The Switzerland of America

In August, 2000 Lee led a group of Wolverines the San Juan Mountains near Ouray, Colorado to drive some of the most legendary and spectacularly beautiful trails in the country. Five vehicles made the trek, and we all camped at the Ouray KOA, which is a few miles north of town and is one of the prettier commercial campgrounds I've seen. Ouray, named for a Ute chief, is a beautiful mountain town surrounded by mountains that share some resemblance to the Swiss Alps. There is little wonder that Ouray is called the "Switzerland of America".

The first day we drove the famous "Alpine Loop" that starts a few miles south of Ouray. The Loop combines the Engineer Pass trail to Lake City on the way out and the Cinnamon Pass trail through the well-preserved mining ghost town Animas Forks. From the Loop usually follows the trails through California Pass, Hurricane Pass and Corkscrew Gulch, but due to the lateness of the hour we took the good road south to Silverton and then the paved road back to Ouray.

The second day one of the Jeeps had problems, and we drove the trail to relatively nearby and short trail toYankee Boy Basin. Yankee Boy is one of the most spectacular places you will ever see. Even in August it was filled with greenery and flowers. We had hoped to do the Governor Basin trail but did not have time.

After taking a day to do the spectacular Durango to Silverton train ride, we rode the trail through 13,000 feet plus Imogene Pass to Telluride. That trail has some pretty scary shelf roads on the Telluride side. We passed several vehicles on the way down to Telluride, including a couple of Hummers. Fortunately, we were on the inside of the road, but we had to drive up on the wall at a steep camber to pass them.

One the last day three of the vehicles stayed an extra day and did the very difficult Poughkeepsie Gulch trail. Our guide book said not to take this trail if it is wet, and it was pouring rain as we turned off the Engineer Pass trail. The first part of the trail was rougher than the other trails we ran with large rocks in the roadway. The stock YJ and TJ as well as my modified TJ made it just fine.

Then we came to the "Wall" where the trail "disappears". The Wall is a huge rock extrusion that blocks the trail. There are three routes up the Wall, the longer, hard, deeply cut muddy trail on the left, the harder rocky trail in the middle, and the shorter but steeper and hardest trail on the right. If we were going to complete the trail, we had to get one Jeep over the Wall. I first tried the muddy trail to the left twice but it was too slick due to the rain, which had stopped by then. After looking at the other two routes, I decided on the hardest route to the right since it was shorter, though steeper and presented less opportunity for body damage. The guidebook said lockers are required even in dry conditions, but I made it up and over on the third try. My TJ does have limited slip in the rear, sway bar disconnects, and siped BFG Mud Terrain tires. I then winched up the other two Wolverine Jeeps and another stock TJ driven by another Michiganian we met at the Wall. After the Wall the trail enters a rolling "moonscape" area with multiple trail branches. After we went up the Wall, I watched a CJ-7 with lockers climb the Wall with much more difficulty than my TJ.

At the end of Poughkeepsie gulch we stopped at the spectacular Como Lake. We then returned via via Hurricane Pass and Corkscrew Gulch, which had some spine-tingling sections.