow, steep shelf road can be a challenge in the spring due to erosion and rock falls.

 As it was, we picked up a hefty gunny sack full of cans and bottles along the trail and winched a large fallen tree from the trail.

The grand highlight of this trail comes at the end.  The views of the surrounding countryside are to die for.  Spectacular scenery greets your eyes in every direction.  If you are remotely familiar with the area, you will recognize many landmarks.

We could point out the Delores Overlook and the newly christened “Top II” trail where we had driven last Sunday.  Top II is the southern end of the up thrust mesa that graces the Top of the World trail of Moab fame.  From some viewpoints on Top II, you can see the terminus of Top of the World like nowhere else.

These spectacles from Delores Point made our lunches much more enjoyable.  Other trails seen from there include Sheep Creek, South and North Beaver Mesas, Polar Mesa, and the region around Rose Garden Hill.

Returning back from Delores Point, we continued to the South Beaver Mesa turn-off.  The South Beaver road starts out fairly mild and scenic.  But once you reach the hairpin turn, hold on to your seat --- tightly!!

Tom climbing the South Beaver Mesa trail.  Notice the severe erosion.

 From here, if you don’t like steep, narrow, loose rock, washed out with 2-foot deep channels, class 7 or 7+ shelf roads, now is a good time to just park and enjoy the scenery.  For the next mile or so, you WILL be paying close attention to your driving.

Off-camber, steep, and full of loose rock and sand, this trail WILL make you pay attention to your driving.  The scenery is over the top as well, IF you take a moment to notice.

 At the bottom of the steep part, there is an old shack and dugout cowboys or shepherds used -- we think.  It is set on the rim of the Beaver Creek Gorge in a beautiful setting.  In the dugout, you can still find bottled water and a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup that have been on the shelf for at least 7-years.

Stocked shelves in the Great American BackCountry are a rare find.

This is the "cow camp".  The small shed has a bunk bed while the dugout is stocked with bottled water and a can of soup.  A corral is to the right of the gate.

The dugout had a wood stove and bed springs for a short man.  Crutches still hang on the wall.

The road continues out So. Beaver Mesa, but is not very exciting as Jeep trails go.  So we began the slow, rough and rocky climb back out.

The trail is littered with fallen and erosion exposed rocks of varying size.

 At an intersection, we turned off the trail onto another faint road that brought us to another cabin and dugout.  This one was built mostly from area Juniper.  This is an unusual building material for a cabin.

Cabins built of Utah Juniper are rare finds.  That is cactus growing on the roof.

The dugout is also Juniper and a sod roof with cactus growing on it.  This would have been a pretty cozy place on a cold night.

The road continued in the general direction of the Gateway to Moab road, so we crawled along hoping it would take us all the way through.  Following my nose has often resulted in good things happening, and after quite a long time, we came to a familiar road that took us out to the road back to Gateway.

A herd of Mule Deer allowed a quick photo.

 Another superior day in the Great American BackCountry and another reminder of why I live by Yogi Berra’s “Yogi-ism”;  “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”  That is where the adventure begins.

Copyright Happy Trails 4wd, 2017.  All rights reserved.

Pace Lake (part 2

Pace Lake (part 2)

Along the Happy Trails

May/10/2008

By Jerry Smith

(Continued from Pace Lake part 1)

The Pace Lake road was firmly in the crosshairs today.  The previous failure needed to be rectified. 

In talking with the BLM about the Pace Lake road, it was clear that it had been closed by Mother Nature at least two years before and probably more.  This would possibly be the first reopening of a trail I had done in some time. 

Southern Sinbad Valley with Lone Cone and the San Juan range near Ouray on the skyline.  On a clear day, this is an eye-popper.

Reopening trails is something that brings a wealth of pleasure to me.  I have fought road closures from Montana to Utah and Colorado since back in the mid-1970s.  It's become a passion.

This trip I knew the Pace Lake road would be traversed further than the first time barring any major changes to the roadway between then and now.

The lower Pace Lake road offered little resistance but as we (Happy Trails and me) began the ascent up the mountainside, there was a repeat of the last trip.  (While I do often go alone, I do not recommend it).

Many new rocks had rolled into the road and the V-cuts had been enlarged so the work began early.  It was obvious that the spring runoff had been dramatic this year.  Water runoff damage to the Pace Lake road was everywhere.

After an hour of rock moving, we were finally up to that pesky tree blocking the road just above the intersection.  The Mile Marker HI9000 hydraulic winch made quick work of it.  Pace Lake or bust!

On this corner is where the burnt fir blocked the road.

For the next mile or so, we stopped several times for rocks, trees, and brush overgrown into the roadway.  This was the easy part.  Brush trimming is a common occurrence where I go and we go prepared.

The next major obstacle was a 50-60 yard stretch of the Pace Lake road where the middle and lower side of the road was a three-foot deep gully.  As I have made a habit of, I walked well past the bad area to see if working on it would be rewarded or just scoffed at later.  I made up my mind that the Pace Lake road could be overcome.

Between the back of the Jeep and to the corner where another Jeep is barely visible is where the road had to be filled before any further progress could be made.

The first attempt at straddling the deep notch ended up with the entire left rear tire hanging well below the road surface.  This was really a bad kind of stuck but we crawled out after a little rock and tree limb placement.

There was some damage done to the fender flare and a little scuffing of the corner paint, but it's a Jeep.  The bad part was that this was the first real damage done since Happy Trails was new in '06.  Pace Lake would be remembered.

OK, this would require some serious fill work to make it passable.  After gathering all the downed trees and large rocks nearby, I began shoveling the high bank into the ditch until it looked good enough a little over 3-hours later.  You can't believe all the dirt and debris it took to partially fill that ditch.

A couple of turns later we encountered another "challenging" obstacle.  Pace Lake wasn't giving in yet. 

This one had both erosion and three major boulders in the way.  The boulders were nearly hood high, so going over was not a good option.  They blocked the road in such a way that going around the low side of the first two would work, but the third one was too close to the lower side of the road to get around. 

The corner, just below the 3-large rocks, has caused several problems for many who have driven this trail.

After some technical "calculated eyeball" measuring, I decided if we could get past the first two and go hard left between the second and third rocks and then go high enough on the upper bank, we could make it past.

The first part of the plan went well.  Crawling the very steep upper road bank tightened the seat cover to the breaking point.  To say we were leaning over was like saying there is sand at the beach.

The rear couldn't climb the bank and the right rear wheel hooked the point on the third rock breaking a chunk of the faux bead lock out and mutilating the center cap.  More damage!

Cutting brush back takes place about every two years to keep this trail open.  The first trip up, it was all me.  Since then, we recruit some help and it goes much faster.

 With more rock rolling, tree removal, and a lot of brush trimming, we cruised through the gate into a meadow where Ponderosa Pines grew.  To the left of the meadow was a serious barbed wire fence on the Colorado/ Utah border and Pace Lake just across the road on the other side of the fence.

The fence line is patrolled by the JB Ranch and no trespassing is permitted.  After a very late lunch with a view of Pace Lake, we proceeded further up the road to the National Forest boundary where the signs say "closed to motorized travel".

Stay on your side of the fence… they mean stay out!

Known locally as the "Little Forest", this small isolated parcel is closed simply because the Manti- La Sal Forest Service doesn't want to manage it.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of things we too often find when out in the Great American BackCountry.  Cleaning-up thoughtless people's trash like this is an every trip duty.  One day, we hope to catch the jerks leaving this kind of mess… they will answer to the law at a minimum.

Note:  I have recommended that the BLM assume responsibility for the area and that they allow us to pioneer a short road to the east where another road ends that comes from the John Brown road.  This would create a "Loop Road" that is so popular with land management these days.  (we are currently working with the USFS, BLM, and a private land owner to create that connector)

Looking in the rearview mirror shows the kind of rocks you can expect to run over, around, or through.  "Through" is not recommended.

Returning to the meadow, I was rewarded with the sight of several elk on the Pace Lake dam.  It's always great to see wildlife.

As the day was getting late, we had to go down the Pace Lake road at a much faster pace than the ascent.  With most of the bad obstacles passable now, that was not much problem.

Many large critters can be found in Sinbad Valley.  This is a large black bear track in case you didn't know.  The Sinbad ranch caretaker claims they have bears nearly every day in their yard during the warm months. The first year after reopening this trail, we always saw at least one bear.

The Pace Lake road was open once again.  Pace Lake was worth the effort to see and the trail is a dandy class 7 or 7+.  If you're going to attempt the Pace Lake road, you better come equipped and capable.
(over the years since then, the road has mellowed.  It is now about a 6 or 6+ for difficulty -- but will still challenge you)

The views from the upper Pace Lake road are incredible.  Sinbad Valley is beautiful and you can see over the south end clear down to the San Juan Mountains near Ouray. 

The Pace Lake road is and will be a challenge for the foreseeable future.  I hope you make an opportunity to see Pace Lake.



The author and one of his favorite companions.

One last thought;  When you come to a fork in the road, take it!  Adventure is where you find it.

Happy Trails to you.

Copyright 2008- 2017, all rights reserved 


Note:  Most of the pictures in this article are from other trips to Pace Lake.

Calamity Mesa Airstrip Trail

By Jerry Smith

September 3, 2011

I had been down on myself for failing to find the road(s) to the airstrip on the top of the mesa on the last trip to Calamity Mesa.  The computer maps showed a road to the upper end and another to the lower end of the airstrip. 

That's what happens when you live by what Yogi Berra said -- "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"  You get sidetracked.

Blue Creek Gorge from the Calamity Mesa Loop Road

The road from the lower end I had convinced myself that I had found on another trip, but that road had a long piece missing in the middle that would require some serious work to get around or through.  The Colorado geology and weather can be very rough on roads in the backcountry. 

Most often you just have rocks or trees falling down onto the road from above or places where the runoff has cut a channel either across or along the road surface creating serious obstacles. 

But then there are the times when the whole hillside simply sloughs off down the hill.  I’ve seen two places where the hillside slipped down and the road surface was literally intact downhill several yards (30 to 40 yards) from where it had been constructed. It’s a strange site to happen on.  

When that happens, it’s hard to convince your Jeep to just take the road where it is.  That vertical jump down and then back up can be puzzling.

This time the whole hillside had moved, totally destroying what looked to be 100 yards of the road altogether.

That finding had been late in the day so I did not take the time to explore what it was going to take to get around this obstacle.

A few days later, I was dropping off some CDs of pictures I had promised Hugh Phillips of Safari Ltd, a Toyota service shop. 

Hugh and I got to talking about our trips during the last Rock Junction event back in early June and Calamity Mesa came up.  I mentioned that Mike Click and I had made the attempt to find our way to the airstrip without success and Hugh said; “I was just up there.”  

We discussed the roads necessary to get up there for quite a while.  He had gone from the top and had followed the road from the bottom of the air strip to a place where there were trees downed across the trail and he turned around. 

Harold entering "Twisted Drop" on Calamity Mesa Loop

Thinking I knew approximately where he had turned around… which I thought would have been just up the canyon from where the road had disappeared, I set out to go where he said.

The trip as far as Calamity Camp and the New Verde mine went very smooth.  Being alone generally allows things to go that way.  Having no other schedules allow you to do whatever, whenever. 

Coming to the second road on the right that I knew climbed to the top of the mesa, I took it and followed it to just over the rim.  There it forks and I now knew to take the left fork for a little way to another fork going uphill to the left.

Some of the climb was fairly rough going but the road got quite easy going as it hit the top.  Soon I could see the airstrip to the right of the road.  What a beautiful site.  Success often has that look.

After a picture of the strip from the north end, I followed the strip to the other end and then the road down the mesa.  The road travels through some intermittent typical Utah Juniper and pine areas and then through some wide meadow like areas. 

Looking down the Calamity Mesa Air Strip

Along this stretch of real estate, the road/trail appeared more abandoned than most you find in this world of ATVs and 4x4s.  There were zero signs of ATV width tracks in the tall grass growing on the roadway.  The ATV crowds don’t seem to heavily use Calamity Mesa.  I think some of the trails are too rough for the majority so they seem to go elsewhere. 

The 20-mile Calamity Mesa Loop road we reopened about 3-years ago still has very little traffic of any kind.  The first wash (the “Gate Keeper Wash”) about a mile below the New Verde Mine across from Calamity Camp would stop anyone not in a very well equipped vehicle.  Even the ones who make it through that wash will balk at the next one.

The two mines shown on the map along this mesa top road were not apparent as we passed by.  Many of the old Uranium mines left little or no traces when they closed up.  Often, they are along the cliff side below your view.

Coming to a tee in the road/ trail, I took the right fork following my nose to where I thought I would find where Hugh had turned around.  

This first time out this way, I came to what I thought was the end of the trail where there was slick rock intermingled with low growth, so turned around to take the left fork. 

Before turning around, though, I had to get out and admire the great views of Flat Top Mesa, the Little Maverick Creek valley, and across the Delores River to Sewemup Mesa and the Cottonwood Creek area.  This country is mighty easy on the eye if you take the time to look.  In fact, you could just sit and gaze for hours with a complete sense of contentment.

Flat Top Mesa

The trail on the end of this right fork is on some near slickrock conditions and finding any trail is more by feeling than it is by seeing.  You just have to imagine your way along.  Have you ever tried tracking an ant across a rock?

Coming to the end of the left fork, I got out and walked along the cliff rim to see what I could see.  I recognized some of the surrounding countryside views below from the many previous trips.  Coming around the west side of the cliff I got a glimpse of a road below deep in a canyon that ran somewhat northerly up toward the mesa top back in the direction I had just driven from. 

So, after some more scouting, I drove back to see if this was the road Hugh had driven down.  I often find that following my nose turns out to be the right thing to do.  This time was looking like the nose knew again.

Back near where I had turned around the last time, I pointed Happy Trails down to the left and followed a wide spot through the low growth and the trees.  Soon, the road coming from the bottom seemed to come out of nowhere and down it we went.

Most of this road looked to have had little to no traffic for quite some time.  Zero tracks showed ahead and there was a lot of brush growing into the road.

Finally, I came to the trees Hugh had turned around at.  They were some fairly large old dead pines in the bottom of the dry wash.  Lying there across the road/wash, they had created something of a dam in the natural watercourse.  In a place like this, that is usually a good thing from an erosion-stopping point of view. 

They would have taken a lot of winching and cutting to make the road passable.  Having a lot of experience with situations like this, I did a little foot recon to see if the work required would be worth the effort.

I’ve been with others who would just set to work with the removal process only to find another closure just yards down the trail negating all the hard work.

I learned a long time ago to take a few minutes and walk the trail for a while past the obstacle making sure the work won’t be in vain.  This time, other than a lot of Gambel Oak growing across the road ahead, the work looked like it wouldn’t be wasted.

On the return walk to the downed trees, I looked over a little hump off the roadside and thought it looked like with a very little limb trimming on one tree; I could simply bypass the logjam, and leave the dam intact.  Rather than the estimated hour of winching, I had a clear path in about 20 minutes and soon was sweating up a storm cutting oak brush back from the road.

This brush cutting exercise happened several times in the next approximate mile of road.  The growth was extreme.  One place, the road was only about a yard wide between the oak brush on one side and a Juniper tree on the other. That is why I carry a saw and some heavy shears.  

Rather than just turn around when the road is overgrown, we go to work and reopen it.  Admittedly, Happy Trails isn’t much help in these situations, but she appreciates the wider trail.

 Oak brush growing over and on the road.

I don’t mind a good obstacle, but leaving good paint on the bushes is nothing but being lazy.  Happy Trails has some scratches, but the tools come out pretty easily to keep deep scratches to a minimum. 

Soon the elevation change began naturally thinning the oak out and the going got better until we came to a large rock in the middle of the road on the crest of a little hill in a fairly narrow place.  This was nearly a deal breaker, but after some serious assessment, I decided to chance jumping over it.  

Expecting to have to return this way made jumping it seem a little haphazard, but that’s “Jeeping with Jerry”.  My theory is; leave a good obstacle whenever possible.  Hey, it's a Jeep trail!!

Below the rock was a long off-camber stretch that tightened the seat covers a little.  Then it was just the occasional rock or wash to deal with for quite a way down the little valley.

All of the sudden, the road seemed to almost disappear.  There was a wide opening ahead, but there were no tracks or even worn trails through the wide spot.  It became just a lot of small rocks and rough going.   Expecting to come to the end of the trail any time, we came to a tee into another road.

As this was a “tee”, we decided to take a left turn.  This road became familiar soon after driving for a few hundred yards.  This was 11.5 Rd, the road below the New Verde Mine and Calamity Camp. To mutilate a line from the Smokey and the Bandit song “East Bound and Down”, we had just done what had been said could not be done. 

The road off the mesa top intersected in a place that no more looked like an intersection than my hood.  We’ve driven by this place several times and never even suspected it was an intersection.  After marking it with a serious cairn and GPS waypoint, we headed in the direction of the rest of the Calamity Mesa Loop.

This loop road is always a great day in the Jeep.  Several times it has been a lot of work to make it clear around but this time it was just a pleasure trip… if a class 7 trail can be called a pleasure. 

Take a look at the picture of Happy Trails on “Articulation Station”, just one of the obstacles on the Calamity Loop trail.  If you can’t do this several times in 20-miles, don’t try this trail!  It is full of this kind of Jeeping.

Happy Trails on “Articulation Station”

Happy Trails on “Articulation Station”

This was a near perfect day in the Great American BackCountry.  Why not "perfect", you ask? 

There’s the matter of a certain road with a section missing that needs some questions answered… like where does it go?  Ahhhh, that will give us another adventure to live at a later date.

Just knowing there is one more trail open in the world is enough to make your heart swell.

Always remember this important point… when you come to a fork in the road, take it!  That may be where the adventure is!

Copyright Happy Trails 4wd  2011-2017,  All rights reserved.