Jeep Trail Reports

Poughkeepsie Gulch

A little bit of challenge and a lot of wonderful scenery made this one of our most favorite trails. The Poughkeepsie Gulch trailhead is accessible via Mineral Creek from Highway 550, south of Ouray. Geotags

As we began to head up the trail, we realized we were in for quite a good one. A few stock vehicles traveling the other way warned us of the obstacles ahead and said they had to turn around. “Woohoo!” we exclaimed. Along the way we saw marmots, deer and other critters. Waterfalls, flowers and rivers made this the best scenery yet. Our red rubicon was doing great!

We finally arrived at the infamous rock climb and found a few jeep peeps from Arizona making their way up. As Rick went to give it a go, we all quickly realized that WET rock is hard to climb! He tried with all of his might before giving his dad a try in the XJ. He was having difficulty as well, and the guys in front of us had already left. A lot of muscle and a bunch of spotter lines later, we made it up and gave the rubicon a quick tug to the top. We made it!

We ate lunch at the top and helped the people behind us up as well. We watched the clouds come in and it began to rain, making the next couple of climbs a little interesting! The last climb up to California Pass took us right to the snowline and past Lake Como, the turquoise lake.