Badge of Honor Trails in Southern CO

[bigcheeshead]

Hello everyone,

I will be heading up to Colorado in August with my club to conquer the following 4 trails over a 3 day weekend.
Black Bear Pass
Engineer Pass
Imogene Pass
Ophir Pass

We will have 10 or so Jeeps in our groups, all with extensive offroading experience. For those that are local or have done this trip in the past, can you please advise what would be the best central location to camp/hotel and have a base with easy access to the trails above, or would you recommend switching towns every night? Also, what would be the order to take these trails for maximum efficiency without doing much back tracking on the HWY's?

If anyone interested in joining our Adventure, link below:
https://www.meetup.com/valley-gladiators/events/290376156/

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[dajudge]

You don't need to move. None of these trails are far apart.
Engineer and return on Cinnamon.
Black Bear Return on Imogene or Ophir
Imogene return on Ophir or Last Dollar (or the reverse)
If you can work it in, run Corkscrew-Hurricane-California passes down to Animas Forks. It is a beautiful run.
Camping:
Last Dollar Road
off 550 at the base of Corkscrew.
There are two roads that lead north out of Silverton, both have camping.
There is also some sites just south of Ouray up 16 by the Amphitheater Campground
If you want a campground the KOA north of Ouray is the best but it might be too late to get a spot.
Hotels:
Ouray, SIlverton, Telluride (a little less central) are the most central locations.
You will be driving some pavement between trails but the scenery is amazing so it will be fine.

 

[jeepers29]

What @dajudge said. You can try and get a spot at the 4J campground in downtown Ouray. We stay there every year. Great little spot that is family run and walking distance to town.

 

[RanchoShocks]

This guy SW Colorado's!!! LOL

If you get into Telluride "early" enough stop by Brown Dog Pizza or Smuggler's for lunch.

You don't need to move. None of these trails are far apart.
Engineer and return on Cinnamon.
Black Bear Return on Imogene or Ophir
Imogene return on Ophir or Last Dollar (or the reverse)
If you can work it in, run Corkscrew-Hurricane-California passes down to Animas Forks. It is a beautiful run.
Camping:
Last Dollar Road
off 550 at the base of Corkscrew.
There are two roads that lead north out of Silverton, both have camping.
There is also some sites just south of Ouray up 16 by the Amphitheater Campground
If you want a campground the KOA north of Ouray is the best but it might be too late to get a spot.
Hotels:
Ouray, SIlverton, Telluride (a little less central) are the most central locations.
You will be driving some pavement between trails but the scenery is amazing so it will be fine.

 

[dajudge]

I didn't know about 3J. will have to look into it, and Brown Dog is a great place for lunch!
There are also a couple of campgrounds up Camp Bird road outside of Ouray.

 

[teamblkdog]

Angel Creek Campground just outside of Ouray.

 

[bigcheeshead]

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

 

[jeepers29]

I didn't know about 3J. will have to look into it, and Brown Dog is a great place for lunch!
There are also a couple of campgrounds up Camp Bird road outside of Ouray.

Sorry, I miss typed. It is 4 J's camp ground. And yes, Brown Dog Pizza is awesome but always packed.

 

[Orange01z28]

I was going to go on that trip until the dates got changed/son's baseball went nuts this summer

It should be a blast

 

[WILDHOBO]

Hello everyone,

I will be heading up to Colorado in August with my club to conquer the following 4 trails over a 3 day weekend.
Black Bear Pass
Engineer Pass
Imogene Pass
Ophir Pass

We will have 10 or so Jeeps in our groups, all with extensive offroading experience. For those that are local or have done this trip in the past, can you please advise what would be the best central location to camp/hotel and have a base with easy access to the trails above, or would you recommend switching towns every night? Also, what would be the order to take these trails for maximum efficiency without doing much back tracking on the HWY's?

If anyone interested in joining our Adventure, link below:
https://www.meetup.com/valley-gladiators/events/290376156/

What, no Poughkeepsie?

 

[molevich]

My buddies and I are heading there for a week at the end of July first week of August for the same adventure. We are staying in one campground except for one night where we will do Engineer and Cinnamon. We want to take our time on those trails and then go play around Poughkeepsie before heading back to camp.

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