Placer Gulch and Picayune Gulch

Rating: 3
This is a trail that isn't technical, but 4-wheel drive and some clearance is required.

Location
Near Silverton, CO

Trailhead
Picayune Gulch and Placer Gulch are the same road that goes through both gulches. Placer Gulch is on the north side of the mountain and turns into Picayune once you go over the mountain onto the south side.

Picayune Gulch starts at GPS coordinates 37.916421, -107.558061 off of county road 2. This left turn is located 10.6 miles from Silverteron, where county road 2 intersects with Greene St. If you start from this end, you will come to a "Y" in the raod 0.4 miles after leaving county road 2. Stay to the right at this Y.

If you start from the Placer Gulch side, as we did, the turn is located at 37.931705, -107.589775. This turn is located 1.2 miles to the west of Animas Fork along county road 9 (staying to the left as you leave Animas Fork going uphill). Placer Gulch turns to the south from that road.  If you are travelling from California Pass, it is located 2.8 miles after crossing over the pass.

Description
This is a fun detour that bypasses Animas Fork when travelling from California Pass back down to Silverton. I do recommend that you see Animas Fork if you haven't seen it yet. It is just a mile away from the Placer Gultch turn, and definitely worth a visit.

This road takes you along Placer Gulch, over the mountain, and down Picayune (also known as Picayne) Gulch. There are plenty of old mining structures to explore. For some history, you can read this page.

This road has great scenery and a fairly quick climb up to about 12,700 ft. The views are spectacular and exploring the mining structures is an added bonus. This courses through the Alpine Tundra, which I always find makes for beautiful views here in the San Juan Mountains.

Here is the GPS route of our trip. We also did Corkscrew Gulch during the same trip, which is included in the route.

Here is a map of our trip that day including Corckscrew Gulch.

Corkscrew Gulch

Rating: 3
This is a fairly easy trail. I do recommend low range as there are some mildly steep climbs but nothing difficult. There are some shelf roads that can make that can give it a mild pucker factor for those new to the hobby.

Location
Near Ouray, CO

Trailhead
The trail starts south of Ouray, CO on highway 550. The starting point is 7.7 miles south of Ouray measured from the intersection of 3rd and 550 in Ouray. GPS coordinates of the trailhead are 37.939255, -107.671835. If you are heading south from Ouray, the turn is to the left.

There is another right hand turn 0.2 miles after leaving highway 550, there is a sign marking the turn.

Description
This trail was new for me in 2018. It had been on my list since I moved out to the area 4 years ago, and I finally was able to explore this trail. The surface is good, most of it has some rocks mixed with dirt. This means that if you are here in a rain storm, you should have traction through most of it. However, there are some areas where you are on a shelf road that I would like to avoid in the rain.

0.2 miles after leaving the pavement you take a right hand turn. If memory serves, there is a sign in the area letting you know that it is Corkscrew Gulch. Once you make this turn you immediately start climbing. The climb is initially through pine trees. The road can be narrow in places but there are quite a few areas where you can pass oncoming traffic.

One of the reasons I enjoy this road is how quickly you climb the mountain. The road begins at about 9,800 ft in elevation and the pass is at 12,217 ft. This climb in elevation is over the course of just under 4 miles.

The road courses along the base of Red Mountain No. 1 and you have stunning views of the Red Mountains during most of the trail. The scenery on this road is definitely worth the trip and is now on my list of roads I will do annually.

Shortly after going over the pass you will come join into another road. You can go right (south), which is the shortest way back to Silverton, CO. If you take the left (north), it will go over Hurricane Pass and California Pass and down into Animas Fork.

Here is the GPS track built from Google Maps of the route we did. The route includes Placer Gultch and Picayune Gulcth since we did these instead of going to Animas Fork. I included the shorter route back to Silverton in case you want a shorter day.

Here is the map of our trip that day! Like I said, we did not do the shorter route going to Silverton but took the longer, more scenic route.

Top of the World

Rating: 6

Rating is based on our trip in 2016, and at that time I would rate it a 5-6. The Red Rock site rates it a 6. This is a fairly difficult trail with multiple ledges. We did this trail with our stock Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro. It doesn't have a lot of clearance, but has a rear locker and traction control. It was a struggle to get the 4Runner through a few of the ledges and not have body damage. We stacked many rocks and even spent 45 minutes getting it down just one series of ledges. It was doable with our Cherokee that has 31" tires and no lockers, but it require a few attempts to get up some of the larger ledges.

Although not necessary, I would recommend 33" tires and one locking differential. I personally would not do this again with a stock 4Runner.

Location

This is located northeast of Moab, UT near Dewey Bridge. 

Trailhead

The turn-off starts at Dewey Bridge that crosses the Colorado river. This is located 30 miles northeast on highway 128, measured from the intersection of highway 128 and highway 191. GPS coordinates are 38.810887, -109.305087.

Description

This was a fun trail with some amazing views of the area. It is an "out and back" type trial. Any obstacle you have to go over, remember that you will have to go back through the obstacle on the way back (except for the loop at the end). 

The trail starts off easy on a graded, well maintained road. A few areas can be bumpy and have washboards, but the drive is still fun and the views are great. Once you reach the turn off (there is a sign marking the direction to Top of the World), the road starts to get more exciting and slowly gets harder and harder. 

The coordinates of this turn off are 38.770193, -109.249229. Rose Garden Hill is to the left/straight, but Top of the World goes right. As I said above, there is a sign marking the turn.

The trail continues to worsen until you reach the end viewpoint. The end is a small loop, and in 2016 the hardest areas were on this loop. Most people take a right turn when they get to the loop and travel it counter clockwise.

The end view point is definitely worth the trip. According to my topographical map, the top of the cliff is about 7,000 ft elevation. The view overlooks the Onion Creek road, which is at 5,000 ft of elevation. If you look to the right from the viewpoint you can also see Fisher Tower.

In closing, once you leave the county road the condition of the road worsens. The road is slow due to the number of loose climbs and ledges, expect this to take most of the day. The day we did the trail we had 3 vehicles and it took us about 8 hours off-road to complete the trail.

Download the GPS file here! This KML is originally downloaded from the Red Rock 4Wheelers site.

Poison Spider Mesa

Rating: 6
The difficulty of this trail is higher than many of the other trails on this blog, however I had no difficulties in my Jeep Cherokee with 33" tires and no lockers. This trail has multiple obstacles that make this a fun trail, even for the experienced driver, but not difficult enough to cause frequent breakdowns or body damage. I would rate this as an easy 6.

Location
Moab, UT

Trailhead
This is an out-and-back type of trail. The GPS coordinates of the trailhead are 38.533407, -109.607578.

The trailhead is easy to find. It is on the Potash Road, UT-279. The trailhead is located 5.9 miles south down UT-279 (Potash Road) measured from  the intersection of US-191 and UT-279. The trailhead is marked with a sign for Dinosaur Track and Poison Spider Trail.


Description
This is an enjoyable, popular trail in Moab. Expect to see many vehicles during the trip through Poison Spider. The first section is about 5.5 miles long. This section will be traveled in both directions. After this section you follow a 4 mile loop and then return down the original section.

The trail is a combination of dirt, ledges, sand, and slickrock which makes this a varied trail in the types of obstacles that you see.

There are two named obstacles that I am aware of. One of them is called "The Waterfall." This used to be a fairly easy obstacle, but weather and travel have worn away the sand causing this to be harder than when I was a kid. There are multiple lines, and if you stay high and to the right it isn't difficult.

There is another obstacle that makes for great pictures. I grew up calling this obstacle "The Wedge," but I have heard it referred to as "The Wedgie" and the Red Rock 4 Wheelers page calls it the "V-Notch." This is a "V" shaped notch or crack that you straddle to get across. I have seen where a vehicle didn't go high enough on the driver's side and the tire slipped into the wedge and hit the side body panel on the slick rock. If you go slow and make sure you keep the vehicle fairly level you shouldn't have any problems. Some people opt on dropping a rear tire into the wedge at the very end to pose for a picture with a front tire in the air.

There are many other ledges, slick rock climbs, and loose climbs that keep this trail interesting. The number of unnamed obstacles is part of what makes this trail enjoyable and popular.

The scenery is also spectacular. One of the highlights is an overlook at Little Arch. this is an arch at the top of the cliff overlooking the Colorado River. It is a short hike of about 100 yards from the parking area. If you are daring (or an idiot like my Mom would say), you can even walk across the arch.

Download the GPS file here! This kml file is from the Red Rock 4 Wheeler's website.