Nice little alpine lake 
Here
is the little playground at the top of Poughkeepsie Gulch. Nice place to see
what you've got as far as wheeling capibilities. 
Colorado Wheeling Trip July 2006:
Wheeled with some of the 4x4Him.org folks and then met up with a few of the Montrose Calvary Chapel Wheelers up at Holy Cross near Leadville, CO
We met up in Needles on I40, then headed to Gallop, NM. Then we toured Mesa Verde National Monument.
Stayed the night in Durango then headed to a campsite called Eureka just east of Silverton, CO
We cruzed lots of classic trails around the Silverton, Ouray, & Telluride areas.
July 23rd
We ventured out to Poughkeepsie Gulch and sure did take in some breath taking scenery along the way. Speaking of "breath"...there wasn't any up there at 13,000 feet. The air is thinner than thin, unless you just stay in you rig, but once running around and such, weeeugh!
Nice little alpine lake Here
is the little playground at the top of Poughkeepsie Gulch. Nice place to see
what you've got as far as wheeling capibilities.
July 24th
Now we are heading north towards Ouray from Silverton. We are about to play on the infamous Black Bear Pass. Most definitely one of the finest scenic trails on earth, not to forget to mention the overwhelming pucker factor that is included while starting the decent into the town of Telluride...at least for the girls anyway!!!
We ran into a few gentlemen installing new signs on the passes. My memory has
escaped me for their names, but the guy on the far left works for the Forrest
Service, then me, then two guys from the Western Slope Four Wheel Drive Club out
of Montrose, CO; then Russell (Taco) and Rick, the General. 
These fine folks said we are the very first one's on the Black Bear Pass trail
after it had reopened after a rock slide was cleared. 
Telluride in the background. 
The infamous Columbine flower...the Colorado state flower. 
Lunch stop just before we dropped into Telluride. This is where it gets steep.
Bridal Veil Falls 
Tight switchbacks 
One slight mistake is certain death like this one was. 
Heading back to camp after an ice-cream stop in Telluride via the Ophir Pass
trail towards Silverton. 
Can you explain the plowed down trees on the other side of the valley? If you
look close enough, you can see the trees are leaning uphill in a swirl motion.
An avalanche from the gully we are atop had enough momentum to fly up the other
side and swept to the left. Also you can see where a previous larger avalanche
made a slightly higher mark. 
July 25th
Now we are on our way to Leadville. We stopped for a few hour dip in the infamous Ouray Hot Springs...sorry no picks of the pool.
Then stopped in Montrose for some real good Mexican food...Meanwhile, I took a
45 minute detour to a Good friend's house to say hi while the rest ate. We used
to live in Montrose a few years ago. 
We ran into rain in Gunnison. Here we are getting close to Monarch Pass, the Continental
Divide. 
July 26th
Now we are in the Leadville area. Here we are on the Mosquito Pass trail.
I have no idea what kind of weed this is. It was the most unusual weed I've ever
seen. 
Now we are on the Wheeler Lake trail. Here is a cool mining ruin. 
Just outside the ruin was some real cool rock to play on. 
Came across an old cement mixer along the trail. Saw no sign of what they used
it for. Maybe they hauled it up here to get it far away from home...I know the
feeling since I too am a concrete contractor. 
A few more obsticles. 
Lou needed a bit of the General's girth to get over this one. 
WhiteRhino, Pat got some free wheeling air-time. 
So did I! 
As we got closer to the summit, we encountered lots of water on the trail. Seems
it's just one of the bonuses of the trail. 
Here is Wheeler Lake. 
Now we are heading back down the way we came. 
Hmmmm, What do we have here?! Looks like Scorch, I mean the General is on his
side...ooops! 
Well it turned out that his oldest daughter Rachel was the one driving. She is
now known as "Little Flipper"! 
No fear, the Hog is here...winch and all! 
July 27th
We met up with a few of my good friends from Montrose, CO on the trail called Holy Cross. How appropriate the name! These guys are who I fellowshipped with at the Calvary Chapel of Montrose when we lived there for almost six years.
WhiteRhino with more of the...kidding aside, Jeep problems. Actually after
restarting his rig after some mechanical issues they forgot to turn the cooling
fan on and over-heated. Then they through in the towel and headed back to
camp. He along with the General that is. Rick somehow lost his right
hub...literally! He couldn't find it. It fell off somewhere back on the trail.
If I remember correctly, he noticed it when he took out some more air pressure. 
So the rest of us continued on...Taco, LouBell, and myself. 
Charlie going for it. 
Brett doing the same. 
Curt doing it till he busted a drag-link...ooops! 
Curt beating the drag-link straight, and it worked! 
Doug and I (Mostly Doug!) got Curt back on the trail. Doug wanted to see how
well these Premier On-Board Welders work. Fine job with what little resources we
had. 
Here's a look at what Doug is running under that beautiful Toyota Land Curser.
Now that the dust settled and the wrenches have been put away, Doug goes for it.
Well, that about did it for our short time with my Montrose friends. We
had ran out of time and had to head back to camp. It was our last night of
camping before the 4x4Him.org folks had to head home. 
July 28th
Met up with the rest of the family in Gunnison while heading back to Montrose.
Spent the next two days catching up with good friends.
July 30th
Then headed home right after church at our Montrose Calvary Chapel.
We didn't get a chance to see all we wanted while there. So we hope to see them soon once again.
This time we headed home a different way. We headed towards Telluride and Lizard-Head Pass to Cortez and Four Corners to Flagstaff. Took 13.5 hours in total and was about 50 mile shorter than doing the I70 to the I15 through Lost Wages (Las Vegas).
