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Black Bear Pass

Dorbritz

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Jealous. We were there early July but black bear was closed. Did engineer, imogene, Ophir and cinnamon.
Next year!
 
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Higgsh2o

Higgsh2o

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Jealous. We were there early July but black bear was closed. Did engineer, imogene, Ophir and cinnamon.
Next year!
Yes! There is always next year. You can’t go wrong with any of those.
 

NC_Overland

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Awesome pics. I was surprised, after all I’d heard and read, that it’s not a hard trail, but there a pucker factor for sure. Doing it in a stock Frontier didn’t help, the turning radius is shit in those. It did fine otherwise, but they need a half acre to turn around.
 

Mightytalldude

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I couldn't talk my wife into it. Weather was snowy when we were there 2 weeks ago, so not a good time either for tight switch backs. Another time hopefully. Photo is above Tomboy Mine on Imogene not long before we had to turn around.

Jeep Gladiator Black Bear Pass IMG_20200912_190237_476
 
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Higgsh2o

Higgsh2o

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I couldn't talk my wife into it. Weather was snowy when we were there 2 weeks ago, so not a good time either for tight switch backs. Another time hopefully.

Jeep Gladiator Black Bear Pass IMG_20200912_190237_476
I think you made a good decision. I had my family with me and the conditions were dry or I would have never done it.
 

NC_Overland

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Yeah, I’ve been on a CO narrow shelf road (cliff up on one side and cliff down on the other) above the tree line on a narrow trail and ran into an unexpected snow storm. That’s the most scared I’ve ever been off-roading. Of course it got bad in a place where there was nowhere to to turn around and I couldn’t go forward anymore because it got too steep and I was sliding everywhere. I had to back down several hundred yards, which felt like miles, until I came it a spot where I could do a 27 point turn around. I had to floor it in 4lo into the side of the mountain that was less steep and was loose rock and jam by back bumper into the hill and got my old Xterra (2010 Pro-4X) halfway up the hill so I could make the turn around. Luckily, my hitch took 90% of the damage, the trailer wiring took the rest of it. I fixed it up with some sanding and semi gloss black paint and fixed the trailer wiring and you couldn’t really tell anything happened. I didn’t care at that point.

Long story short, it was super duper sketch and I would NOT recommended it.
 

DOOKEY

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Great pics. Thank you for sharing.
 

Mightytalldude

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Yeah, I’ve been on a CO narrow shelf road (cliff up on one side and cliff down on the other) above the tree line on a narrow trail and ran into an unexpected snow storm. That’s the most scared I’ve ever been off-roading. Of course it got bad in a place where there was nowhere to to turn around and I couldn’t go forward anymore because it got too steep and I was sliding everywhere. I had to back down several hundred yards, which felt like miles, until I came it a spot where I could do a 27 point turn around. I had to floor it in 4lo into the side of the mountain that was less steep and was loose rock and jam by back bumper into the hill and got my old Xterra (2010 Pro-4X) halfway up the hill so I could make the turn around. Luckily, my hitch took 90% of the damage, the trailer wiring took the rest of it. I fixed it up with some sanding and semi gloss black paint and fixed the trailer wiring and you couldn’t really tell anything happened. I didn’t care at that point.

Long story short, it was super duper sketch and I would NOT recommended it.
I had at least a 5 point turn around, also slid the back bumper into the ditch. The hitch took the brunt of it also, but still a few small battle scars on the bumper. A Land Cruiser did attempt and make it over a little later as we caught up with them coming off Imogene on the Ouray side, but it took them much longer than usual, and I thought they were foolish for continuing as it was very slick.

IMG_20200912_174950.jpg


IMG_20200912_174938.jpg
 

NC_Overland

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I had at least a 5 point turn around, also slid the back bumper into the ditch. The hitch took the brunt of it also, but still a few small battle scars on the bumper. A Land Cruiser did attempt and make it over a little later as we caught up with them coming off Imogene on the Ouray side, but it took them much longer than usual, and I thought they were foolish for continuing as it was very slick.

Jeep Gladiator Black Bear Pass IMG_20200912_174938


Jeep Gladiator Black Bear Pass IMG_20200912_174938
Yeah, there were two younger guys ahead of me in an older pathfinder with baldish tires at the same spot where I turned around. They were trying to move forward and were slipping around like crazy. I advised them to turn back. A few times actually, but they weren’t hearing it. I always wondered what happened with them. I never saw anything in the news.
 

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PyrPatriot

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I couldn't talk my wife into it. Weather was snowy when we were there 2 weeks ago, so not a good time either for tight switch backs. Another time hopefully. Photo is above Tomboy Mine on Imogene not long before we had to turn around.

Jeep Gladiator Black Bear Pass IMG_20200912_174938
well there goes my idea of visiting it in October
 

Mightytalldude

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well there goes my idea of visiting it in October
The trails in Ouray are usually ok through mid October, this was just a freak early snow storm that hit fast. We were on top of Engineer Pass when it hit. Got down to Lake City and took the really long way back to Ouray up to highway 50 and then back down 550 because of the snow/sleet.

IMG_20200908_124502.jpg


20200908_130422.jpg


20200908_125502.jpg
 
 



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