Desert Rose JK
Member
Well a couple weeks ago we heard that they had opened up the mountain pass call Ophir Pass which lies between Silverton and Telluride. This was a wagon route developed in 1881 to run supplies between the two towns and the many mines in between. But what we heard when it opened was that the snow was really deep at the top.... so we had to find out what 'really deep snow' was being a desert rat in this parts.
We started from the Telluride side, which is the way to go so you can go uphill on the shelf road.
This is a view of the Ophir valley heading up to the pass looking west at Wilson mountain (Coors can label) which is a 14'er.
Great scenery and waterfalls along the way as a lot of the snow in melting quickly with the warm summer weather.
Made it up the one track shelf road... lucky it wasn't busy and didn't have to deal with stupid mall crawlers try to come down after I started up and one would have to back up or down the shelf road!
Well we found the snow and YES it was DEEP!
Made it to the high point pass at 11,789 feet!
A look over the Silverton side at Red mountain area.
An easy drive down the back side toward Silverton but with great views.
After lunch in Silverton at 'Handlebars', we headed on to the next backroad... Owl Creek Pass This area is the back drop for John Wayne in 'True Grit' and 'How the west was won'
Great wooded country and mountain views we found the SilverJack reservoir and then headed home.... until next weekend!
We started from the Telluride side, which is the way to go so you can go uphill on the shelf road.
This is a view of the Ophir valley heading up to the pass looking west at Wilson mountain (Coors can label) which is a 14'er.
Great scenery and waterfalls along the way as a lot of the snow in melting quickly with the warm summer weather.
Made it up the one track shelf road... lucky it wasn't busy and didn't have to deal with stupid mall crawlers try to come down after I started up and one would have to back up or down the shelf road!
Well we found the snow and YES it was DEEP!
Made it to the high point pass at 11,789 feet!
A look over the Silverton side at Red mountain area.
An easy drive down the back side toward Silverton but with great views.
After lunch in Silverton at 'Handlebars', we headed on to the next backroad... Owl Creek Pass This area is the back drop for John Wayne in 'True Grit' and 'How the west was won'
Great wooded country and mountain views we found the SilverJack reservoir and then headed home.... until next weekend!
