Hello all. I have a 98 2WD ZJ and am planning a trip to Ouray and was wondering what trails I could reasonably expect to safely traverse. I have not been to Ouray since I was a teenager and now want to take my 3 kids. We are driving from Texas and my JGC has a 4.0 with 30" tires. We will be camping. Thanks!

 

The trails that I have ran in that area are very steep. The wheeling is not that technical at all, but the grade of the roads, at least the ones I took, you would need 4x4 just to get enough traction to climb the hills....HTH!!

You could run Owl Creek Pass, but that one is outside of Ouray, closer to Ridgeway to the north from Ouray. There are prolly some trails running out of Silverton too that you could do, but IMO the trails that run out of Ouray too steep to do in a 2wd....I could be just being a pansy too....

 

lol.. i've wheeled with Kyle, he is NOT a pansy! a little old, but NOT a pansy! lol

 

Old Pansy....new nickname!! LOL!!

 

I am currently in my tent in Town Park in Telluride after making the drive Ophir pass from Silverton. It was steep but I had no problems getting up and over. I was helped by the fact that is was very dry. Had it been wet I'm sure we would have had to turn back. We also camped in Ouray and made the run up Yankee Boy Basin.



The view heading down the Telluride side of the pass. Very narrow in places but bone dry!

 

Nice! Glad you made it safely, and didn't listen to the pansy! lol

 

I spent a week out there last september. There are only a couple trails I would take in 2WD. most of the trails are covered and or built by rock run off. A lot of slate and slippery rocks. you get stuck there slidding around and it would not be plesant. California basin..Engineer pass and Imogene pass would be a couple good ones you could o without issues.

 

I am back in Texas now but would go back in a heartbeat (it was 106 today). I had thought about Imogene but lots of folks in Ouray discouraged it. I think they were just being cautious about the out of towners. One second of inattention can be disastrous. I spoke to a tow truck driver that also does mountain rescue there and he had story after story of guys plowing off the million dollar highway. I guess they get tired of pulling tourists off the valley floors. Anyway here's a pic on the Yankee Boy Basin trail near the current Revenue mine.



The grasshoppers own this place!

 

nice! post some more pics if you can.

 

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This is a trail heading up one of the Red Mountain peaks that comes off 550 directly across from where the Black Bear Pass trail heads to Telluride. Shortly after leaving this trail my idler pulley seized and broke my serpentine. There is no cell service at the top of Red Mountain Pass but I coasted down towards Silverton several miles until I got a signal. Pretty hairy with the engine off, no power steering and no brake booster!