Mosquito Pass

Rating: 3
The trail has a few loose climbs that require 4-low and a little clearance. A few of the spurs can be more difficult. The spurs we took increase the rating to 4. There was a wash-out that made having a locker nice since I got a tire in the air.

Location
Near Leadville, CO

Trailhead
The eastern trailhead starts in the small town of Alma, CO. It is located off of Colorado Highway 9 between mile markers 68.9 (funny Colorado) and 70 and goes to the west. There is a sign pointing to Mosquito Gulch and the street sign is CR 12.  Coordinates are 39.270465, -106.047439.

The western side starts from Leadville, CO. You take 7th street to the east, this will turn into Rd 3 and will take you up to Mosquito Pass. Coordinates where the dirt road starts are 39.256243, -106.266122.

Description
This is the second highest mountain pass in Colorado with an unimproved road. The elevation of the pass is 13,185 ft. This was an old stagecoach pass.

This is a beautiful road that is a popular pass in Colorado. The scenery is breathtaking. There are a lot of spurs off the main trail going to various mines and can increase the rating a little. If you start from Alma, you go up the loose climbs instead of going down, but there is nothing very technical in either direction if it is dry.

We took a spur going to the South London Mine, which was a fun detour and a great place to eat lunch.

Sorry, no map or GPS files yet since I had to reset my phone and I'm not on the computer where I saved the files.

I just love Colorado mountains! 

Ouch. We had bought the 4-Runner less than 24 hours prior to this trip and only had about 100 miles on it. Oh-well, we bought it to take off road, right? I fixed it with some outdoor, heavy-duty velcro and it worked great. I think I need to get me a steel rear bumper since the overhang is huge and I've hit a few times...

I love this picture with my daughter just enjoying the view with Minnie Mouse. This was at the end of a short spur. 

This is where I ripped part of my bumper off going up. On the way back down I hit it again but not nearly as hard. This was on the short spur that isn't part of Mosquito Pass. 

This is also on the spur. This spot had a small washed-out area that made it a little fun. You can't see it in this picture, but my passenger side rear tire is about 6-8 inches off the ground. Going up this was fun since I got to test my locker out with a tire in the air! I didn't spin a tire at all. 

This is back on the main trail. This is a one of the typical loose climbs. A little clearance and 4-wheel drive was nice. 

 These next few pictures are on the spur to South London Mine. I'll write a separate post about it one of these days, but these are the pictures from the trip. 

 This is the last picture from the South London Mine spur. 

 At the pass! It was a respectable 13,185 ft.