THE ALPINE LOOP

About 3 years ago, Mr. W heard from his cousin how awesome the Alpine Loop was in Colorado.  He wasn't really very familiar with it.  However, after hearing how you went up on top of mountains and some of the beautiful sights you would see, he decided he wanted to go.  You can only go in a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  As a matter of fact, you should only go in a 4-wheel drive vehicle no bigger than a jeep.  I think Razers and 4-wheelers are actually the best for this trip. 

The Alpine Loop sits like a crown upon the San Juan Mountains and it leaves pavement and people behind.  Its gravel roads lead you through high alpine meadows and forests, up above timberline and into the tundra, and over two high elevation passes. If you can open your eyes and manage to look around, even though you are sure you are about to plunge to your death, motorists reap unparalleled rewards. An oval route with several side spurs, the Alpine Loop connects the three "town jewels" of Ouray, Silverton, and Lake City, Colorado. Originally built as toll roads for the stage coaches and freighters of the late 1800s gold and silver hard-rock mining boom, these roads are now a network of access into our nation's frontier history. If you saw these roads, you could not even begin to imagine how in the world these people got across these mountains. Scattered all along the Alpine Loop are the remnants of these mining boom days.  Points of historic interest include ghost towns, abandoned mining camps, cabins, and the ruins of mills and other mining structures that were built from the mid-1870s through the early 1900s. Natural wonders are everywhere as well, and include waterfalls, rare wildlife, spectacular fields of wildflowers, and geologic features such as jagged volcanic peaks, glacier-carved cirques, and canyons. It truly has some amazing views and vistas that are not available to see this close and personal unless you travel along this loop.  I will say that as you descend Engineer's Pass, you better have your big girl panties on! The road is extremely rough.  It is very narrow. There are very few places wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass each other.  There is no shoulder.  There is a 2000 ft. drop off the side.  On top of that, it started raining and sleeting on us causing the roads to become muddy and the rocks to become slick.  It took about 30 minutes to get past this part of the road.  I'm not sure I breathed for that 30 minutes. We entered the loop, going up Engineer's Pass around 11:00 am.  We drove off the loop from Cinnamon Pass into Lake City around 7:30 pm.  We had wanted to veer off the loop in order to visit Silverton, but time wouldn't allow it.  We wanted to be off the mountain by dark. We will have to visit Silverton another day. They advertise that it takes 4-6 hours to do the loop.  We stopped at the top of Engineer's Pass and ate lunch, but other than occasional picture stops, we kept driving.  It took us about 8 1/2 hours.  It was a beautiful but very tiring day. Mr. W asked me if I would do it again.  I told him if he had asked me when we were on that 30 minute stretch of road "from hell", I would have told him no.  After having survived it, I would probably do it again. Everyone needs to experience this once in their life. The views are so worth it. Here are only a few pics from the trip. I took around 200 and then whittled it down to about 70. So, even though this is more than I usually post, be glad I limited it to "a few". But take my word for it, I am leaving out some BEAUTIFUL pics! Haha! Old mining town       The summit of Engineer's Pass. The road from hell is right around that corner!