I rode up Mosquito Pass last Tuesday with a new friend. The name of this trail is a misnomer for Colorado seems to me. No mosquitos here. But this trail is a fun ATV ride. It is a pretty easy trail for an ATV. There were no particularly challenging sections. Lots of rock crawling I suppose, but my Outlander Max had the ground clearance to clear most of them. Our speeds were in the 15 mph range.

I was with a new friend. He rides a 2010 Outlander 850R. I understand this was a good machine in its day. It is still going strong. Maybe he'll let me ride it a bit someday.

The scenery is always good here in Colorado. We went by two old gold mines, and the view from the top of the pass was great. We could see Leadville down the other side of the mountain, but we didn't go on down there. This was a Colorado "Jeep" trail and we met a couple of Jeeps along the way. There was one section that is truly a single lane "shelf trail" with a steep incline on one side and a steep drop off on the other with only about 8' of trail width. We decided to turn around on this section. Made me a bit nervous. Got pretty close to the edge. Anyone have a parachute?

Leadville doesn't allow ATVs on their roads, too bad. A few Colorado towns do. The Forest Service doesn't allow ATVs on their roads either, except where posted. So we drive a gravel road, park by the "ATVs allowed beyond here" sign, and then start our ride on the same gravel road. Seems so silly to me.

Here are a couple of photos I took on our ride. Nothing like boring vacation photos, huh?

David

 

Colorado is beautiful. I've been to Mosquito Pass, 1990??

Thanks for sharing your vacation pictures.

 

Nice pictures.

 

Great scenery. That old mining building looks like its about to fall apart but I'm guessing its looked that way for probably since before atvs even existed.

 

Hi greg74: Actually not according to the fella I was riding with. He said as early as 20 years ago the building was in much better shape. But moisture and heavy snows take their toll. I'm helping my son rebuild his deck this summer. His old one kinda looked like this building, rather dilapidated. Dust to dust goes this old mill building.

Here is a piece of machinery located behind the building. I thought it was a steam engine, but I wonder if it was an air compressor. It says Ingersoll Rand on it. I didn't look closely enough at it.

David