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.