Sept 6, 2023
Written By: J.Couch
We were up early to get ready for our jeep tour with Telluride Offroad Adventures. Heather made some pancakes to tide us over until we got back for lunch. When setting up the tour they ask us where we were staying and then they come by and pick us up. Which was great so we didn’t need to drive anywhere to meet them. We were that last couple to be picked up so from there we were on our way.
To get to the top of Imogene Pass, you need to take Tomboy road that starts off N. Oak street. The road starts out as a normal gravel road but quickly gets very narrow in places and in some spots is a rocky single lane road up the side of the mountain. There are a few areas where you can pull over to pass but even that is not much bigger than a lane and a half. Mirrors were getting a little close here and there. This road was built a long time ago for the miners to take wagons and mules up to the mines and across to Ouray. At that time this was the fastest way to get there. The first part up is not too bad but at one point before you get up to the old Tomboy mine area, the dropoff on the side is a long one down. Hope you trust your driver!
Our driver Pace was awesome and seemed to have a lot of experience and knew the history of the area. Most importantly, he kept his eyes on the road. He pointed out interesting sites, mountains, waterfalls and ski areas. Told us stories of the miners and how they would use this road all year long. We got to the area where the Tomboy mine used to be, there are lots of old fallen down wooden buildings that used to house hundreds of men and mining equipment. At one point there were over 800 men in this area. There are huge rock piles littering the hillside where they used to tunnel into the sides looking for gold and silver. Some were still unprocessed and may still contain gold and silver.
I looked up a few pictures from the Denver Library. I thought these were pretty neat considering this is where we were.
From there the road gets rougher and steeper. It switchbacks up the bowl of the mountain to the top of Imogene Pass with awesome views to the west back into the town of Telluride. From there it is also a great view of the runway at Telluride airport. We stopped at the pass area, 13,000 feet and got out to walk around, take pictures and take in the whole scene. It was cool and breezy but the view was awesome. At the pass there were many other Jeeps and 4×4’s coming up from the Ouray side. One Jeep had a camper top and he was just getting up as we were intruding into what looked like his campsite for the night.
Pace drove a couple hundred more feet down the road to the east. From there we could get a view of the east side of the mountains looking down towards Camp Bird, the Million Dollar Highway. In the distance you can see where Ouray is, hidden on the other side of the mountains. From here we could see the Red Mountains and Corkscrew Pass, which is the Jeep tour that we did last year out of Ouray. That is also well worth the trip up to see. We stopped at a pullout and I was able to take a short hike to the very top of the mountain which sits at about 13,300 feet.
The air is very thin up there and I was huffing and puffing getting to the top. But from there the view was amazing. You could see a 360 view of the whole area and the top of Telluride Peak just to the south. There is nothing like standing on top of a mountain like that even if you drove there. The little structure with the rocks built up around it is Fort Peabody, it was built in 1904. It was a military post at one time, at 13,365 feet. It is the historical post of its kind in the United States. Our time at the top was up and we started to head back down, we passed many Jeeps and 4×4’s making their trek up the mountain. Most of them were probably going from Telluride over to Ouray and who knows from there. There are many mountain roads in that area that they can adventure on. The drive back is a lot quicker and very dusty, minus a few times to pull over and let others pass. Once back in town, Pace dropped us off at the campground. In fact he said that we would drop us pretty much anywhere we needed in town, what service. Very easy and well worth your time and money to take this jeep tour.
Heather made some lunch and we hung out at camp for a while just relaxing in the sun with the slight breeze blowing through the trees. After a good rest and maybe a nap there too, we walked up the road to see another waterfall that’s close to the campground. From there we took some trails back into town and over to the free gondola that takes you to the top of the ski resort and then over to Mountain Village. This is where we needed to be in the morning tomorrow to do our Zipline Adventure, so we thought we would check it out. We got over to the mountain village just as an outdoor market was wrapping up so we walked through some of the booths that were still up or closing up for the day. We didn’t find much at that point since most were packed up. If we would have known about it we would have tried to get over there a little sooner to check it out. We walked around some of the local shops and checked out the hotel. It was pretty quiet for a warm late summer Wednesday afternoon. This is a very cool mountain town and it would be fun to come back during the winter, maybe do some snowboarding.
We caught the gondola, rode it all the way back into town and walked back to the campground to relax for a couple hours. I wanted to walk back over to town after the sun went down to take some pictures when it was darker. We also wanted to stop by the Last Dollar bar to have a drink. This is one of the other bars in town that was rated as a place to try. I was a little disappointed, we walked in and found a seat, the lady that was bartending was very rude and short with us. Not sure why? They did have a Athletic NA beer which was good for me, but the Moscow Mule that Heather had was $15 for a pint glass. Which seemed like a lot quantity wise, but after you add a cup of ice it really is not that much more than a normal Moscow Mule cup. From there we walked down the street to the end of the shops and then back towards the campground. It was a very nice evening and it was starting to cool off quickly. The sun was down behind the mountains and the stars were starting to show. We got back to camp and called it an evening. Again an awesome adventure day. More to come.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
