Goose

I know! It's been forever. It'll be fun catching up.

Hi Diane, I'd be interested in joining you guys. It sounds like a great trip. Paul

Since I was at the first one, I HAVE to come to the last one. Sign me up!

Day 7 and 8 (supplemental) I took the Amtrak train through the Rockies from Grand Junction to Denver and back. This had been on my bucket list for a while. It's a great way to see some beautiful country; for much of the way it follows the Colorado River. The Denver train station (and the whole downtown area) has been refurbished and is now really nice.

Yes, all photos on my phone. I'm really impressed with the cameras in the phones these days. I'm currently using a Google Pixel and some of the pics are post processed with the built in editor; usually just the auto adjust edit. That seems to pop the colors just enough.

Actually I list a link to my Google Photos Album, but the pics that are included in this thread are uploaded to offroadpassport.com. That's because I don't know how to do the direct link to a Google pic either. When I try to get a link to a pic from Google I get a link to a web page that has the pic, not the pic itself. Is there a "how to" for this?

Yeah, the Taco is no Wrangler, but it did really well for a long wheelbase 4x4. With the JKU with 35's all of these trails would have been easy. With the Taco on 33's I had to pick my way carefully through the rocks, and even then I dragged the rear end a few times. I have to say that I missed the JKU on this trip, but I'm still happy with the Taco since it rides sooo much better on the highway which is where I spend 99% of my time.

Day 6 (last day) was the boat ride through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. THe ride is provided by the National Park Service. It was quite a nice trip with lots of scenery, nature, and history. The canyon is now filled by a couple of lakes, but before the dams were built the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad used the canyon and it was popular with sightseers. The D&RG RR's herald used the Curecanti Needle (in the background) image for many years.

Day 5 was Cement Creek (easy) and Italian Creek (moderate). Here was our lunch stop at a high alpine lake. We couldn't get to the Star Mine itself, but there are several preserved buildings in the town with million dollar views. We found the Colorado version of Smiley Rock. The final air up of the trip at Taylor Lake. In the back ground are the mountains with Pearl Pass, Taylor Pass, and Italian Creek.

Day 4 was the Continental Divide and the Alpine Tunnel. Unfortunately the last 3 miles of the road to the Alpine tunnel was closed so we couldn't explore that, but we did do Hancock Pass over the divide to St Elmo and Tincup Pass back over the divide. The road to the Alpine Tunnel follows the old railroad grade so there are several train related items along the road, the best preserved one being this water tank. Here we are at the top of Hancock Pass. We took our lunch break at St Elmo at the start of the (rated difficult) Grizzly Lake Trail. There's a gate keeper obstacle there called The Wall. We didn't go up it, but I did do a poser shot with the Tacoma. As we crossed back over the divide at Tincup Pass it was raining, so we didn't spend much time there.

Day 3 we went to do the Taylor Pass road that we skipped the previous day, and it turned out to be good thing that we skipped it. It was severely eroded since the last time I had been there. It was so rough now that I was definitely in over my head with the Tacoma. The Wranglers were fine, but the Taco was too long to be in that mess so we turned around well before getting to the pass. I managed to avoid any body damage but I was so busy that I forgot to take any pics. On the way back to Gunnison we took the scenic forest service roads instead of the highway. One of the many rivers/creeks in the area.

Day 2 was up and over Pearl Pass to Aspen. It was a loooong day with the trail being much rougher than when I was last up there in 2009. I think it took us 5 plus hours to get over. The original plan was to go over Pearl Pass and come back Taylor Pass, but by the time we got done with Pearl, everyone was done for the day so we took the highway around the mountain back to Gunnison. Pearl Pass was the highest point on our trip at 12700 feet. So we were in the alpine tundra for several miles as we traveled above tree line. This is at the top of the pass using my built in selfie stick (my gorilla length arm).

This is the trip report and picture thread for the July 2018 trip to the Gunnison Colorado area. Attendees: Karen (ladybug) and Steve (ob1jeeper), Kevin (CAVU2) and Allie, John (johnpa), and me (Goose). My picture gallery is located here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EbKX8jkFAKr62aD18 Day 1: Marble, Crystal Mill, and Schofield Pass The first destination was the town of Mable, named for the Marble quarry and mill located there. You can't get to the quarry or even a place to view it, but in town is the remains of the mill. We took the self guided tour through the mill site where we saw lots of discarded and partially finished carvings. This was the source of the marble for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Then we made our way up the Crystal river to the town site of Crystal; the location of the Crystal Mill (Power plant). From Crystal the trail becomes serious with a steep, rocky, narrow climb up to the "Punch Bowl". Here's Kevin at the "Punch Bowl". After some more steep, rocky, narrow, treacherous climbing we reached the easy upper basin and crossed the Crystal river. Right after the crossing we came head on with a Volvo. It was all wheel drive, but it was still just a passenger vehicle. The man driving was Spencer. He thought he was going to get to Marble, and we may have saved his life when we stopped him. If he had started down the hill towards the Punch Bowl there's no way he could have made it through, nor would he have been able to get back up to the top. Anyway we got him turned around and escorted him back to the 2 wheel drive road. Us with Spencer. The newest member of ORP Volvo division. Our final stop of the day was Emerald Lake. From there it was an easy drive into Crested Butte and then back to Gunnison. Stay tuned for more ...

Actually, I got the Mini convertible because it has more head room than other convertibles. They're amazingly roomy.

I traded in my scooter and got a real bike. It's a Yamaha WR250F which is their Enduro bike, then I added a street legal kit (mirrors, brake light, horn, etc.) so I can drive it on the streets. I bought this instead of their already street legal version; WR250R since this has a little more suspension (12.2 in of travel), which is good for my fat azz. Here's the bike on shake down run in Bulldog Canyon: Of course it's now even harder deciding what to drive/ride when I walk out into the garage.