TRAPPER’S LAKE TO WINTER PARK…

Tue July 25^th:  

Trapper’s Lake to Winter Park, CO (226 mi~8-9 hrs) (Hotel)

So not starting on schedule, due to stopping early at Trapper’s Lake, and not realizing how far we put ourselves behind. We rolled out looking for the overlook to get a picture of Trapper’s Lake, and got all twisted around before realizing the road to the overlook went right past our campground, but we had already driven back out to the Lodge.

So back up the mountain we went to get only a glimpse of Trapper’s Lake, as it was a parking area that then required a mile long hike to gather in all of the beauty of Trapper’s Lake. 

I wasn’t up for a mile long hike, and I was certain Mandi’s new knees weren’t either. So we settled for our glimpse and headed back down 4,000 ft in elevation to turn right back around and drive up to 12,000 ft the views were insane.

I once again had to stop to cool things down, so we took the opportunity to make lunch while we waited for my temps to come down. Then it was up a little higher, down and up and down finally finding pavement close to Yampa. 

Here we made a fuel stop and gauged our arrival in Winter Park to maybe be around 6 ish. But then I missed a couple of turns and we were back on a gravel road shortcut just after a nice rain shower.

It was nice driving with no dust and the gravel road turned into and interesting trail, that everyone was happy about.

We finally arrived in Winter Park, checked into our rooms and then took in some local eats at a place called Deno’s Mountain Bistro it sounded quaint but the prices were crazy being a bistro in a ski resort. 

So we took the advice of our server and ordered a tri-tip appetizer, which made us all spend way more than we intended on some of the best steak we’d ever had. Then we got even sillier and topped it off with dessert, before heading back to the hotel for showers and sleep…

But change was in the air, as Doug had a wheel crack on today’s trail  so he needed to find a wheel for a spare, and nobody was excited about the rock crawling we had originally planned, especially with temps in the upper 80’s and 90’s.

So I took the liberty of re-routing the remainder of our trip, to allow for us to get some laundry done while Doug looked for a wheel in the morning…

Our Route:

SLEEPY CAT CAMP TO TRAPPER’S LAKE…

Mon July 24^th: 

Sleepy Cat Camp To Sheriff’s Reservoir Campground  75 mi -5 hrs (9800’)

I had mapped our trip, so wanting to try and catch all the cool trails, I had found another way out of Sleepy Cat that was just as challenging as the night before taking us much longer than expected to find the gravel road, but man was it beautiful. Having mapped us to check out Trapper’s Lake then onto Sherriff’s Reservoir. 

The trail in and out of Sleepy Cat Camp had me questioning my fuel status (half tank), so we made the call to run back to Meeker and fill up before proceeding, this would shorten our reach for the day in the end.

We found ourselves traveling on the previously mentioned gravel road up and over passes nearing 12,000 ft, and by the time we got to Trapper’s Lake we called an audible and decided to camp in a Forest Service Campground there. It cost us like $30 for the night but we took advantage of the facilities, and finally made camp at a decent hour around 5 or 6 pm.

Still well up in elevation, we were trying to acclimate, but it made for a rough night of little sleep for a couple of us. Since we called this audible, we decided to make up the mileage tomorrow as we had hotel reservation in Winter Park, CO. 

We set a 10:00 start time figuring a simple gravel road, and some highway time we’d be in Winter Park early enough…

Our Route:

DINNER IN MEEKER COLORADO, THEN FIND CAMP!

Sunday July 23^rd: 

Driving/Overlanding: Brigham City, UT to Meeker, CO (~8 hrs, 380-402 mi) Camping Sleepy Cat Camp (Disbursed 10,000’)

So we got a late start, which would end the day with another late finish. We had decided to take a route that we hadn’t run before to a little town called Meeker CO it took us all day to get there.

I slowed our roll going into Park City, UT as my temps were beyond extreme and I needed to cool my engine & tranny temps before I could crest the pass. To say this had me a little worried would be an under statement, but after a cool down I was able to get Julia over the hill. We enjoyed some interesting scenery, passing through Vernal, UT and Dinosaur, CO. 

From there we meandered our way through Rangely, CO and on into Meeker, grabbing dinner at the only place open in town the Meeker Cafe. With our bellies  and tanks refilled we set out to find our camping site for the evening – a place called Sleepy Cat Camp, setting at 10,000ft.

We thought based on our research that getting into camp would be fairly simple, as the first 20 miles from Meeker was paved (WTH?) we were anticipating a graded gravel road, but once we turned off towards camp, the sun had fallen behind the mountains and we found ourselves Rock Landing, literally crawling up a fairly challenging trail and found and set up camp somewhere close to midnight, right on the edge of a cliff.

The place appeared to be a hunting camp, right at the top of the mountain. Maybe tomorrow we’d find the well oiled/graded gravel road we had heard about. I mean we’re supposed to be overlanding, right? More like Rocklanding tonite…

Our Route:

COLORADO AGAIN? YEP, OUR THIRD YEAR IN A ROW!

Let’s Begin…

Colorado is so beautiful we selected it as our out of state trip once again. The original plan was mostly overlanding with a few hotel stops, we’d be out for a total of nine days (so this will be a series), with mellow trails on days 2 & 3, then a hotel night and rest day to fix any odds and ends that might not be right, then a couple of hard days rock krawling near Georgetown & Breckenridge, then a nice hotel in Frisco, Co before we return the Brigham City, UT and then home.

Trails like The Flat Tops, Sleepy Cat, Saxxon Mtn, Spring Creek, Cascade Creek, Red Cone, Radical Hill, and Saints John trails, little did we know we would not see many of these,  as things changed this very day…

Saturday July 22^nd: 

Driving (Tri Cities WA to Brigham City, UT) (9hrs, 572 mi) (Hotel)

10 + hours of highway driving, it was hot, so hot neither my self or Jason were able to enjoy our AC in our rigs as the coolant/trans temps were too high, and we needed to crest many  mountains on our way. We left with 5 rigs – Jason’s XJ, Ann’s LJ, my JKUS, along with Mandi & Doug’s JLURs.

My rig was basically getting a thorough test run of a newly installed supercharger, and Jason had just rebuilt his first ever vehicle a 91 Jeep Cherokee. We struggled in the heat and unfortunately Jason might’ve used one more zip tie on his wiring.

Just after Boise, ID about 30 miles before Mountain Home the wires to his crank sensor apparently made contact with some hot metal under the hood and stalled his rig on the highway. 

We were able to pull him off the highway to a side road and begin our inspection. We found the wires fried to a crisp and sent Doug back to Boise after the only crank sensor available, but it wasn’t enough as the short apparently took out his ECU as well.

So Jason called it, and ordered up a tow truck back to Boise in hopes of getting an ECU from a junkyard without any luck in 3 days, so he shipped it to their new home in Rolla, Mo.

As for the rest of us, after a 3+/- hour delay, we pushed on arriving in Brigham City, UT  late in the evening/early in the morning and slept past 08:00, and were rolling by about 10:00. In due course pics will be added to these posts as they get edited. I unfortunately lost all my video footage for the trip, save the trip home that may make the edit. Hopefully Mandi’s film will catch some highlights, but I haven’t had time to review it yet.

Our Route: