For the last several years, once a year, we have been coming up from Texas to ride in Red River, NM. While it is a fun time and the camping is great I am looking for a change.

Anyone have some good ideas of ride areas that offer a lot of riding, enough for 4 days of riding. I am not looking for something crazy extreme but not just gravel bladed roads either. I would like to camp and be able to ride from camp or trailer a short distance to ride as well. We ride 4X4 utility quads.

I looked at the alpine loop trail which looked ok but I have not been on any trails in colorado before.

Please someone give me some good ideas. Trip will probably be in July.


Thanks for the help.

 

Rico Colorado has been my little secret since i was a little kid growing up in colorado. It is a tiny town about 30 miles from telluride. There are really rough forest service roads and trails that run for hundreds of miles in every direction. Rico itslef sits at almost 10,000 Feet in elevation so it is beautiful high country. I am not sure what kind of riding you are looking for but you may wan tto check it out. It may not be a great spot if your not fimilure with the area the trails and roads can become a maze if you don't know where your going and there are very limited maps on the area.

 

Visiting Daughter and family in Cheyenne Wy. Planning a quick trip to the Snowy Mtns outside Larimie.

Also looking for advise as where to go and cautions. I ride N. Fla mostly so this is new for me.

We would like some direction to ride new areas close by.

 

For lots of good folks and good reading about riding in Colorado, check out atvquadsquad dot com. look in the rocky mountain rock hoppers section..

 

JBH,

I too have ridden Red River and loved it for it being 10 hours from Dallas, but I have also ridden the Alpine Loop. I enjoyed the Alpine for its well marked routes, easy riding, and outstanding views. However, I find that many people can get to this area and see the same things with your average urban 4x4. That bores me some for I want to use my ATV to reach the secluded areas that only the few can see. I want the unposted areas that can't be found by the WEB's Search engine by putting in "ATV Trails in Colorado". I'm fantasizing, but I hope readers and ATV lovers can point the real "Searchers" in the right area.

4 of us are going to Colorado in July also and since this is my second ATV trip to the Rockies I have to rely on those books and trial guides. I think I want to see Talyor Park and camp near the lake. It looks like trails can carry you to Aspen and Crested Butte for many, many miles. I would like to try Pearl Pass. ST. Elmo looks like a short truck drive to get to. We may try that, too.

I liked RancherATCrazy's suggestion on Rico. I've never been there, but my last trip carried me from Ouray to Telluride over the Imogene Pass, which was absolutely the best 18 mile trip I've ever had on an ATV. One of our members had jetting issues with his Suzuki Vinson at the top of Imogene. It wouldn't crank, so he "coasted" down for 5 miles using only his breaks. He loved it.

Good luck. I hope you find the best. I won't be hard to come close no matter where you go in Colorado.

 

daring, No need to haule the machines to ST Elmo, Just ride them there. I have done it a few times from Taylor. I am planing my 4th trip to Taylor for this August. St Elmo is actualy only abought 32 miles from the Taylor Resivor if you go over Tin Cup Pass. I have never taken this rout because all my past trips have been to early in the year and Tin Cup has always been snowed in yet in late June early July when I have been there. I have always taken Hankoc pass and have had to literaly shovel that one open once to make it thew. I just got home from riding in the Black Hills yesterday and am anxiouse as all get out for Taylor this year. Personaly nothing I have ever riden compares to Taylor. If you want more detailed directions on some of the trails in the area let me know. If you do go to St. Elmo you MUST go up Mt Antero. It is the highlight of the St Elmo area.

 

BKrukow,
We were planning the dates of July 15 - 19th. Do you think some passes will be blocked by the snow? Do you suggest that we use Taylor Park as a base-camp or can we load up our quads and camp on the trail? I can do either way. The books I've read make it sound like you can ride hundreds of miles without trailering. We just need to make sure we can get to gas stations to refill.

Daring

 

BKrukow,
I am also interested in the Taylor area. Is this a place where you can ride miles and miles of trails. How difficult are the trails? Is it mainly fire roads? Will stock tires be fine on my rancher?

Also is there a place to camp, we usually camp in Red River, NM in the national forest just off the road so you can ride from camp. Or is it some type of organized camping where you pay a fee and are too close to other campers?

How about elevation, how high will it be. I have never jetted in NM but we usually ride between 8000-11000 ft. It runs weak but it runs.

We like to run about 50 miles per day when we ride, will there be plenty of opportunity for this?

Thanks for the help.

 

You will definatly run into some snow but that is the time frame that a lot of the higher elevations start to open. Personaly I always use Taylor park as base camp. It is centraly located in the middle of the trails and you can go a diferent direction every day. This year will be the 3rd time I have rented a cabin at the Trading Post but I have also used a camper parked in Union Park(big open grassy area a few miles south of the resivor). The cabins usaly fill a year in advance so you must plan early to get in there. There is gas and food and a small VERY expensive convienence store available at the resivore. As far as camping on the trail it is up to you. I would like to try it some day but the wife is not fond of pitching a tent in the midle of cat teritory. You will absolutly NEED to bring gas along if you wana get vary far from camp/cabin. There is not much of anywhere to fill up other than in Pitkin abought 30 miles to the south of the resivor and at the Trading Post rite on the resivore. I always take at least an extra 2 gallons per machine along on the trail.

A DEFINATE MUST is to go into the Trading Post general store and ask for a trail map. They are not cheap but they are buy far and away the best trail map I have found of the area. Just ask them for the best trail map they have. If you get this map you will see that it is NOT nesasary to ride on much of any of the gravel roads because there are trails that go in th esame direction most of the time. The only time it is absolutly nesasary to get on the roads is if you go north twords Aspen(60 miles north of the resivore) then the first few miles are gravel but if you use a good trail map you can plan a rout that minimizes road time.

AMUST SEE in the area is American Flag Mountain. Buy far and away the best veiw available in the area(and the tallest and steipest cliffs to fall off of.) There are 2 ways up it so if one is snowed under try the other.(Italian Creek on the north face and Spring Creek Resivor to the south.

Also Mt Antero in St Elmo. It is a VERY long climb and is Very high but also Very fun.

The best group of people to talk to abought Taylor or Colorado in General is the guys and gals at ATVQUADSQUAD.COM in the Rocky Mountain Rock Hoppers forum. They have enough pics of the area to take you on vertial tour withought ever leaving your computer seat.

http://atvquadsquad.com/eve/ubb.x

http://taylorparktradingpost.com/

Any more questions just ask or post them at ATVQUADSQUAD.COM.

 

jbh-Your stock tires will be fine. Personaly I always rejet because the lowest you will ever be in Taylor is abought 8500' and it goes up to as high as 14,000' if you want. It will help in the power department and fuel milage as well. Most of the riding is between 8500 and 12000'. There are literaly thousands of miles of trails in this area. My first trip out there we stopped and talked to a forst ranger in a park and he said ther where over 1000 miles of mapped trails in his district. We always average around 100 miles a day and as high as 150 miles on a long day. The trails are definatly NOT graded gravel roads. you will have to ride some gravel roads to conect some of th etrails but I always try to minimize it. Most every day we spend all day goin out on the trails then if we dont alow enough time to return on the trails we will use the gravel roads to get back before dark. As far as camping is concerned the hole national forest is open to camping. Lat time I went out I rented a 30 foot camper and towed it along and parked it out in the boonies off a dirt trail and stayed there the hole time. If you wany camp in a actual camp ground there are several of them but most dont have any hockups at all so you just pay a fee to stay there for nothing in my book. The only one with hookups is located at teh Trading Post (see link above).

I cant stress it enough to go to ATVQUADSQUAD.COM and check out there Rock Hoppers section. Start looking for or just ask for pics of the area and you will be floded with Hours and Hours of pics to look at that will have you packing yet tonight.
Here are a few to get ya started. All the places in these pics that are in albums labeled CO(for Colorado) are accesible from Taylor withought ever loading the machines.

http://community.webshots.com/user/pest44/0

Here are some more.

http://community.webshots.com/user/_prospector7

Warning there are several hours worth of pics to look at on these two sites.