Hello everyone, first post.

We are coming up to Colorado from South Arkansas in July to see parents and ride both Taylor Park and the Alpine Loop. 1st a rundown of the trip and then some questions.

We have an '06 Rhino that we just converted to a 4 seater for this trip with full cage for the kiddos (2yr old son & 5 yr old daughter). Parents both have new Grizzlys.

Arrive in Canon City at my parents place on Friday July 24th, spend a couple days there and then after church on Sunday we head to Taylor Park. Plan to boondock first night somewhere on Texas Creek. Wife and I tenting it, kids and parents in RV.

Monday (7/27) plan to ride up Taylor Pass and the ridge road to spend the day in Aspen and then come back. That night we move over to Holt's for the next 3 nights, only cabin I could find. Parents will have their RV.

Tuesday (7/28) planning on Italian Creek, Flag Mtn, and meander our way back to Cabin.

Weds (7/29), plan on Tincup, St. Elmo, Grizzly Lake, Hancock Pass, Alpine Tunnel, Napolean Pass, Tincup over to Union Park and back to Holt's.

Thurs (7/30) we move to Ouray.

Fri (7/31) Alpine loop ride, want to do Poughkeepsie from everything I have read about it.

Sat (8/1) another Alpine loop ride

Sun (8/2) rented jeeps to do Black Bear or Imogene and a big loop over to Silverton and back.
Mon (8/3) start of the 20 hr drive home....ugh!

Questions
1. Anyone ever take kiddos on this long of trip in a SXS, I have spent a ton of time in CO adn never had altitude sickness from the time I was 3, now I'm 37. Any tips for the small ones in case they get it with camping at 9500 in TP?

2. How long does the ride from TP to Aspen really take? I have heard 6-7 hours one way but that would be around a 5-8mph avg.

3. How is Holt's??? Wife is fine with camper cabin but wants a clean shower house at very least!

4. Is big loop ride doable with Grizzly Lake trail? As you can tell from screenname, I can't ride easy roads everyday and would like a few challenges to keep it interesting!

5. Would love to hook up with anyone that will be there at the same time and make a nice ride out of it.

Sorry for such a long first post everyone but any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I will have a few more as time goes on. Hopefully this is the first of many trips. God knows with the money I have sunk into my rhino in the last month it better be!!!

quote:

Originally posted by makeitorbreakit:
4. Is big loop ride doable with Grizzly Lake trail? As you can tell from screenname, I can't ride easy roads everyday and would like a few challenges to keep it interesting!

It may be a long route based on how long you linger to enjoy the scenery. If the day becomes too long you can skip everything after Hancock/Alpine and make a beeline back to camp via Cumberland. Although I think Napolean was a great trail.

#2~ Left roughly 9am, returned roughly 6PM. It could have been quicker, but had a novice adult rider that thinks they're a pro. I added to the slowness or taking longer as I took the wrong trail once at Taylor Pass and had to back track. We went to the top of Aspen and not down to the town.

A challenge you say, I think Lewy and Sujada will be there at that time. You can find Sujada here, and Lewy if not here over on ATV Frontier (near the bottom of the site in the USA rides, he has a post started already), they do 100 plus mile daily trips.

If you're not experienced in 4 wheeling with a Jeep, you might not want to take Black Bear as your first trail. I've been on it several times and it sure gets my attention every time. But it would be a little easier in a wrangler. You could also alternatively go over Red Mt. pass to Silverton then Ophir to Telluride and Imogene to Yankee Boy and back to Ouray.

I'm not sure if the Jeep renters allow you to take their Jeeps on Black Bear. I could be wrong.

Some help with #1- I had some good friends of mine move out to Colorado 6 years ago. Every time they went UP in the mountains their daughter got sick. The best thing they found is ROLAIDS. Not Tums, has to be ROLAIDS. Others who come out to hunt with my buddy take them too. Hope this helps.

#2-It only takes a day to ride there and back. This is riding with Lewy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Foneman708,

to the quadsquad makeitorbreakit!
Here's a link to the writeup I did after last fall.
Clicky

I rode Aspen solo my last day there and as I'd been up and down Taylor pass prior in the week, it didn't take long to get to the top of the ski resort. Less than 3 hrs, but you won't want to bang the kids up through there that quick. The stretch up Taylor pass is the only rough stuff on that ride, so it could still be made pretty quickly for the miles you need to cover. I did some exploring on the way back and it still wasn't a long day.

If you have garmin software, you can pull down the tracks from the post I linked to above and check it out.

quote:

makeitorbreakit:

Welcome to the Quadsquad!

I just wish I could be there to go with you. It is all good riding!

Can one legally ride ATV's and dirt bikes into Aspen town? All we will have are the Colorado OHV stickers & no license plates.

How about Crested Butte?

9 years ago when I was there I know it was not legal to go into CB under power. Many guys pushed their bikes into town.

Greg, I figure we will probably come back over Cumberland, I just can't do roads all day long in something I could take my wife's Acura over, but with that being the latter half of the day and 2 grandparents, I won't be riding the most extreme at the end.

Thanks for the Aspen ride info. Where do you park at the bottom of the hill to go into town and eat lunch? I talked with the Asst. Police Chief in Aspen, he said while he could not give us written permission to enter the town, if we took the roads to the gas station with out horsing around and went straight back to the Mountain road that they would not bother us. Gave me his personal cell # and said to call him if we had any problems. Really cool guy and that way we don't have to carry fuel that day. Plan to park on the mountian and go into town, let the wife shop a little and each lunch.

Spits - no worries, I've been wheeling around 10 years. In fact, I'm the only one with a rhino, everyone else has custom buggies or jeeps that have around $50-75k in them. Sucks being the poorest friend sometimes. Superlift Offroad park in Hot Springs is up the road a couple of hours and extreme trails are all we do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9io5Wabb7mo maybe this will give you an idea (buddy of mine on one of our trips from 2 years ago or so). We rented from a place in Ouray, 4 dr Rubicon with 2" lift and 33's, should do just fine anywhere we want to go, besides, rental insurance is a blast!!!

Thanks for the rolaids idea.

Sujada - great pics, make me ready to leave today, but still a month away. Oh well, at leat we have two small vacations between now and then to make the time fly.

Thanks for the welcome everyone, looks like a great site with a ton of good info, sat up till 2am last night reading old posts, wasn't worth a crap today at the office.

For anyone in the area and wants to stop by, we have a black Dodge megacab and parents will have a quad cab durmax pulling the rv and a Toyota FJ pulling their two quads.

Coldfinger, like I said above, not legal in Aspen but they will look the other way is what I was told. Get on Aspen Police Website, they have a contact us section. Ask on that. That's how I got in touch with the asst chief and got my info, of which I will have copies of the e-mails and his number in the glovebox

Tons of postings on this site regarding TP. It is a full days ride from TP to Aspen. I sure would like the Asst Police Chief's # just in case. Don't forget to get your Stickers for out of State riders... Enjoy, I think there will be several of us up there at that time.

Grizzly Lake is not a long trail it is really pretty mild. It ends at the lake and you have back track. You want a good ride tackle IRON CHEST MINE trail. Not long but awesome.

First part is GRIZZLY LAKE about halfway thru just after the water is start of IRONCHEST. Second video is continueing IRON CHEST.

This is continuation of IRON CHEST TRAIL

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cob,