➡ The author shares his experiences of driving through Imogene Pass, a beautiful but dangerous terrain in Colorado. He highlights the stunning natural beauty, the rich history of the area, and the challenges of navigating the treacherous path. The author emphasizes the importance of safety and respect for the environment while exploring this unique location. He also provides a detailed account of his journey, aiming to give viewers a realistic experience of the trip.
➡ The article is about the author’s experiences exploring the mountains, particularly the Imogene Pass, in different seasons and vehicles. The author emphasizes the historical significance of the area, the breathtaking views, and the challenges of the trail. He also highlights the importance of preparedness, common sense, and respect for nature when embarking on such adventures. Lastly, he shares his experiences of traversing the trail in different vehicles, emphasizing the thrill and beauty of the journey.
➡ The author recounts his journey from the west coast back to Colorado, stopping for vehicle maintenance in Colorado Springs before heading towards Ouray. He camps for the night near Monarch Pass due to stormy weather, using a tarp and magnets for shelter. Despite the rain, he enjoys his camping spot and cooks breakfast before continuing his journey. He struggles to find information about trail conditions, but is determined to explore regardless, appreciating the historical significance of the area and the natural beauty despite some challenges with altitude and other travelers.
➡ The author, an experienced off-roader, warns about the dangers of Imogene Pass, a popular but treacherous trail in the Colorado Mountains. He emphasizes that it’s not an amusement park and one wrong move could lead to a fatal accident due to the lack of guardrails and steep drops. He advises people to understand the terrain, learn trail etiquette, and know how to use their vehicles properly before attempting the trail. He also provides a detailed guide on navigating the trail, highlighting its beautiful scenery and various features.
➡ The text describes a challenging off-road trail journey. The trail starts with a beautiful camping site with waterfalls and historical artifacts. As the journey continues, the trail becomes steep and dangerous, requiring careful driving and preparation. Despite the risks, the journey offers stunning views and a sense of accomplishment upon reaching the summit.
➡ We’re journeying through Telluride, a town in Box Canyon, known for its quartz discovery in 1875 and gold prospecting since 1873. The trail is challenging with blind corners, steep descents, and potential for encounters with other vehicles. Along the way, we see remnants of the old mining town, wildlife, and a unique group of alpine trees. However, the area’s trees are in trouble due to age, fire suppression, and climate changes, contributing to wildfires and impacting the local wildlife.
➡ In 1875, three men spent a winter in San Miguel, marking the start of a gold rush. Many others joined them, leading to a bustling mining community. However, when the gold ran out, the mines were abandoned. Today, the area is a popular trail for adventurers, but it’s also dangerous due to steep drop-offs and heavy traffic.
➡ The author shares his experience of traveling from Telluride to Ouray, highlighting the historical structures, wildlife, and beautiful landscapes along the way. He warns about the dangers of the narrow, one-lane road and the importance of caution. Despite the challenges, he appreciates the journey and captures it on film for those who can’t make the trip. He ends by encouraging viewers to subscribe, like, and comment on his video.

First thing in the morning and I am stuck. Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. So it’s that time of year again and I’m going to show you everything I possibly know about. Imagine passing in more than just one vehicle. I’ve been all over the country and I four wheeled every type of terrain there possibly is in the United States. And Imagine Pass is without a doubt one of my favorite and most beautiful places. But every time I go there, somebody ends up losing their life. So I’m putting this video out or this movie or documentary or whatever you want to call it, to basically make sure that you make it out there and make it home alive and happy with lots of good memories.

So with that being said, here we go. Welcome back to another episode of Jailbreak Overlander. I’m Richie and this is Jailbreak. And it’s the summertime. July and August, the snowpack in Colorado relents enough so that you can actually traverse the mountain passes. And that’s exactly what I plan on doing. Colorado is amazing. Whether it’s its storybook nighttime skies, which are phenomenal, or the natural artwork you can find in the landscape all around you. Sheer cliff faces, mountaintops, or just amazingly colorful algae formations in the Colorado River. It’s truly colorful color. Colorado for a reason. I was heading to Telluride, Colorado to do imaging pass from Telluride out to Ouray and I wanted to try to show you a vantage point that no one’s ever shown before.

This is what you usually see when people show you video of Colorado. I’m going to take it a step above and and beyond, literally, and show you what it’s like to literally drive the truck on the mountain pass up the peaks for yourself. When you start out intellide, you literally go down a 7 mile per hour main street, take a left, go behind a bunch of neighborhoods, and then you catch this dirt road and you follow it up. And you follow it up, it gets steeper, more narrow, and more precarious as you go. And after about a mile and a half on this dirt path, the forest starts to fall away and you find yourself on Imogene Pass.

Imogene Pass is absolutely epic and the history behind it is amazing. It’s a part of America that most people will never see simply because the difficulty of getting there. I’m going to try to tell you a little bit of the history while showing you the trail from a point of view that most or no one has ever done before. So buckle up and hold on, this is going to be a long video. It’s in 4K ultra high definition and it’s about a half an hour long. You’re going to want to see this. You’ll notice that to my left and my right, there are ruins and small shacks.

These are old silver mining camps that used to be here. The Imogene Pass road was built in 1880 for access to Ouray from Tomboy Mine. It was named for Imogene Richardson, the wife of one of the Thomas Walsh partners in the Camp Bird Mine. Wires carrying the first commercial transmission of alternating current electricity were strung across this path in the 1890s. You can see the sheer drop off to my right. And every year when I do Imaging Pass, at least two, three other vehicles go over the side. It’s almost always from careless driving or people that are under the impression that this is somehow a theme park when it isn’t.

When you’re driving on here, pay attention. If you’ve got lockers, use them, but never go near the edge because there are no guardrails, as you can see. The natural beauty or the hidden beauty that most people will never witness is amazing. Waterfalls can go from several hundred feet to a half a mile. On Imogene Pass, it’s phenomenal. There’s not many places in the world where you can see large alpine forest forests like this and the associated wildlife. Mountain goats, marmots, there’s all sorts of things up there that are just one of a kind, only on Imogene Pass, which is why I make the trek every year when I can.

You’ll notice behind me the alpine forests. They’re totally amazing. I’m at about 8,000ft right now, and I will be heading up to approximately 13,400ft. It’s quite the trek, and I’m going to show it to you exactly as I saw it. Most people never get a chance to do this, and a lot of people that follow me on YouTube don’t have the ability to do this. So I took great pains in videotaping this from as many angles as I could while still driving the vehicle safely in this precarious environment. The Tomboy mine was situated high above Telluride.

For several years, there was little activity at Tomboy because it was difficult to reach. However, after the silver crash in 1893, prospectors struck gold at the tomboy and the mine began to produce handsomely. At its peak, the mining camp supported about 900 people. In 1901, the Western Federation of Miners called their first strike in the Telluride area, the strike was successful and non union laborers were chased out of Tomboy over imogene Pass. In 1903, the Tomboy Mill again began to use non union labor and the second strike was called. The mine owners asked Governor James Peabody to call up the state militia and the governor in turn called on President Theodore Roosevelt to send federal troops.

With the area under military rule, the union and the strike were broken. The union labor was run out of town but set up camp at Red Mountain and plotted to recapture Tomboy and Telluride. Fort Peabody was constructed at the tower top of the past in 1903 to protect against such attacks. The attack never occurred. The route was reopened as a four wheel drive road in 1966 following the efforts of various four wheel drive clubs. Right here I’m literally driving up the side of a mountain on a single lane road to get to the peak of Imogene Pass which is at 13,200 and change.

It’s way up there you can hear the supercharger whining and the truck was having a little trouble keeping its temperature cool. But she made it as she always does. When you’re at the top of the mountain. The color of the landscape makes makes you believe that you could be on another planet like the moon or perhaps Mars. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a NASA rover cruising by. Even though the road looks nice and smooth, trust me, it isn’t. You can see the truck going side to side quite often. For people that are afraid of heights or get motion sickness, I would not recommend this whatsoever at all.

But I’ve done this trail numerous times over the years and I wanted to videotape it from this particular perspective because I’ve never seen it like this. There are some simple rules on the trail that sadly not enough people follow. Somebody coming up an incline like this has the right of way. As you can see, I have nowhere to go. There is no backing down and there certainly isn’t any turning around. A lot of people rent vehicles out here and don’t even know how to use them. And that’s what usually ends up as the deaths or rollovers every year.

Almost never. People like myself take a look at that color. Is that not exactly what we were told Mars looks like? It’s crazy to look at it from this height. The landscape varies from elevation to elevation. The lower you go, the more forest there is. The higher you go, the more snow and barren it is. But you can always find wildlife no matter what the height. And I found that utterly amazing. I love this stuff. I live for this stuff. And it’s amazing how many people you don’t see up there. It’s a sad state of affairs.

People used to ride horses up here, and now in this modern era, we’re driving metal horses, which is amazing. And this is it. This is the final approach. I am at the top of Imogene Pass. Now, last year when I was up here, there was a couple more buildings, but the wind has literally blown them away. There’s only a couple of mountain peaks that are higher than this particular pass, and it’s phenomenal to be up here. Top of the world, indeed. Even before I started climbing, even at this altitude, I was able to find tracks of wildlife coming down the side of the mountain, which was pretty.

Now, again, climbing up the mountain is one thing, but heading down is a totally different animal. You need to use your gears and you need to pay attention. Because it is rocky, many places are washed out in gravity on its own is pulling you straight down. You really have to pay attention. Every thousand feet you descend, the terrain begins to change. There’s less snow, there’s more grass, and then there’s more grass and more wildflowers. And then it goes from grass to wildflowers to conifers, pine trees, etc. It’s truly a one of a kind thing. For those of us that don’t have the intestinal fortitude to climb a mountain on our own, this is the next best thing, in my opinion.

This entire area is loaded with history. I spend most of my winter months in the desert when I can, looking for petroglyphs, etc, because I love this stuff. But in the summertime up in these mountains, you can find things from the 1800s, you can find arrowheads. There’s so much history on the paths that most people don’t take, which is why many of us choose to overland or off road, as it used to be called. The sights are amazing. For someone that enjoys photography or video like I do, this is utter heaven. Every direction, point your camera, you can’t really take a bad shot.

You can see right now by my speed, I’m going downhill and I’ve thrown it in second gear because the road is fairly smooth. Lots of people do this trail every year. You can do it in a very moderately modified vehicle. It doesn’t matter what type of vehicle necessarily. It’s the amount of common sense and experience that you bring to the table. Common sense is the number one thing that gets people in trouble. Out here. You’re Very far away from the nearest help, put it that way. When I travel, I carry as many spares as I can imagine I might need.

And I carry first aid and I carry food. Food and the ability to filter and contain water. Everyone should. The width of this trail will definitely give you pause. And as you can see, it’s only as wide as my vehicle. But let’s imagine back in the late 1800s when people were coming down this with donkeys, horses and carts just to go to work. People don’t realize how easy we’ve got it. These days, I’m crawling down this trail in a super modified vehicle, basically built to do just this. But back when this trail was first blazed, these were guys with one pair of shoes, one donkey, one cart, maybe a shovel and a pickaxe.

It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. No matter what time of year on imaging, you’re always going to find snow. You have to remember that you’re 2 and 12 miles above sea level and it shows the weather can change in the blink of an eye. I’ve had it. Beautiful. Hot and sunny and switch over to snow and hail again in the blink of an eye. If you’re gonna do Imaging Pass, whether it’s from your aid to Telluride or tell your ride to youray, plan on half a day. But if you can plan on two days, camp overnight, that’s what I do.

It’s amazing up there in the middle of the night, the skies are beyond belief. Switchbacks or very sharp U turns are very common on Imaging Pass, as they are on any mountain. Just remember, whoever is coming up has the right of way on imaging. Fortunately, you can basically see a mile away, so you can see if there’s traffic coming in the other direction. At this time of day, almost. It’s very rare to run into another vehicle. I’ve driven down this pass before in years past when that snowpack above me was at least 10 to 15ft tall.

It was amazing. Always be on the lookout for little pull offs like this one right in front of me in case you do run into another vehicle coming the other way. There are some here and there, but make sure they’re safe to pull onto after this point right here, there’s way too many trees to continue flying a drone safely, so I stopped. But I’m basically in the tree line now. Waterfalls, scenic views are absolutely everywhere. It’s amazing the views that Imogene Pass afford you. People with cameras will be in second heaven. Utterly amazing. The wildlife, the timber, all this Stuff, Soak it in.

Enjoy it while you can. Now, for those that love obstacles, coming out of Imogene Pass affords you plenty of places to flex your suspension. There’s lots of rock climbs with bypasses, of course, but I don’t take bypasses. There’s no two ways about it. If there’s rocks in front of me, I’m climbing over them. I do it all the time. I love. And for those that love water crossings, Imogene Pass offers many places to get your tires wet. Depending on the time of the year, it can either be mild or incredibly wild. I’ve seen both it and when you cross this final stream with the bridge next to it, you’re off imaging Pass, you’re heading back down the mountain.

But the fun isn’t over quite quite yet. There’s still one more iconic photo spot that most people don’t get, and I went out of my way to make sure I did get it on video. And you’re going to see it in a moment. Even though you’re technically off the mountain, you’re still at 9,000ft and driving down this dirt road. Most people miss these things, but there are some waterfalls and valleys that are absolutely stunning. I make sure to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, when I’m on the trail. So we did that trail in a heavily modified Land Cruiser 80 series, an incredibly capable vehicle.

Now I’m going to show you the entire trail, front to back, back to front in a more common vehicle, a 2019 4Runner. So here we go again. Gotta love Colorado, the Rocky Mountain weather, baby. Are you kidding me? Foreign well, it’s been three long years since I did my Telluride to your a solo trip down Imogene pass in my 80 series. And in that three years, a lot of things have changed. For instance, I no longer drive a Land Cruiser. I built a purpose built Toyota 4Runner. And in this 4Runner, I’m going to run the trail from Ouray to Telluride and then from Telluride back to Ouray.

Imogene Pass was closed when I arrived there twice this year and I finally came back on July 4th and I caught opening day and I made my way through this trail. Now, this trail has claimed a lot of lives over the years and I’m going to show you some of the things on this trail that can keep you and your family safe, let you enjoy the trail more than usual. And I’m going to point out a lot of things that you would probably not even notice while traversing the trail from world class waterfalls to animals that you will only find at this particular elevation.

You’re going to see it all in this video. So you’re going to want to sit back, relax and check this out. What do you need? You good? Good? Yeah. What? Lit. I know what that means. What’s your channel? What do you. There’s trucks behind me. You need help, man? We’re trying to fix it, man. Slaves. All right, Cool, man, cool. So for all those people that are new to the channel. I’ve currently been overlanding in the United States for the last 10 months. I left home in September of 2023, and one of the spots that I wanted to hit that I always hit is the town of Ouray, which leads to Imogene Pass, Camp Bird, and eventually Telluride.

Now, I had got there a couple of times only to discover that the snowpack was so heavy in Colorado, the trails were yet to be open. So I decided to kill time and push west out to California, the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, etc. Etc. And I’m going to show you some of those places because it’s all germane to this particular story. I wasn’t able to hit imaging until July 4th, and I was one of the first vehicles that actually made it through the pass the second that it opened, because I arrived on July 2nd and it wasn’t open as of yet.

But let me show you some of the things that I did stumble upon on my quest to make it up the mountains and killing time. Because it’s stuff you’re not going to see anywhere else and things you’ll never see unless you were there with me. And it’s pretty amazing. So here we go. A whole lot more than riches and my soul the hands so many must join us one and together we’ll cross the river A lot more than words and gods come all and I control lot more than riches and my soul Every mountain chant of Many must join us one Together we’ll cross the river the forest brave there A lot more than more than A lot more than riches and my soul Many must join us one and together Together we’ll cross the river Together we’ll cross the river Together we’ll cross the river Nature Nature Helen and Smoke Together we’ll cross the river Together we’ll cross the river Nature Future heaven and together we’ll cross the river Together we’ll cross the river Foreign as you can see, I covered a lot of ground.

I used up a lot of gasoline, I used up a lot of rubber and I Used up a lot of film. Even though you don’t use film anymore, you use SD cards, but that’s irrelevant. I figured after two months coming back to Ura, surely I’d be good to go. I contacted everybody I knew in the area and asked about the conditions of the trails and couldn’t quite get a square answer. So it was what it was. I turned tires and I headed back east, back to Colorado, back to elevation again. The path that I took from the west coast back to Colorado brought me through Colorado Springs.

I wanted to stop in, do an oil change on my truck, check everything, make sure everything was copacetic, good to go, make sure the truck had no weak points. And I did that at my buddy shop at Red Redline Land Cruisers in Colorado Springs. And after that, I started heading towards Ouray, which brought me to Monarch Pass. If you’re familiar with Monarch pass, it’s an 11, 000 foot mountain. And as I rolled in there, storm clouds were gathering. So there was no way I was going to push through for the night into Ouray. Driving mountain passes in really, really bad weather, it’s just not a good idea here.

It just isn’t worth it. So I stopped and found a place to camp for the night. So, based on absolutely nothing, I’ve just constructed this tarp shelter with magnets that I carry. And I’m. I’m expecting that the rain’s going to come this way. Oh, I better get up there and close my screens too. So here it is. Here’s the life that everybody envies, apparently. But remember, it is a very rare event that I get a hotel unless I’m trying to edit a long video and I need the Internet bandwidth. But otherwise, this is my night. Just pulled over at 8,900ft.

A little short of breath. I noticed this trip around. I’ve been a little short of breath. I guess that just comes with age, you know what I mean? So here’s what it is. But hopefully my magnets and my tarp keep me from getting soaked. Mosquitoes are luscious. They’re beautiful little fellas. Those things are called the Zone. They’re supposed to keep mosquitoes and bugs away. They seem to, but this is as bad as the Ozarks right here because I’m next to an actual trout stream coming out of the mountains and bushes, the only place they had to park.

So I took it. I’m watching my. I’m watching my movies that I keep on an SD card for when there’s absolutely no Internet. And the Storm is right above us Now. I love my alucab and I’ve never had one collapse but it is kind of my biggest fear. You’re sleeping and the wind closes the tent on you. That would be exactly like being inside of a casket, which would probably freak you out if that’s how you woke up, know what I’m saying? So let’s see what happens. See how well my little shelter holds up here. The rain tarp and magnets, you know what I mean? Now even though it was a rainy and windy night when I woke up the next day, my camping spot was incredibly picturesque.

I stayed at a place called Sergeants and apparently it’s been there since the 1800s. There’s a very, very small town right here in this valley at the foothill of Monarch Pass. And there’s people that live here year round. Now these are solid, hearty working Americans because you have to be to live up here. There’s no easy way to get any place and you’re pretty much self contained. There’s a funny sign that was inside the store that said nameless shameless women. And it always made me wonder if this was a stop off or a brothel of some sort back in the day.

Today they don’t serve women but they do make homemade ice cream. They do make food, fish and chips, hamburgers, etc. And they do serve alcohol because sometimes when you stop over here you could be stuck for well, the entire winter. Fortunately I wasn’t and after waking up doing a little bit of filming, it was time to cook some breakfast because a buddy of mine gave, gave me some fresh eggs from his chickens and I didn’t want them to go to waste or get broken in the truck. So it was time to break out the Jetboil Genesis, the ultimate off road off grid cooking apparatus.

Screw the partner stoves, they’re big, they’re heavy, they’re clunky. And the Jetboil Genesis gets it done twice as quick. Jmo so with a little bit of olive oil, some hash brown potatoes in a bag, English muffins and some fresh farm eggs. I was in fat city, no pun intended. But it didn’t take all too long to get this going. Took about 20 minutes all together cooking hash browns, eggs and English muffins all in the same pan. And it works out incredibly well. I don’t usually eat this well. This is to me taking 30 minutes to cook is kind of crazy.

I’m not, I don’t roll like that, but I should. At any rate you get the Point. Go eat out of the pan. Clean the pan. Good to go. Now just drink this in. This is where I camped for the night, even with the rain. So with my breakfast out of the way, I cleaned up the pans, I shut down the tent, I wrapped up the truck, threw the mountain bike on the back, and I headed east. I only had about an hour or so to make it to your A and I was just hoping that the trails were open because once again, trying to get any information.

It was astonishing how difficult it was to find out if your A and Imaging pass was wide open. I could find out that Ura was open to the summit, but you couldn’t get through, and that you could go through from Telluride to the summit, but you couldn’t get through. But I had to think, come on, man, it’s July. Surely the snow’s out of the way by now. One of my favorite things about Colorado is it shows true American history. Like, many people drive right by this museum and they don’t even notice it because they’re on their way to your ray, Telluride, or other destinations, and they don’t really notice things like this.

Fortunately, my timetable allows me to stop and film these things, which I do, because many people will never get an opportunity to see this in their life. And this is the real deal, the real McCoy. The reason all of these places even exist for us to go four wheeling on is because people came here before, before us, with donkeys, horses, buggies, and covered wagons looking for gold, silver beaver pelts, and whatever else they were looking for. A new life in America, basically. And this stuff really encapsulates all the history that you just don’t see in the books or even on the Internet, you know what I mean? So getting an opportunity to see it in real life and film it for you to see.

Phenomenal. The thing I don’t like about Colorado, well, as I get older, I don’t love the altitude because I live on the Atlantic Ocean. I literally live at one foot above sea level. So the elevation does tend to get to me. But then there’s things like this that just absolutely make zero sense to me. You tell me what you think in the comments. You want to see the worst idea in the world. I’m on Route 24 west heading into the Rockies. You see the guy that’s laying on the ground with the flag you can barely see riding in the.

What the. How stupid are people, man? Seriously, how dumb is that? He’s lucky I didn’t roll right over him. Colorado, man, what an ass clown. But no matter what you think about any of your interactions or things you run into like that, Colorado still rules. Like, we’re gonna get to imaging in just a couple of minutes. I told you this was a movie and I wasn’t kidding. But check this out. I stumbled upon this purely by accident and my timing was impeccable. Even though I didn’t know I was timing anything, this was astonishing to me. Now this bad boy was a real deal, no two ways about it.

Coal driven steam train. If you look at the bottom of the train, you can actually see the flames from the coal furnace blowing out the bottom. It was, I was amazed, was pure happenstance that I came across this. I had stopped at a rest stop real quick and I noticed a really old rustic bridge. Anything that’s old from the 1800s and I’ve got a camera, I’m filming it and then I heard the train whistle. At any rate, here we go. Finally, finally I make it to the town of Ouray once again. And it is the 2nd of July, so spirits are high, tourists are coming in, there’s jeeps every place you look and people are ready to get busy on the trail.

But sadly, on 2 July, the peak was still closed due to snow. But at this point, and after waiting all this time, I didn’t care if I had to, I was gonna film from Ouray to the summit and then drive all the way over to Telluride and do it in the opposite direction and just leave the summit out. I’ve got plenty of footage over the years of me at the summit, etc. I could fake it and I was planning on doing exactly that. So I rolled into town, I went to my favorite gas station with the ethanol free super unleaded, filled up the truck, had a little breakfast at Duckett’s, the food market there, first thing in the morning.

No one’s out in the streets yet. I got the whole place to myself so far and I have no complaints with that. It is just such an amazing place. The Switzerland of America is what it’s called for a reason. Now before I get into imaging, because we’re going to hit the trail right now before I get into imaging Pass. Why is it I feel obligated to make these videos every year to such an extent? Well, I’ve done Imaging Pass so many times that I’ve been considered an expert. And television networks from Japan, Germany and the United States have reached out to me over the years because every time I’m on IMOGENE Pass.

Somehow, some way, a jeep or some vehicle goes over and the people are killed. I don’t know what the deal is, but that’s what makes me feel obligated to make these videos because I try to show people the safest way to traverse this trail. This is not an amusement park. This is a trail where one wrong turn and you could plummet a thousand or more feet to your death. Straight up. No exaggeration, period. Don’t believe me? Watch this disaster on this scary stretch of road, popular with tourists and known as one of the most dangerous in America.

Now it has claimed new victims. Two nurses and their tour guide driver killed after their jeep plunged over a cliff along Camp Bird Road in the Colorado Mountains. How dangerous and treacherous are the roads in this area? There’s a million unforeseen things. This haunting photo of a jubilant Diana Robles was snapped shortly before the deadly crash. The 28 year old and her aunt, Ophelia Figueroa Perez, both dedicated nurses from Yuma, Arizona, were on a vacation taking in the breathtaking scenery. Ami Robles is Diana’s grieving sister. Did you know they would be on such a treacherous road? I didn’t have any idea.

Off roading expert Richard Comido has driven the dangerous stretch. These are one lane, twisting, curving roads carved into the side of a mountain with 100 to 1,000 foot drops on either side, no guard rails. It is probably one of the scariest things you’ll ever do. Now, I never considered myself a talking head, but it, if it helps, I’ll do it. The only problem I had is they did cut this and edit it and I didn’t say everything that I said, but you get the point. People don’t understand that this is not an amusement park where you, you know, rent a jeep that you’ve never driven in your life.

You hit the trail and hope for the best. The trails can get very, very congested. And literally, one wrong move and you can go over the side. And when you go over the side, it’s a wrap. For instance, I parked off the trail in a little cubby hole to do some filming and somehow that attracted every single vehicle that was going up and coming down and everybody stopped in front of my truck. The only problem is they’re stopped on the trail so people will try to squeeze around them. And again, there’s no guardrails, you know what I mean? So trail etiquette is something people should learn.

Go Google it, look it up. It’s easy enough to do. Figure out what the local rules are and understand the terrain before you hit it. And if you’re going to rent a vehicle to go, you know, show off to your wife, kids, girlfriend, etc, know how to use it. Once again, Google. I’ve seen people trying to come down 13000 foot passes riding their brake instead of having the truck in four wheel low like they should. You’ve only got so much break and I’ll tell you what, I’ve got power brakes on my truck and you still don’t have 13,000 foot descent worth of brake pads, you will lose your brakes.

So remember that. At any rate, here we go. Welcome to Imagene Pass. I’m going to show you the ride from the parking lot all the way up the mountain side which is a 3,000 foot ascent. Just so you can understand, the road up to the actual trail can be quite dangerous and you need to pay attention. Don’t believe the other guy is looking for you. Look for him. Be smart. While you’re making your ascent up to the Imogene trailhead, use caution. This is a two lane roadway from top to bottom. In many places there are choke points that have a cliff on one side and a rock face on the other.

Don’t depend on the other guy knowing you’re coming. Make yourself known. Oftentimes when I come around a blind corner, I also I lay on the horn just to let the other guy know that I’m coming. There are no guardrails. The drop to the left, right here goes down about a thousand feet. This is some of the most beautiful, beautiful terrain and beautiful country you’ll ever see. Stop, pull off the road if you’re going to take pictures. Sightseeing while you’re driving can end up in a catastrophe. It has happened. It wouldn’t be something new, so keep that in mind.

Sa here we are entering Imogene Pass. Now, right off the bat you have two choices. To the right you can take the bridge, to the left you can take the river crossing. Your call, but for me, every time it’s going to be the river. The moment you come out of the river, you’re going to take a left hand turn and you’re going to be facing a your first climb. It isn’t hard to do whatsoever at all. Put it in four wheel low if you have to. Now this is the part of the trail that you’re going to come into.

Some obstacles made of rock. Just take it easy, get out and take a look at them first if you have to. But it’s all like driving down a driveway. If you’re going to do imaging pass you probably don’t want to have a bike rack or a extended trailer hitch because it will make a lot of racket. It as you continue to move forward you’re going to come across one of the first water features on the trail. At this altitude I always feel safe filling my canteen and drinking straight from it up here. I mean we’re at 11000ft.

It’s now one thing you need to know is you don’t have to have a monster 4×4 build to do this trail. Many people have done this trail in passenger cars and Subarus. Every one of the obstacles you’re looking at right now if you get out and look there’s a way for an average car to get by. And then if you go slightly to the left or right it might be a little more higher. Skill level we’ll call it. Just be careful that you don’t get yourself into a jam because the trail just opened that exact morning.

There was lots of residue from the winter left over things that weren’t necessarily there. The trail is always changing and evolving with weather and conditions. So be aware of that. Things like this for instance. It. So now you’re out of the proverbial woods. You’re heading towards the waterfalls and you’re starting to climb. Climb. You’re going to come down this little trail right here. And as soon as you take this left hand turn there’s a really old shelter to the left. It’s an old cabin. Hikers use it. People use it during storms etc. It’s an old mining cabin.

And when you’re on this trail right here the tree line is only single trees and then it’s a sheer drop off down to the camp. Bird mind when you go over to take pictures. Use caution. I can’t stress it enough. There are no guard rails and it is a long way down but it’s definitely worth your time. You can’t even tell that you’re driving on a cliff face like this unless you look at it from a different angle. I suppose something like this. I would guess so at this point you’re going to head down a little.

A little tunnel of trees and rocks that’s going to bring you out to where you start climbing. Where you start actually heading towards the summit. And I can’t stress this enough and try to remember this always. And those would be mountain guard rails right there. Just not a lot of them. Don’t forget that. Now this is where the trail becomes epic. This is what you came to imagine. Pass for four. This is amazing. It now the beauty of the trail just opening meant the snowpack was still melting and the waterfalls were better than I’ve ever seen ever.

They’re absolutely astonishing when you’re making the climb up the crushed rock. These are to your left down in the valley. A lot of people never look at them because they’re so terrified of the fact that they’re on a cliff face that’s going straight down. But I assure you they are there. But you’re just scratching the surface. We just started the trail, so here we go. It, it’s now that you’ve gotten yourself off the shelf road and passed through the stream, you come to this large open area which is very special to me and many people because it’s a good camping site.

And this area is adorned on either side with phenomenal waterfalls. There’s also a grave up top that’s marked for someone that had died at this particular location. You might want to check that out if you want. And there’s also lots of old mining ruins and other artifacts just laying around. It’s. It’s pretty amazing. It’s a pretty amazing spot. But if you do work, if you do camp up here, make sure if you start a fire, you put it out completely and totally, period. But now that you’re at this particular location, you’re now heading up to the summit.

Everything from now on is going straight up. No turning back now. This is where it gets fun. So here we go. As many times as I’ve run Imaging Pass over the years, this one particular rock ledge up here always bummed me out because with a 6 inch lift, 37 inch tires and a very top heavy Land Cruiser. And every time I did this pass right here, it always felt like I was tipping and I was going to go over, which would be a considerable fall. And to be honest, I was pretty concerned about it coming up here in the 4Runner.

But I got out, I walked it, I double checked it, I set up some cameras. If you ever have any doubts, stop the truck, put it in park, hit the E brake and walk the trail. Don’t trust people you don’t know telling you which direction to go because most people want to see a crash because it’s great fodder for YouTube. You see what I’m saying? Sad but true. You know where we live. So with this worrisome obstacle under my belt, I continued on. There was a stock 4Runner from West Virginia with a guy in it that was pretty free with the throttle pedal and he was following me, and at one point he almost rolled his truck right on top of mine.

It was pretty crazy. If you don’t care about your vehicle, doing the trails is a heck of a lot easier. Speeding on the trails will break parts. I crawl, and so should you. Easy, easy, easy. Rear Locker. I have to mute the volume right here because Led Zeppelin’s playing in the background and YouTube will smite me. Nice. So after I spot the guy from West Virginia in his white Forerunner, it’s my turn and I’m at an awkward angle. This is a hundred and eighty degree turn that goes from fairly flat to going straight up. For the first time on the trail, I can see the snowpack and I can see the Summit.

We’re at 11,000ft and heading straight up. This trail is tougher than it appears, but it’s absolutely doable in pretty much any type of vehicle. You just need to pay attention and understand that no one can hear you scream up here. So if you come up here, make sure you bring first aid, make sure you bring tools, and make sure you bring a knowledge of how to drive the vehicle that you’re navigating this trail with. And then suddenly I notice the West Virginia guy again. So I wait, giving him plenty of time so that way we don’t end up bumping into each other.

And then finally I find myself alone very close to the summit, but I am where I want to be right now. This is the part that was closed because of the snow and we couldn’t get up here. And now I’m up here. So I’m one of the first people to see this place after the snow melted enough for the trails to be open. And it’s pretty amazing. And I’m getting, I’m up there getting footage, and I look around and then suddenly I noticed somehow I passed the guy in the white Forerunner, which doesn’t make any sense because there’s only one trail.

And in my haste to separate myself from him, I put myself into a bad spot because even though the trails are clearly marked, there’s trails that go off the trails to more difficult obstacles, so forth and so on. Now, bear in mind, I’m at 12,000ft and I’m at a incredibly steep angle. Stepping out of the vehicle, you fall backwards. You see what I’m saying? And you’re basically walking on, on scramble. So it’s, it’s a tough situation. And I almost, I mean, I, I got to admit it, I was scared and Wasn’t sure how this was going to work out for a few it.

Thank you, sir. Nobody behind me that I know of. This is turning into a bad day. If I’m out of the truck twice for the same obstacle, that’s a rarity if ever. And I have no idea if I could make this. All I do know is I have to keep going forward because I can’t turn around without tipping the truck over and trying to back up. The truck just started to go on its own, sliding backwards wildly, which would lead to a flip over. My day has just taken a really bad turn and I did not see this coming.

I’ve run this trail so many times it’s ridiculous. And this still happened. It is what it is. So with that behind me, what else could possibly go wrong? Fortunately, I got out and thought about it more than once because you’ve only got one shot here. If you screw it up, things end up poorly and you end up on the news. And that would be incredibly ironic. But I’ve got the summit in my sights now and I’m on my way. The purpose of these videos isn’t just to entertain you, but it’s also to educate you. Because if you take on tasks like this, especially alone, when things happen, you need to know what to do one way or.

Or the other. It so after what appeared to be a certain rollover, I was well on my way. I was at the top. I had crested 13, 000ft and the sign to Imagine Pass was in sight. Finally, I was making my way to the top of the mountain. This entire thing just shows you that no matter the amount of preparation, etc, things still go wrong. Mistakes can be made, it’s just how you handle them. And up here, you’re just a speck on the earth right now. Every once in a while you run into somebody else, but it’s rare and oftentimes up here people will see you in peril and just continue to drive, drive by because they’re on their phones or whatever.

It just is what it is. If you’re going to take on tasks like this, or you’re going to take on imaging, do a crumb of research and understand what you’re getting into. Many times I’ve come up here on a day when it was 80 degrees only to find a blizzard at the top. That happened last year, I believe, and anything can happen up here. Here you’re in a whole different atmosphere. But finally, finally we are at the top of Imogene Pass. But you know what’s funny? We’re only halfway through this because now we gotta go to Telluride.

And we will. Here we go. Before I head down into the Telluride side, I want to walk over and double check the road because there is not enough room for two trucks. And I’ve had two Hummers try to push me off that road before in my Land Cruiser. So always double check before you head down. There’s only one direction now we’re going down sa at least so the prophet says I could either burn or cut off my pride and buy some tight a head full of lies there’s no way tied to my waist river of the sea goes down yeah, you’re never direction r down down oh down down oh down down oh down down oh down My pain is self chosen at least I believe it to me I could even try ground Fall off my skin and swim to shore Now I can grow a beautiful shelf World to sea river of the sea holds down oh the only direction where flow is down down oh down down down down down all down My pain is self chosen yeah my pain is self chosen down, all down all down oh down so if you made it this far, you must really love the lifestyle.

So here you go, here’s part two. No interruptions. Last time we left off, I was bringing you from Colorado all the way to Ouray and then all the way up Imogene Pass. And because of Internet issues, I had to make this a two part series. Last time we were descending into Telluride and that’s exactly where we’re going to pick up right now. You’re going to see some footage, you’re going to learn some history that is going to absolutely blow you away. And I’ve gone through great pains to upload this in 4k60 frames per second, which, while you’re on the road, is next to impossible to do.

But it appears we’ve got that accomplished. So here we go, heading down into Telluride. So far we’ve traveled from this location right here, from the Ura side, all the way out to here. And our final destination will be rolling down into the Telluride side. And then we’re going to turn around and do it all over again. Because doing the trail in the opposite direction is exactly like doing an entirely new trail all over again. It’s pretty amazing. The town of Telluride is located in Box Canyon on the headwaters of the San Miguel river. And it owes its existence to quartz.

They discovered quartz in 1875. But what’s lesser known is that prospectors have been working gold places in the area as early as 1873. According to western mininghistory.com in September of 1870, 1973, a group of four men were reportedly the first prospectors to enter the area. Now just imagine entering this area back in the old days with horse and buggy or donkey and pack mule and backpacks. Just driving in here because of the fact that I was in there on the first day the trail was open. There was still a great, great amount of snow absolutely everywhere.

And the snow overhanging on the mountaintops was insane to see. And you could see elk and I believe bighorn tracks in the snow everywhere. A lot of people are under the impression that Telluride was the first settlement in the area, but that’s not accurate. The town of San Miguel was the first town having a post office in 1877. Nothing is left of the original town which was located where the San Miguel county store is now located just west of Telluride. Ophir, which established a post office in 1878, also predates Telluride. But Telluride is very old and a lot of the original mining structures are still there in a state of decay.

But I’m going to show them to you just like I did in the last run through of Telluride to Ouray. So you should enjoy this while descending into the Telluride side of the trail. I’m always in four wheel low. Let the truck’s gearing keep you at a slow pace. Don’t ride your brakes while you’re navigating the trail. Many, many times you’re going to come to switchbacks and totally blind corners. Be cautious because there could be a side by side with a couple of people that are overindulged in alcoholic beverages coming the other way that aren’t paying attention at all.

You are responsible for you when you’re on these trails and every time, every year somebody makes the mistake and goes over and every time we lose somebody because of negligence, bad luck or whatever it may be, we come one step closer to losing the trails entirely. It happens a lot. Many times on the trail you’ll find yourself face to face with another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Before you ascend or descend on any of these trails, always take a look up the trail as far as you can see to make sure another vehicle isn’t coming.

And if they are coming, make sure you can find some place to pull to the side so that you can both pass safely. Remember, the drop off side has no guard rails. You don’t want to force somebody off the road. You see what I’m saying? After descending the trail for about, about 30 minutes, you come into the area which is the old mining town and you’ll find a lot of vehicles parked on the left and right and people out exploring because there are old mine shafts, there are old mine buildings and there is one wildlife to be seen if you can actually find them.

When you get down to this level, right before you hit the mining town, you’re going to come to a bunch of descents that are made of rocks. Get out and take a look because again like in the first part of this movie, on the left hand side it might be an easy driveway style descent. And right to the right of can be actually pretty hardcore. So don’t destroy your rental or your vehicle. Get out and take a look first. Enjoy this while you’re here because most people have never seen this in their entire lives unless they’ve watched videos of other people doing it.

So appreciate what you’re seeing while you’re seeing it. Jmo now we’re about to get to the really good footage, but let me interject one more time with a piece of advice. If you find yourself in close proximity to another vehicle that’s also descending the mountain, stop. Give him some space. You don’t want the domino effect happening where he makes a mistake and then you slide right into him because you couldn’t stop in time, causing a multi car pile up. You don’t want that. And I see it way too often on the trails. I give people all the space in the world.

As a matter of fact, I prefer to explore and do trails alone for that exact reason. So finally you’ve made it down to the bottom of the valley and this is where the old mining town is and it’s a good sized area. There’s also a very, very rare group of alpine trees along with the wildlife that comes with it. And if you have a keen eye and a good lens, you can get footage of them and I was fortunate enough to be able to do so. Foreign let’s get into the history of this once again just a little bit, just to give you some perspective of exactly what it is you’re looking at.

The original prospectors in the San Juans, they lived off the land and respectively so their survival depended on the region’s vast forests that provided fuel, construction materials and habitat for game. As mining boomed, more trees were harvested from mill building, railroad ties, mine timbers, the tall straight ponderosa pine and Douglas fir were favored. But Other conifers were also fed to the sawmills that sprang up near every mining camp. And by the late 1800s, the entire north face slope above Telluride was cleared. But despite the raising, the trees came back. And today their stock is dense and old, making them more susceptible to insect infestations, fungal cankers, heart rot, blowdown and fire.

It’s obvious to even the casual observer that the trees are in trouble. Brown, dead and dying conifers dot the entire area and surrounding mountains. And come spring, some span, some stands of aspen no longer leaf trees along roadways. Roadways are gray and lifeless. The underlying problem seems to be the older age of firs, fire suppression, and warmer springs and falls. And you can see that all over the place. And it’s what helps contribute to wildfires. It’s amazing how many trees on these trails and all over Colorado in the area are just dead. Top of Monarch Pass, half of the trees up there are just dead.

And it’s all by man’s hand. It is what it is. According to the Forest Service, there’s approximately 3.6 million acres of aspen in Colorado, comprising roughly 17% of the state’s forested lands. That’s a lot. Numerous areas in southwest Colorado are experiencing a major die off of aspen grows because of sudden aspen decline, otherwise known as sad. The wildlife up here is very elusive and very difficult to see. But if you pay attention and really scour the area with a set of binoculars, trailers, a telescope, or a really good zoom lens, you will find what you’re looking for.

And what I was looking for in this particular area was elk. Something that had eluded me every other time I was up here. I just couldn’t find elk no matter what I did. So I broke out the lens and I started looking, and lo and behold, I found me a herd of elk. And just by looking, looking with the naked eye, you’d never see him. But when you throw a zoom lens on, all comes to life. So check this out. It always amazes me how these incredibly large animals are right in plain sight. And if you don’t see them, you don’t see them.

I mean, there’s a couple of hundred up there and you don’t even notice them unless you put some glass on them, which I did, and I hope you enjoyed it. But let’s get back to the trail into the mining camps. In the summer of 1874, Lon Ramin and William Ramin came over to the San Miguel from Silverton and did further prospecting along the San Miguel River. The Prospecting was for placer mines. They put in a box on the Keystone Hill and washed some during the summer, being able to take about $10 a day when they both worked.

They brought their supplies from Silverton, Colorado. Flour there at the time was worth $10 per £50. So in the summer of 1874, Lon and William Ramin located what is now known as the keystone placer. In 1874, after Lon had built his dugout at the entrance to the park, he was joined by John Eddie, a man by the name of Roach, who also built a dugout nearby, and the three spent the winter of 1874 in the park. Mountain sheep were plentiful during the winter along the bluffs of the river, and fishing in the stream was good. Thus, the winter of four was passed by the three white men who first passed a winter on the San Miguel.

So there you go. But they weren’t along, they weren’t alone for very long because more men came in during the year 1875. And prospecting along the gravel banks of tributaries of the river was quite brisk during the summer of 1875. In the fall and winter of 75 and 76, the news of the good gold prose prospects was carried to outside points. And in the spring of 76, the rush was quite considerable, bringing in many adventuresome men from Del Norte, Rosita and other mining camps of the States. So this place was heavily mined for a long time.

And when they were done and everything was said and done, they simply abandoned their minds. And what is remaining of those is scattered about this entire area. But it’s, it’s history, it’s American history. It’s why people actually went to these areas. We’re trying to live off the land. Live on the land was incredibly difficult, especially in the winter time. And back then before, you know, people pushed west en masse. There was a lot of predators out there. Mountain lions, cougars, grizzly bears, brown bears, etc, not so much anymore. It’s kind of hard to spot wildlife unless you’ve got a really good zoom lens.

But let’s get on to the path, shall we? Let’s get the Telluride. So most people think that Imogene Pass itself is the one that causes deadly accidents. And in fact, that’s not accurate at all. It’s actually the Camp Bird Mine Road, which is what I’m on right now. This trail is right at the base where the mining camps are and the mountains right above that you’re looking at, that’s where the elk seem to seem to gather and we’re going to be heading down because we’re still at a great altitude. We’re at about 11,400ft if I, if memory serves.

And we’re going to be heading straight down this road. And this road has the most insane drop offs that you’ve ever seen on, on a trail. Even with the incredibly steep drop offs, it’s very easy to navigate this trail. You simply have to pay attention and honor the fact that you’re on a one lane trail that has massive drop offs and the potential of other cars. It. The biggest difference on the Telluride side is you’re going to run into a lot of vehicles that are coming the other way and somebody has to make way. Just go really slow if you have to get out and check the trail and front or behind you because you don’t want to go over the side.

Do you see what I’m saying? And it’s, it’s, it’s not even a, you know, a thing that could happen. It’s a thing that happens an awful lot. Almost every single vehicle that goes over the side on this particular trail is in this exact area where you’re actually heading down into the town of Telluride going by the Camp Bird Mine. It happens a lot, a lot. I mean, this is me. This was me live, you know what I mean? I must have ran into four or five vehicles and we’ll get to more of those on my way back.

But it happens. Take your time. Know where you’re backing up and don’t punch it. Crawl, crawl at all times. Save your life, save the lives of somebody else and save the trail in that order. You see what I’m saying? So I’m gonna have to voice over here because I’m playing Outcast Ms. Jackson and it’s a little too loud. But right here, right after this tunnel is where the, the last rollover was that I know of, where the nurses got killed with the tour guide. And that’s horrible. But it is what it is. And right after the tunnel, I notice a jeep that’s broken down and I offer them some help real quick.

What do you need? You good? We’re good. That’s. That’s my dude. Yeah. What lift is? That’s my dude. I don’t know what that means. What’s your channel? What do you. There’s trucks behind me. You need help, man. Trying to fix it, man. Slaves working on it. All right, cool, man. Cool. Yeah. Break overland later, guys. And again, I made a rookie mistake by playing the music while I was recording. But I’m gonna let this entire road down to Telluride play so you can actually see it. I’m going to speed it up a little bit and add music for those that have never seen it before.

Because this is truly, absolutely entire, totally epic. This is the side of the trail where things can go wrong and you don’t want them to. Going down is one thing, but coming back up is another. So we’re going to drive down the trail, we’re going to swing through Telluride real quick and we’re going to run the entire trail all the way back. Because again, driving up a mountain is totally different than driving down a mountain. And I’ll show you why. Sa. Because you will not believe your eyes. She’s right here behind the glass. No, you’re gonna like her cause she’s got a plan you can look inside the world you get to talk to a pretty girl she’s everything you dream about love.

She’s a beauty, she’s a beaut. What would I, what would I. You can say anything you like but you can’t touch the merchandise she’ll give you every penny’s worth but it will cost you a dollar per. You can step outside your little way world you can talk to a pretty girl she’s everything you dream about She’s a million, a million girls she’s one in a million girls I what I love if you do, you find out you don’t love me girl why would I love now why would I not all of you? She’s one in a million girls She’s a.

That’s very good advice. Don’t fall in love indeed. But after all these descents, you’re finally making it down the long winding road. Loads and loads of switchbacks that finally drop you down into the town of Telluride. And fortunately, when I dropped down into the town of Telluride, it was the 4th of July, so the entire town was celebrating and it was. It was quite the sight to see. Couldn’t find a place to park. There was an awful lot of Karens and they’re very, very concerned about you idling your vehicle. So if you stop your truck even at a stop sign, pull your keys out, get out and shelter in place or somebody will freak out at you.

Otherwise, it’s a nice town. And they do have a really nice grocery store that has a good selection. It’s a. It’s a pretty high end town. But still, as you can see, it’s still a one Lane Road and you still need to make way. But when you hit this portion of the trail right here, slow down because people are dying to call the cops on you or to give you a ticket of some sort. You’re literally coming down a small residential street on the side of a mountain that brings you off of Camp Bird Imogene Pass.

And as you can see right here, I’m taking her out of Four Wheel Drive and we are now rolling into town. So Telluride, without a doubt is a beautiful little town, but it’s a lot of wealthy people. But the history of telluride according to telluride.gov is used as a summer camp for centuries by Ute Indians and named by Spanish explorers in the 1700s. The San Juan Mountains Lord fortune seekers to Colorado with visions of silver and gold. By the mid-1870s, the Sheridan mine was the first in a string of local claims and a tent camp was established in the valley below.

Originally it was called Columbia. The rowdy mining camp became a town in 1878 and changed its name to Telluride. With the coming of the railroad in the 1890s, the remote boomtown flourished. A melting pot of immigrants seeking their fortunes turned Telluride into a thriving community of 5,000. Prosperity. Prosperity abounded and Telluride was full of thrilling possibilities. But when silver prices crashed in 1893, followed by the First World War, the mining boom collapsed. Miners moved on, and the town’s population gradually dwindled from thousands to hundreds. But in the 1970s, Telluride reinvented itself. Legendary powder. No, not the Colombian type.

A different sort of gold was being mined. When the Telluride ski Resort opened in 1972, the character of the community changed and the town spun back into high gear. Born of the same spirit as skiing, cultural events, festivals, music and performing arts were found grounded and flowed through the seasons. It was again a time of thrilling possibilities. Telluride now has a reputation for world class skiing and a stunning ambience. And if you’re a female and you feel feel it’s the thing to do. You can walk around topless as long as you don’t let your car idle at a stop sign or you will get smited.

At any rate, let’s turn this 5th gen 4 runner around, gas up, grab some groceries and head back up. This is going to be better than the beginning because this is all the drone footage. I didn’t run the drones drones earlier because there were just too many vehicles on the trail. So check this out or don’t your Call one more behind me. So the beautiful part about going back from Telluride to Ouray is now you’re settled down, now you have an idea of what to expect. And now you get a chance to look at all these different structures and artifacts that are all along the roadway.

And I mean they are all along the roadway. Old mining buildings, lots and lots of cast iron and steel, things that were used to divert water, to cut down wood, things of that nature. But I mean, again, it’s American history. And so many people have lived their entire lives in America and have never ever seen this, ever. Which is why it’s so fascinating to me. So I’m guessing it’s fascinating to you as well because you’re still watching. It’s always amazing to me how these old structures that were built with axes and pegs still remain after all this time.

It’s like 140 years and the remnants are still here. Now if you haven’t done imaging or the Telluride side in quite a while, you’ll notice that there’s many new bridges on the trail. Once you find yourself with the large dilapidated building right there on the cliffside, look over to the mountain pass because there’s a good, good chance you’ll see some elk or bighorn sheep or goats or whatever they call them. I don’t know what the exact terminology is. I think they’re big horns. And there’s also an epic waterfall down there. There’s so much to see on this trail that you need to do it front to back, back to front.

And keep your camera running or don’t. Your call. So here’s a great example of the difference between the Uray side and the Telluride side. I pulled over into an alcove way off the trail out of everybody’s way to do some filming. And just the trucks coming from the north to the south created a traffic jam. And this is a very, very, very thin road. This is a one lane road, as you can see. And we end up having trucks backed up here and a couple of them just parked right where I was, which is stupid, you know what I’m saying? Like there isn’t enough room to do this.

There’s a lot of vehicles coming up and going down and anybody’s inexperienced can cause a rollover. And it, like I said, it’s not uncommon. It happens a lot. And if you go over the side, you don’t stop till you hit about the thousand foot mark. And they have to pull you out with a crane or a Helicopter. So utilize caution. You see what I’m saying? Again, I’m not even on the trail. I’m in a little cubby hole that I’m familiar with and this is what occurred. I waited for all the traffic to clear out and then I headed back up.

I pulled the drone back in and tried to get some footage while there was no vehicles on the trail. But it was a busy day. Opening day it on my return trip I ran into my number one subscriber yet again and their Jeep was still disabled. Not too much time. Time had passed, but sadly more vehicles had pulled over to quote, unquote, assist him. But what they were doing was blocking the trail. And this exact point on the trail is where a lot of people meet their end for whatever reason. I don’t know what the deal is, but the more vehicles pulled over on the trail, the worse things are.

You see what I’m saying? It’s just not a great idea. But I digress. Res. So now I’m back in the mining area of the trail and I’m getting ready to head up to the summit once again. I’m trying to make this entire trip in one day and so far I’m doing it even with all the stops for cameras and photography and such. But this may be the last time I’ll ever be on Imaging Pass and I really want to appreciate what I’m looking at and I really want to, to try to get it on film for you guys to see because I know a lot of you guys can’t make your way out here for a variety of reasons.

So I’ll take it upon myself to show you what it looks like. At any rate, it’s amazing here and we are now going to head back to the summit all over again, which is a, a task in itself, but an amazing task nonetheless. Heading back to your A from Telluride is a strange transformation. You start out where there’s grass, trees, scrub brush, etc, and as you rise up in elevation, all of that begins to fall away and you end up on a rather otherworldly landscape where it’s snow, ice and rocks and not much wildlife at all, except for the Jeep and Toyota people and the occasional Hummer.

But you see what I’m saying? And it’s tough on the transmission too. Before I made my final approach to the actual summit. 13, 114ft. There’s a little pullover spot down here and I wanted to give the truck an opportunity to cool down. Transmission was running pretty hot even with the derail. Transmission Cooler running up here. At altitude there’s not much air so it’s hard to keep things cool. But pulling over before making the climb is always a good move in my opinion. It’s. And now we head back down into the Ura side. This is a beautiful part of the trip because you get to watch all the trees, all the wildflowers, everything come back as you lower yourself in elevation.

As you descend the mountain, life starts to come back. It looks beautiful up there, but it’s very harsh. I mean you are at serious altitude. I live at sea level. I live at one foot above sea level on the Atlantic Ocean. So 13,114ft is quite the change. But here we go, going down sa so with just a few hours, maybe three or four hours on the trail total, doing the trail, getting in trouble and filming, I’m back on the era side and I’m almost back to 9, 000ft. We are back in the tree line, ladies and gentlemen, the tree line.

And from here it’s basically smooth sailing for the most part. But we still got a little bit more drone footage so I’m going to stretch this video even longer because, yeah, why not? It’s already tough enough to upload this from a hotel room in Kansas City, so why not throw in some more drone footage? Because who doesn’t love drone footage? So there it is, my 2024 two hour long two part imaging pass. You’re ready to telluride and and tell you ride to youray. I hope you enjoyed it. If you can’t make it out there, I hope I brought it to you as realistically as I possibly could.

And if you can make it there, I hope you learned something that you didn’t previously already know. If you do meet me on the trail, chances are I’m not going to be what you thought I was. You see what I’m saying? I’m not bubbly and happy. I’m actually fairly reserved. But I will talk. And if you’re in trouble, without a doubt, I’ll help you out. If you want to help me out, make sure you hit that subscribe button, make sure you hit that like button and leave a comment below. And don’t forget to hit the little notification bell next to the subscribe button or YouTube will never tell you we’ve got a new video out.

At any rate, make sure you hit the like, make sure you hit the subscribe, make sure you leave a comment. I am out.
[tr:tra].

See more of JailBreak Overlander on their Public Channel and the MPN JailBreak Overlander channel.