Difficulty Rating: 2. There were a few spots that you would need a little higher clearance than a passenger car, but in dry conditions you won't really need 4-wheel drive. If you are travelling south (Ridgeway to Telluride), you go down the steepest section. If you start from Telluride you go up the steepest section.
Location: It is between highway 62 and Telluride, it is a "short-cut" from Ridgeway to Telluride that will add about an hour to the trip unless you stop for a lot of pictures. We did this trail on our way south of Telluride to go to Alta Lakes and Ophir Pass.
Trailhead: The north end starts 12.1 miles west of Ridgeway, CO on Highway 62, measured from the intersection of highways 62 and 550. The coordinates are 38.099930, -107.912448 (38°05'59.8"N 107°54'44.8"W).
The south end starts 0.2 east of the roundabout going into Telluride on Highway 145. It is the first turn to the north (left if going into Telluride). The road is paved for 1.9 miles and then you come to a "Y" in the road. The left fork goes into the Telluride Airport, the right fork is a dirt road and is Last Dollar Road. The GPS coordinates of the turn-off by the roundabout are 37.950722, -107.868239 (37°57'02.6"N 107°52'05.7"W) and the coordinates of the "Y" are 37.953011, -107.894551 (37°57'10.8"N 107°53'40.4"W).
The trail is pretty well marked. There are signs from the pavement marking Last Dollar Road and it is fairly straight forward to follow once on the dirt road. There is one turn that is easy to miss if you are traveling from Ridgeway to Telluride. The north side is an easy graded road that allows quick travel. At 38.050736, -107.957224 (38°03'02.6"N 107°57'26.0"W) Last Dollar Road turns to the left. If you missed the turn-off and continue straight the road turns into Sawpit Road. If you follow Sawpit Road, you will still get to Highway 145. If you stay on Sawpit Road I believe a passenger car could go the entire way. If you go left at this intersection to stay on Last Dollar Road, this is where it becomes less maintained but still easy enough for a vehicle with a little more clearance than a passenger car.
The scenery is great on this trail, and you get some spectacular views of the San Juan Mountains. There are a lot of aspen trees and I am told it is gorgeous in the fall. It is also neat to come down and see the Telluride Airport from above. If you look at the pictures below, you can see the airport ends at the edge of a steep drop-off. People say this makes for a thrilling take-off and landing because the airport is perched on the edge of a mountainous drop-off.
Another interesting factoid for all the John Wayne fans out there: the ranch in True Grit is located on Last Dollar Road.
This was a fun aspen grove. If you look closely,
the trees aren't all growing straight up. They were
growing in many different ways making it a neat picture.
Here is a view from above the airport. You can see that
it ends right at the edge of the steep drop-off.
Another view from lower down at how the airport
just stops at the edge.
No comments:
Post a Comment