Joined
·
1,488 Posts
I've written several posts in this thread about dispersed "car" camping here in the Colorado Front Range with our new Trailhawk. I'd also mentioned at the beginning that one of the reasons we got the vehicle was to get to backpacking trailheads not accessible by normal cars. At our age, we're in no shape to backpack miles any more to get to alpine terrain; but there are still some destinations that can be reached by a mile or two of backpacking, but you have to drive some pretty rough road or trails first.
We did our first such short backpacking trip a couple days ago. After overnighting in Winter Park, we drove up the Rollins Pass Road to the Continental Divide (following a century-old railroad grade across the Divide).
I'll spare you-all the backpacking part, except...small un-named lake just downhill from King Lake...
...and stick to the drive up Rollins Pass.
Aspens were just turning. It was gorgeous.
Road was pretty smooth at first.
Until it wasn't.
Definitely not just "a bit rough," but OK for "regular cars with good clearance" any more, as a hiking guide from 2013 put it.
Here's the old Gunsight Notch railway trestle:
And here's what it was like on the road above timberline at about 11,500 ft. elevation (3,500 m for you rest-of-the-worlders):
No way we would have made it up there with our Jetta. This is one of the main reasons why we got the Trailhawk.
We did our first such short backpacking trip a couple days ago. After overnighting in Winter Park, we drove up the Rollins Pass Road to the Continental Divide (following a century-old railroad grade across the Divide).
I'll spare you-all the backpacking part, except...small un-named lake just downhill from King Lake...
...and stick to the drive up Rollins Pass.
Aspens were just turning. It was gorgeous.
Road was pretty smooth at first.
Until it wasn't.
Definitely not just "a bit rough," but OK for "regular cars with good clearance" any more, as a hiking guide from 2013 put it.
Here's the old Gunsight Notch railway trestle:
And here's what it was like on the road above timberline at about 11,500 ft. elevation (3,500 m for you rest-of-the-worlders):
No way we would have made it up there with our Jetta. This is one of the main reasons why we got the Trailhawk.