Engineer Pass (part of the Alpine Loop)

Difficulty Rating: 3. (Peter Massey gives this a 4, TrailDamage gives it a 3. The day I traveled it, it was a 3 but it may be worse depending on weather and condition) You definitely need low range for this trail and higher clearance than stock would be nice but not required with careful driving. We followed a stock second genearation Nissan Pathfinder for a while, and I'm sure it didn't have many issues with the difficulty. There is no way my stock Jeep Patriot could handle this road, mostly because of the lack of low range, but the poor clearance would make it difficult as well.

EDIT 2016: The trail was much more torn up for the first part just after leaving the pavement. It is a solid 4 as of 2016.

Location: This starts just north of Ouray, CO and comes out at Lake City. This is part of the popular Alpine Loop.

Trailhead: The West side is 3.3 miles south of Ouray from the turn-off to Box Canyon Falls on the Million Dollar Highway (Highway 550). The East side is at the corner of 1st St and Bluff St in Lake City.

Coordinates for the west side are: 37.988642, -107.649686. Coordinates for the East Side are 38.026923, -107.319492. I changed what coordinate system I am using because I can easily get this format from Google Maps, which is much quicker than getting the coordinates from the gps on my phone like I have been doing.

Engineer Pass was completed in 1877 and was mainly a stagecoach and freight route for the mining camps in the area. You pass many mines and the remaining buildings while traveling on this road. Many of the mines are still open. I didn't explore any of the mines because going on this run was a spur-of-the-moment decision. These mines were not operated for long since it was too expensive and time consuming to transport the ore and equipment.

The scenery on this road is breathtaking. My wife started rolling her eyes because I wanted to stop at every turn and take another picture. This is the reason I moved to Colorado, and this road did not disappoint. The sign at Engineer Pass states the elevation is a modest 12,800 ft in elevation. Before you cross the pass, you are a little higher in elevation and you drive down to get to the pass.

One of the highlights of the road is Oh! Point. There is a turn off 0.4 miles just west of the pass. This is a short road that is less than a quarter mile but ends on top of a knoll that gives you a near 360 degree view of the mountains in the area. This was one of the best views of the San Juan Mountains that I have seen so far, and I recommend taking a few minutes to see it.

This road is part of the Alpine Loop, along with Cinnamon Pass Trail (which I haven't done yet, but it is on my list). You can do both of these trails in one day. Engineer Pass took us about 4.5 hours from start to finish, including a lunch stop. From what I have read, Cinnamon Pass takes about 2 hours and is a little easier. Since we started late, we didn't reach Lake City until about 4:30 in the afternoon, and it would have taken another 4 hours to get back home if we did Cinnamon Pass so we decided to do it another day.

All and all, it was a fun day. And on our way home I convinced my wife to take a "short cut" on the way home across Sapinero Mesa, which in my defense actually cut some time off our 2.5 hour drive home.

Here is the KML.

 This was a fun shelf road at the beginning.

 There must have been a small snow slide during the winter,

now the river cut a hole through it.

 That is Poughkeepsie Gulch road in the background. If you 

want to travel up the gulch, you start from Engineer Pass. It

is a fun Jeep Road that requires a fairly modified vehicle.

 This was a fun marshy meadow with these pretty flowers.

This was only a few miles before you reach the pass.

 12,800 ft high!

 We sure know how to pick a good lunch spot!

This is a panoramic shot from Oh! Point taken with 

Tiona's phone. Zoom in so you can get an idea

of the view you have. It still doesn't do it justice.