Black Bear Pass and Last Dollar Road

[Greg]

A couple weekends back we took a trip down to the San Juans and finally ran Black Bear Pass. We've been in Colorado for a few years and kept missing our chance to run the infamous Black Bear Pass, but it was on the 'must-do' list this year. We loaded up the 4Runner with snacks, drinks, lunch and headed to the San Juans and the trailhead for Black Bear.

The trail starts quite high from the highway, but climbs quickly. We stopped to soak in the view on the way to the summit.

We made the summit around lunch time, so broke out the food and enjoyed our meal at 12,840 feet. The weather was nice, but there was a pretty stiff wind blowing, making it quite brisk outside. We took some more photos at the summit and finished eating. We even had the company of a Whistlepig at the summit.

We turned downhill towards Telluride... it's a long way down! The road was in good shape and the views were amazing. A group of motorcycles passed us and I was immediately jealous, I really want to ride this one. There's only a few death-defying parts...

 

[Greg]

Telluride... waaaaaaay down below. The mountain flowers were in bloom and the valley was as green as could be. There were a handful of old mines scattered about and some neat structures from those good old mining days.

This spot is know as 'the Stairs' and it's a bit sketchy... off-camber ledges with a massive drop right in front of you and the town of Telluride thousands of feet bleow. The vehicle is tippy and you're seeing nothing but the valley far below... it had me spooked, Catherine wanted out of the car.

 

[Greg]

More from the sketchy descent.... I'll be honest, I was less concerned about taking good photos and missed some of the stuff I wanted to photograph. My mind was elsewhere. The Power House and Bridal Veil Falls were amazing, as usual.

 

[Greg]

Sadly we didn't see any Black Bears on Black Bear Pass... Catherine has never seen one, so we were looking! Towards the bottom of the switchbacks we found many raspberry bushes and picked until the Wife was happy. Later that night I had icecream with fresh raspberries.... it was yumy!

Instead of taking the paved roads on our way home, we hit Last Dollar Road over to Ridgeway. It was a neat drive, not nearly as challenging, but the scenery was again top-notch.

Here's a link to the photo album if you'd like to see all the pics from the drive.-

http://greg-catherine.smugmug.com/Travel/Black-Bear-Pass-and-Last/9298211_JXii7#621405893_NvTTB

 

[bryson]

Man that's purdy.

 

[Greg]

Man that's purdy.

Yeah.... so where's your trip report from the San Juans??

 

[Rot Box]

Great pics! One day :-\

 

[Paudrhound]

Nice! thanks for sharing

 

[DaveB]

Looks like a lot of fun and great scenery.

 

[4554x4]

C.W. McCall

Hey Greg, you should have listened to C. W. mcCall before you ran this trail. You would have gone alone,as Catherine would have stayed home! Here is the lyrics to Black bear road. It is much funnier if you hear it with the banjos etc.

(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries, Chip Davis)

Me an' RJ an' the kids was on a camp-out in the mountains, and we had us one'a them U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep cars which we rented from a fella by the name of Kubozke for thirty bucks a day, buy your gas along the way, take a rabbit's foot and leave a pint of blood for a dee-posit.

And he 'splained it all to us how we was supposed to get to Telluride, which is fifty miles away by way of the regular highway, however, there was a shortcut but unless we had drove the Black Bear Road before, we'd better be off to stay, stay in bed and sleep late. (Pay no attention to the gitar there.)

Well, we took up off'n the highway and we come upon a sign says "Black Bear Road. You don't have to be crazy to drive this road, but it helps." I says, "RJ, this must the shortcut road Kubozke was talkin' about." She didn't pay no mind, 'cause she was makin' peanut butter sandwiches for the kids in the back seat throwin' rocks and drinkin' Kool-Aid and playin' count-the-license-plates. But they wasn't havin' too much fun a-countin' license plate or cars, 'cause there weren't no other cars.

We went about a mile-and-a-half in about four hours, busted off the right front fender, tore a hole in the oil pan on a rock as big as a hall closet. Went over a bump and spilt the Kool-Aid and Roy Gene stuck his bolo knife right through the convertible top and the dog threw up all over the back seat. Peanut butter don't agree with him, you see.

So we had to stop and take off the top and air everything out and clean it up. The dog run off and RJ says she felt her asthma comin' on. I was sittin' there wonderin' what to do when the en-tire scenic San Joo-wan U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car sank in the mud. At thirteen thousand feet above sea level.

Well, we shoveled it out and ate our lunch, the dog made a yellow hole in the snow and Roy Gene got out his Instamatic and took a snapshot of it. Mary Elizabeth drawed a picture of the road; it looked like a whole bunch a' Zs and Ws all strung together. And RJ took one look at it and said that the only way that Jeep car is goin' down that road is over her dead body. Then a rock slipped out from under the wheel and the U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car went right over the edge of the cliff. Yahoo-oo-oo-oo!

"Doggone-it, Roy Gene! How many times do I have to 'splain it to you? When I tell you to put a rock under the wheel, I mean rock! Now look at that, what you have there is no bigger'n a grapefruit."

 

[Twisted]

Definately on the list of things to do! Great report & pics!

 

[Grim]

wow , that place looks awesome , nice pics!

 

[Brian P]

This is an AWESOME trip, We did it a few years ago.
Once you get to the ruined building before the Power Station, Thats where the fun really begins
Great pic's and nice score on the raspberries

 

[Houndoc]

I think my wife and oldest daughter would have spent a lot of time out of the car and walking!

Based on the photos, it looks more spooky than difficult. Is that correct? How rough/difficult of a road is it?

 

[BroncoMama]

Looks like a fabulous trip! Excellent score on the raspberries, we missed our moment of opportunity this year unfortunately. It's scary how short the season is up there. Driving over Molas on Sunday morning we saw fresh snow on Vestal Peak already.

 

[Shawn]

That is cool, did that Marment take that photo of you two.........?

 

[ID Bronco]

Hey Greg, you should have listened to C. W. mcCall before you ran this trail. You would have gone alone,as Catherine would have stayed home! Here is the lyrics to Black bear road. It is much funnier if you hear it with the banjos etc.

(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries, Chip Davis)

Me an' RJ an' the kids was on a camp-out in the mountains, and we had us one'a them U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep cars which we rented from a fella by the name of Kubozke for thirty bucks a day, buy your gas along the way, take a rabbit's foot and leave a pint of blood for a dee-posit.

And he 'splained it all to us how we was supposed to get to Telluride, which is fifty miles away by way of the regular highway, however, there was a shortcut but unless we had drove the Black Bear Road before, we'd better be off to stay, stay in bed and sleep late. (Pay no attention to the gitar there.)

Well, we took up off'n the highway and we come upon a sign says "Black Bear Road. You don't have to be crazy to drive this road, but it helps." I says, "RJ, this must the shortcut road Kubozke was talkin' about." She didn't pay no mind, 'cause she was makin' peanut butter sandwiches for the kids in the back seat throwin' rocks and drinkin' Kool-Aid and playin' count-the-license-plates. But they wasn't havin' too much fun a-countin' license plate or cars, 'cause there weren't no other cars.

We went about a mile-and-a-half in about four hours, busted off the right front fender, tore a hole in the oil pan on a rock as big as a hall closet. Went over a bump and spilt the Kool-Aid and Roy Gene stuck his bolo knife right through the convertible top and the dog threw up all over the back seat. Peanut butter don't agree with him, you see.

So we had to stop and take off the top and air everything out and clean it up. The dog run off and RJ says she felt her asthma comin' on. I was sittin' there wonderin' what to do when the en-tire scenic San Joo-wan U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car sank in the mud. At thirteen thousand feet above sea level.

Well, we shoveled it out and ate our lunch, the dog made a yellow hole in the snow and Roy Gene got out his Instamatic and took a snapshot of it. Mary Elizabeth drawed a picture of the road; it looked like a whole bunch a' Zs and Ws all strung together. And RJ took one look at it and said that the only way that Jeep car is goin' down that road is over her dead body. Then a rock slipped out from under the wheel and the U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car went right over the edge of the cliff. Yahoo-oo-oo-oo!

"Doggone-it, Roy Gene! How many times do I have to 'splain it to you? When I tell you to put a rock under the wheel, I mean rock! Now look at that, what you have there is no bigger'n a grapefruit."

What does this say about me if I know this by heart?

 

[4554x4]

What does this say about me if I know this by heart?

Im not sure, but I showed my boss this trip report, and he mentioned this song. I listened to it, then remembered it. It put a smile on my face, then I knew I must share it!

 

[Greg]

Glad you all enjoyed the report, I really think everyone ought to make a trip to the San Juans at least once in their life. There's so much to see down there, but Black Bear has to be one of the bigger highlights.

Hey Greg, you should have listened to C. W. mcCall before you ran this trail. You would have gone alone,as Catherine would have stayed home! Here is the lyrics to Black bear road. It is much funnier if you hear it with the banjos etc...

I've heard of it, but never listened to it. I had to listen to it tonight, pretty funny.

I think my wife and oldest daughter would have spent a lot of time out of the car and walking!

Based on the photos, it looks more spooky than difficult. Is that correct? How rough/difficult of a road is it?

Catherine would have been walking had I let her. I talked her into staying in the 4Runner.

You hit the nail on the head... it's a rocky road on the side of a mountain. There are a handful of tight switchbacks which require a smaller vehicle. There's no way in hell I'd take a full-size truck over Black Bear due to those switchbacks. I think most shorter, stock 4x4's would be fine. The tires we got off the ground were because I was trying...

That is cool, did that Marment take that photo of you two.........?

Yeah, little bastard ran off with the camera, chirping all the way! We had to send Daisy after him.

 

[EROK81?]

I absolutely hated that decent when I did that trail. I had to three point a couple of those switch backs. I have no desire to do it again.