Builds The Story of Blue (1 Viewer)

[ClassyJalopy]

Day 8 Continues: Silverton, Ouray and Million Dollar Highway
Ophir pass delivered us to the CO-550 (aka Million Dollar Highway) just north of Silverton. Our stay in Silverton was short but sweet - I can see why HIH chose this as their gathering point. Dramatic mountain views, cute town settings and easy access to a ton of interesting trails!
We saw a couple interesting sites, had some ice cream!
Million Dollar highway is a fun twisty road with lots and lots of cool scenery. Made a quick stop at Ouray to check out the naturally heated spring pools, have a quick bite at the local Thai place (yes, Thai food in Western Colorado was actually recommended by a local and was actually good ).

 

[RoaringFork]

Day 6: Pearl Pass
I was nervous about this one. This is about 20 mile long pass that goes through very remote area and sees almost no traffic at all! @Trukk ran it solo a day before me in his shiny LX570 (Correction: Dusty LC 200 ) and reportedly has no issues. @a_traut_man and @RoaringFork both told me it is doable.
Still, I was worried about being solo, with 3 little kids - what if the worst case happens and I get stuck? We could be stuck in wilderness for days! I seriously considered not running it at all.

But my wife told me I worry too much and I should definitely try it. And I am glad I did!!

We loaded up with extra drinking water, food and filled the 40G fuel tank for extra precaution and set off from the Aspen side! Happy to report it was a blast. There are certainly some challenging rock crawling sections and many, many narrow shelves and long stretches of boulder fields with bowling ball size rocks that make for slow going.

Total end to end time was 6 hours, with about 4.5 hours of actual drive time. We saw only a couple of KTM riders, who very kindly reminded us that we are foolish to attempt the pass in a Lexus and that they have seen a couple of lifted Jeeps turning back to the the Crested Butte side after getting stuck!

Of course, I don't have any pics of the hard stuff - only the scenic parts where I got off and let the kids run around and chase marmots!

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Our conversation really motivated me to summit pearl. Here is a genuine thank you for getting it off my list!!

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Our conversation really motivated me to summit pearl. Here is a genuine thank you for getting it off my list!!

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Did you run it from Aspen to CB?

 

[RoaringFork]

Did you run it from Aspen to CB?

I did up and back down the aspen side… we talked about doing a loop through CB and back over schofield pass, but chose against due to time… one of the other 80s went on to CB(then kebler pass back), and got stuck in trail traffic due to a break down… dodged that bullet.

 

[a_traut_man]

Y’all hit all of the good runs, looks like a heck of a trip. Estimate on how many off-road miles you did?

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Y’all hit all of the good runs, looks like a heck of a trip. Estimate on how many off-road miles you did?

Hard to tell! Off road miles take so much longer than on road miles that they always feel more than they really are.
I'd estimate we probably ran 50 to 60 miles of off road total.

Which almost negligible compared to abt 2800 miles on road!

 

[2020 Rocks]

300+ miles trip, maiden voyage after timing belt and new rear globes, heavily laden and never skipped a beat!
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but what was your average speed?

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Day 9: Mesa Verde NP and Durango
Took another day to spend outside the truck to give my family a little break from all the driving. Did a quick tour of the Mesa Verde NP and marveled at the Puebloan dwelling in cliffs. The entrance to the park is right on the highway but everything worth looking at, is about an hour away from the entrance!

Durango is a small but happening town! Wish we had more time than just an afternoon. Took a very mild rafting trip down Animas River. Hope to come back soon!

Western Colorado has amazing views like these literally everywhere!

Nom, Nom!

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Day 10: Moab/Arches National Park!!
At this point, we were supposed to start driving 1200+ miles to come home but I was able to convince someone to drive it back for us from Denver. That way we could take a couple of extra days to roam around and then fly back home!
So - we decided to check out Moab. I have heard so much about this town and it's proximity to great NPs but never had a chance to visit. There is a lot to see and do here - but unfortunately we had only 2 days to spend here!

First, stop was Arches NP. Ran a couple of short off road trails to 'Eye of the Whale' and Tower Arch. First one was a pretty easy trail. Tower Arch trail was about 7.2 miles of corrugated washboard which was unpleasant. Then the last 1.8 or miles was soft sand with a few pretty gnarly rock crawling sections. Add a couple of easy hikes to a few other areas of the park and you have a pretty fun, full day at Arches!

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Day 11: Moab
Woke up early to knock out the 3.2 mile hike to the delicate arch. Kids were troopers and didn't complain about the hot weather or strenuous climb!
Drove to Dead Horse State Park (great expansive views of the Colorado River Canyon) and Canyonlands NP. There are a couple of famous off road trails in Canyonlands (Shafer Trail and White Rim Trail) but we didn't have time.

ON our way back we drove the Long Canyon trail, which is a pretty scenic trail that connects to 279 at Potash and delivers you to Moab. Quick 30 min ride and not much challenging, we didn't even air down!


Came back to Arches NP and hiked up to the Windows and other arches and experienced the desert sunset! Had dinner at Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant which was pretty good!
Then headed back into the park to look at Arches lit by a full moon! Night at the Arches NP was surreal - lots of ppl still hiking at night and scenery becomes out of this world beautiful. As usual, all my night pictures were crap and not worth sharing anywhere!

Good Bye Moab! Hope to see you again soon!

Long Canyon Rd

Entry lines at Arches NP!

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Check out my experiment with YouTube videos. A quick video of the Ophir Pass Summit:

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Mileage: 200,295
Just got the truck back last night and noticed that I have joined the 200k club!
Maintenance day today:

• Engine oil/filter
• Transmission Drain and fill
• Power steering flush (still working on it)

 

[87warrior]

Killer trip! It's been a few years (okay, maybe a dozen years) since I have been over Pearl Pass. I assume it is still a rough SOB.

If you are ever back in Kansas, shoot me a message. You went riiiiight by me.

 

[Kabanstva]

Pearl Pass and Taylor pass were the highlights of our trip at HIH8. We went away from the group with a local Colorado expert that lead the way and showed us the area. No way we would’ve done it alone.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Mileage: 200,295
Just had got the truck back last night and noticed that I have joined the 200k club!
Maintenance day today:

• Engine oil/filter
• Transmission Drain and fill
• Power steering flush (still working on it)

My PS pump was still screaming, so I tried to take off the reservoir and clean the filter. Well, it was badly gunked up so I ended up getting a new reservoir and flushing almost 4 quarts of Toyota ATF, using @2001LC method. It is nice and quiet now!

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Mileage 200,500

Knocked out a couple of other small projects:

• Replaced the front HVAC blower motor with a used unit from the part truck I had a few years ago, the old one had started squeaking
• Replaced the cabin air filters with some activate carbon units: Amazon product ASIN B08X8R27JP
• Sealed up all the seams in between the blower box and the evaporator box with black RTV. Also, sealed the cabin filter box cover and the access door with RTV. I have struggled with cold air seeping in the passenger footwell in winter for a while. I am hoping this will cure the issue
• Checked the torque on all the rear control arm bolts - nothing had moved!
• Checked front ball joints and any movement in the front wheel bearings - none found
• I did notice some play when shaking the wheel horizontally - I am assuming it is the play in the steering rack and not the inner tie rods because both the side seems to move equally.

 

[Trapper50cal]

Proposed to my now wife at Park Place in Arches (during Cruise Moab - perfect cover )

Set the camera up on a mini-tripod and set a timed shot - with 3 beeps to go, I dug the box out of my pocket
and got down on one knee. This picture represents the split second before she realizes what's happening.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Proposed to my now wife at Park Place in Arches (during Cruise Moab - perfect cover

Set the camera up on a mini-tripod and set a timed shot - with 3 beeps to go, I dug the box out of my pocket
and got down on one knee. This picture represents the split second before she realizes what's happening.

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Dang man! Can't top that!

 

[2001LC]

My PS pump was still screaming, so I tried to take off the reservoir and clean the filter. Well, it was badly gunked up so I ended up getting a new reservoir and flushing almost 4 quarts of Toyota ATF, using @2001LC method. It is nice and quiet now!
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I prefer Mobil 1 ATF over OEM ATF, but either work fine.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Removed the Eonon 10" floating android unit and replaced with an Alpine ILX-W650 unit. Much smaller screen but better screen quality, Android auto support, no more shaky screen and no more knocking sound from the screen mount.

Before and after:

Also, reached out to ARB support for a broken light cover on my rear bumper. After telling me that there is no replacement part number (you have to buy the whole assembly), they sent me one lens complimentary!! What an awesome after sales support.
It was an easy 30 sec swap!