roverrocks
Expedition Leader
Ophir Pass (11,789 ft.) is one of the earliest old mining roads to be plowed and opened in the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado. Being just opened this past week a group of 4 jeeps and one rover decided to wheel this relatively easy but very scenic alpine trail on June 8, 2014. The road/trail is an old wagon road from the late 1800's that connected the Ophir and Telluride mines to Silverton. Now this 10 mile beautiful route connects Hy. 145 from 5 miles south of Telluride to Hy. 550. a few miles south of Red Mountain Pass. We headed out of the Montrose, CO area to Ridgway, CO and westward on Hy. 62 (great views of the towering snow-clad Sneffles Range) to the north end of the Last Dollar Road where we took scenic routes (seeing elk several times and nice beaver ponds) to the Telluride area. The weather turned cloudier and the skies lowered until light rain was falling. Knowing that it was probably snowing a bit on Ophir Pass (about 1/2 inch) we headed up the western side of the Pass Road through tiny Ophir town (mainly small occupied cabins/vacation homes these days) and upwards. The storm abated as we got higher and the surrounding peaks were gorgeous with the light new snow on the alpine cliffs and peaks that were appearing thru the mists and clouds. Looking back westwards down the valley of the Howard Fork of the San Miguel River we could see Ophir in the green valley bottom and in the far distance the high 14er's of the Lizard Head Wilderness (Mt. Wilson, El Diente, Wilson Peak). We continued upwards thru the high snow cuts until we reached the pass summit which was bare of snow and continued down eastwards until we hit Hy. 550 where we aired up and headed home over Red Mountain Pass and thru Ouray and Ridgway to the Montrose, CO area. An easy 4x4 day but one of great beauty including parts of the Last Dollar Road. The first 9 pictures are of our trip over parts of the Last Dollar Road which is a scenic warm season dirt/gravel/a few rocks cutoff between Hy. 62 and Hy. 145 coming out a few miles from Telluride, CO. The high peaks in the south distance over the top of the red jeep are a complex of 13er's highlighted by Dolores Peak (13,290') and Middle Peak (13,261"). The singular peaks to the west and SW in the last photo are Little Cone (11,981') on the left and Lone Cone (great area landmark at 12,613') on the right. All these peaks are shown in photo #1.
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OphirPass6-8-2014 001.jpg481.3 KB · Views: 32
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