Colorado Off Road: Medano Pass to Great Sand Dunes NP

[Craig]

Ran this east to west the other day as a back way into the Great Sand Dunes NP. 10/10 would recommend. I've done trails in Oregon, including a Jeep badge of honor trail, and Moab, and I have to say this was more fun than many others. I would call it moderate; it's fun and a breeze if you know what you're doing but might seem technical for beginners. There are over a dozen water crossing on the dunes side of the pass, 9 of which are official creek crossings. There isn't enough sand to be worried about; my 265s at 30psi hardly slipped... ever. On the east side of the pass there are several technical easy rock crawls and some steep angles, even one climb with small 6" steps in the pic attached. I toyed with 4 low and locker but it's definitely passable without them. With them it was a piece cake, point and go. I have a 2019 FX4 since new with 32" AT tires and Fox 2.0 leveling kit and didn't touch once; the Ranger is a beast! The dunes themselves are incredible and a great place to kill an afternoon. Too bad NFS doesn't allow an off road park in the dunes. Fall was the perfect time of year for this trail.

In a common offroader's book this is a blue. They use a familiar scale of green (easy), blue (moderate), red (hard/black-diamond). I agree.

Edit -- forgot to mention, got all the way to the park and guess what the park ranger vehicles are? Ranger XL FX4s ??

Name of the bokk looks like something I need

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[WingShot]

Looks like FunTreks "Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails". That one concentrates on trails South of I-70, they have a "Northern Colorado" edition as well.

 

[dtech]

As an fyi both Imogene Pass and Black Bear Pass in the Telluride area are closed for the season owing to mudslides. Just spent a week in the Crested Butte area and rained every day, lengthy monsoonal moisture this year in CO. Have been camping at several mountain lakes this summer that decades past only saw a few fishermen in float tubes or canoes on the lakes, now standup paddle boards proliferate with many paddle boarders in swimsuits inc some gals clad in bikinis, a distraction to those of us there to fish. But shows how much the weather has warmed in the high country from decades past.

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