Living Our Dream: Alpine Loop Back Country Byway

This is going to be a long blog entry. Many words to say, many pictures to share....

The dark green circle is the Alpine Loop Back Country Byway

Rented this baby for 2 days, Jeep Wrangler Sahara

How do I describe our day of traveling the Alpine Loop Back Country Byway? The Alpine Loop is considered to be one of the 21 most dangerous roads in the world. As I reviewed the list, 5 are in the United States, and 4 in the 48 contiguous states, and we have driven those 4. Not for the faint-hearted, by far the scariest road we have ever been on. The loop is anywhere from 65 to 71 miles in length (we have many different stats based on what you read) but we did 72 miles - around Silverton which I don’t think they included.

At the start in Lake City, about 2 miles from our campground

Drove past Lake San Cristobal

And we begin our ascent

This VOC sign blocked our route, started up and turned around to
make sure

Cinnamon Pass straight ahead (mountain) we will go over

Had to drive through a couple of creeks

Tents, cars, trucks set up at Grizzly Gulch

The Jeep rental place told us to try to be on the loop by 8 am if we wanted to stop at various places like ghost towns, the American Basin which is one of the most photographed places in Colorado, abandoned mining claims, waterfalls, etc., to be back in Lake City by 4pm. And to start in Lake City’s Cinnamon Pass leg, going clock-wise on the lower loop, entering Silverton, then heading up over Engineer Pass and on to Capitol City and back to Lake City. The road is very steep and harder to maneuver if you go counter-clock wise. Since we were ‘newbies’ to this, we followed every bit of advice they gave us.

This guy zoomed past us - I think he was glad we stopped to go potty

A mountain biker! Wow - over 11,000 feet elevation, we could barely breathe

Lots of marmots, only a couple of deer, no elk or moose the whole day

Abandoned homesteads

A summer home about 11,500 feet elevation

Another one

Saw this van from Tennessee over in Silverton, passed him about 3 miles
from Cinnamon Pass, saw him later in Lake City

Made the decision to continue on instead of visiting American Basin

Snow markers out of saplings, notice how wide the road is?

Steeper, narrower, clinging to side of mountain

Cinnamon Mountain straight ahead, not at Pass yet

8:15am we were on the road, passed Lake San Cristabol and started the upward climb to Cinnamon Pass. Got to Grizzly Gulch where there were many vehicles and a tents set up. This is a base camp for those hiking Handies, Red Mountain, and Sunshine Peaks all of which are fourteeners. Then when we got to American Basin turn off, we decided to continue on and we could come back to that area with the car another day. We just wanted to drive the Loop and experience it first.

Phew! Made it, and no winds, no storm, very calm weather - we were lucky

Start to drop down on other side, on our way to Animas Forks to
detour to Silverton

Wow. Wow. Wow. By the time we got up over Cinnamon Pass and dropped down to Animas Forks where you take a trail into Silverton, I wanted to quit. I had had enough. Very scary, very rocky and extremely narrow at times. The Loop is a one-lane with occasional places that widen to allow another vehicle to pass, you may have to back up to allow the other vehicle to pass, that narrow. If another vehicle came towards you, you had the right-of-way (up-hill has right of way) but each vehicle had to hug the edge of the road (up-hill usually was against the mountain) or perch on the ledge and if you goofed up, you drop to your death.

See the slice in the mountain? That's the road we had to go to get
to Animas Forks

There's a house perched on a mountain top - look closely

Helicopter in? Mountains of Ouray in back of house

Dropping down to Animas Forks

Pick one, okay, Silverton here we come

Visited Silverton long enough to go potty and grab a cup of coffee, then headed back up to Animas Forks where we picked up the trail to Engineer Pass. The Jeep rental place said that by 2pm you should be heading out of Silverton and to Engineer Pass. We were out of Silverton by 11:30am.

Started to see civilization again, some really nice homes

So many abandoned mines

Down about 10,000 feet, running along Animas River towards Silverton

Familiar territory (was here last year in May)

What can I say? An experience we will not do again. ATVs, OHVs, regular cars!, dirt bikers, Jeeps, passing us because they were going opposite than the normal flow, or came up behind and wanted to pass us because we were going too slow - extremely nerve wracking. There was one switch-back that Dave had to creep through and we slipped sideways - thank goodness we had oversize tires and he had it in 4wheel drive down and the Jeep grabbed the road in enough time. Scary.

Looks like a storm coming in

Only saw one vehicle (ATV) broken down all day, remarkabl

Road got narrower and narrower, on our way back to Animas Forks

Got to Engineer Pass, gawked, took pictures, then dropped down from the pass on a very steep decline. Fortunately the road was wider and it wasn’t a long drop like the climb up to Engineer was.

Hello, deeries

And we climbed, road well marked

Leaving Animas Forks, heading up to Engineer Pass

Yikes, look at the road!!

Those 2 Jeeps? We are heading to where they are

Jeep rental was very specific - DO NOT GO TO OURAY!

Passed Rosie’s Cabin which was a stop-over for the miners for those going on to Silverton from Lake City as early as 1889. So many abandoned mines! Passed Whitmore Falls and we both relaxed because we knew what to expect from then on.

That ribbon - is our road

O M G

You have got to be kidding!!!!

A tidge more to go

Straight ahead, official Engineer Pass

Amazing experience. Started at 8,671 in Lake City, climbed to 12,600 at Cinnamon Pass, dropped down to 9,318 in Silverton, climbed back up to 12,850 at Engineer Pass and was over 13,000 before we got to the ‘official’ pass, then back down to Lake City. All this on primitive one-lane road that was built at the turn of the century for mules, in tundra environment, 20 degrees colder from Lake City and Silverton, raw conditions, snow still on the mountains, saw numerous waterfalls, many new homes perched on cliffs (helicopter in??), cad zillion crazy people like us moving up and down over the Passes. We were told - when you see the signs for Ouray, DO NOT GO ON THAT ROAD!! For very experienced drivers, would need wenches to pull vehicle over some of the spots.

Done

Starting down from Engineer Pass

2 Fourteeners - on left is Wetterhorne and on right is Uncompaghre

Quick, steep decline

Last year when we were in Silverton and saw the huge gathering of ATVs and OHVs, they had just opened the passes and everyone was heading up. Now we understand what was going on. Crazy. How people do this many many times over the summer? Once for us is enough for a lifetime.