My parents and I ventured up the road that goes to the top of Bald Mountain in my Toyota 4runner. Back when my parents worked for the ranger district here, the fire lookout was always crewed in the summer and someone in a stock pickup could drive to the top with ease. Now it’s a fairly serious 4×4 route with lots of exposed, slick granite covered in fine sand.
We met up with a family in a UTV heading up the way. We stuck together for a while in case anyone had problems. Finally, we reached a patch of slick rock that I wasn’t confident the truck could easily do (no lockers) so I turned around at that point.
Heading along the trail.
My little Toyota out and about.
It’s a really pretty area. Next year once I have lockers, armor, and bigger tires, I should be able to get up to the top without incident.
Heather and I joined the Rising Sun 4×4 Club Argentine Pass trail cleanup run for some Toyota 4×4 fun. We all met up, aired down our tires, and switched on our radios to prepare for the journey up Leavenworth Creek Road and McClellan Mountain Road to the Waldorf Mine site where the Argentine Pass trail cuts away from the rest of the roads. Different 4×4 trail websites report different names for some of these roads. The old Argentine Central Railway grade is listed as the Leavenworth Creek Road on Google Maps and is the more gentle route up to Waldorf Mine. This route is also known as the “high road.” If a person was careful, a stock Subaru should be able to make it up that road without too much difficulty although your mileage may vary. The McClellan Mountain Road follows down below toward the creek and has two water crossings. These crossings were rather deep. I chose not to go this way in my stock 4runner. The McClellan Mountain Road is also known as the “low road” in this area.
We had an impressive array of Toyotas all ready to go at the trailhead.
At the split between the “high road” and “low road.”
Heading up the “high road” to stay away from those multi-foot-deep creek crossings. Later in the season the creek crossings are much more manageable but today there was a great deal of runoff.
We found quite a bit of garbage heading up the “high road.”
There was a lot of junk off to the side of the road!
Lots of pretty flowers near the junk, too.
Starting to approach treeline.
The “high road” leader coming back from checking out a couple campsites off down toward the creek.
What a lovely day in the mountains!
The three of us in the “high road” convoy tried to go on to the Santiago Mine after making it to Waldorf. A large snow drift stopped our progress while we extricated our leader from a slippy situation.
Heather scouted out some pretty wildflowers while us boys and our toys worked to pull out the white Land Cruiser.
My 4runner has a little bit of a snaggletooth after all of the hi-lifting we had to do the other weekend.
Down at Waldorf for lunch and to meet up with the crew that took the “low road.”
It’s a gorgeous view no matter which way you look up here.
The whole crew parked at the Waldorf Mine site.
This winch on an FJ 40 came from Harbor Freight, of all places. The owner reports good performance. I’m thinking of picking one up the next time it is on sale and grabbing some synthetic line from E-Bay.
Supposedly it has a 12000 lb rating on the 1st layer. That’s pretty awesome considering the pricetag.
Some built rigs at lunch.
So many great and diverse Toyotas!
The lunch crew.
A bunch of beautiful Toyotas (and a Lexus) getting ready to head up toward Santiago Mine again.
In one particularly large drift, I snow plowed right up almost to the end. The truck in front of me helped pull me through the last few feet.
Our fearless leader decided to have a run at a particularly large and challenging drift on the way to the Santiago Mine.
We all parked and went up to help him dig out.
It was a gorgeous place to spend a half hour bashing through snow.
What a beautiful place to park!
RIP my little snow shovel. It wasn’t up to the task of the icy layer.
Looking for a bypass road on the MVUM that the forest rangers gave us earlier in the day. There was no way to bypass this snow drift because the potential bypass road had an even bigger drift on it.
Bashing through the snow.
Further up the road, an even bigger drift stymied our progress. The mine was just 1000 feet further on. With a storm closing in, we decided to turn around and head back down the hill.
He made it quite a ways across but then had to be pulled back.
Also there was some danger of slipping down this snow field and making it difficult to get back onto the trail.
I walked over to the mine while our snowbasher was getting pulled out.
The mine looks pretty interesting. I’ll have to come back up here once the snow is a little more melted to check it out.
A somewhat incomplete panorama of the mine site. I didn’t have enough time to really explore. Another time!
Our convoy stymied so close to our goal!
On the way back down, we had a little bit of an issue with the first truck through the big snowy area. It was nothing that a snatch strap couldn’t fix.
The remaining crew down at the bottom airing up tires. Several rigs stayed up in the basin to camp out overnight and several left early to make it back to Denver or to avoid the oncoming storm.
We took the Toyota 4runner out up Cumberland Gulch to see if we could get over the top at Yankee Hill. Much of the trail was acting more like a creek than a dirt road.
The mountains sure are pretty with the new coat of white they received over the last few days.
The road is in decent shape although there was lots of water flowing.
Just before the first snow on the road.
I tore off one of my mud flaps backing up here. Down behind me there was a very large area of mud followed by a bunch of snow. This is Forest Road 271.1F at the intersection with the main trail.
Heading back down the hill through the trail turned creek. The road becomes impassable due to snow at the intersection of 271.1D, 271.1G, and 271.1H. A 3rd gen 4runner was stuck in the snow there. We helped pull them out. We headed down the hill before they tried getting through the snow drifts again. There was another 4×4 farther up the hill that looked like it had chains on. I don’t think anyone will be going over this hill without some serious traction tires and chains for another few weeks.
After heading down to Idaho Springs for some lunch, we went up Oh My God Road, through Nevadaville, and out to Apex to try and get over the top to Tolland. Close to the summit we ran into a very deep snow drift. It was late in the afternoon and the snow had softened up quite a bit. We sunk up to our axles and spent the next two hours using the hi-lift to slowly work our way backwards. The last ten feet, a Toyota Tacoma appeared and snatched us out the rest of the way. This route is going to be closed for at least another couple weeks. Beyond where we became stuck it is one long snow drift to the summit.
We found quite a bit of garbage heading up the “high road.”
Bashing through the snow.
