COLORADO COLORS RUN 1999 (including Monarch Pass, Tomichi Pass, Hancock Pass, and Mt. Antero)
Written by:   Matt Adams
Trail ran:   1999
Vehicles in attendance:   Many Ford Explorers, from mild to wild.
Trail difficulty:   Difficult was no greater then a 5/10 for the stockers. Some trails would be considered 3/10 for modified explorers.
Location:   Near Buena Vista/Salida
Directions:   As many trails were completed, please consult a trail guide book for trail info.
Day one consisted of Monarch Pass, Tomichi Pass, and Hancock Pass.  It was a great trip for getting comfortable with your driving abilities on a trail that wasn't too hard, but not boring either.


This is the group approaching the top of Tomichi Pass.
 


I don't remember if this is Tomichi Pass or Hancock Pass... I think Tomichi Pass, the next one is the whole group lined up on Hancock pass.

 


This is looking at Hancock Pass from Tomichi Pass.  The trail heads up the center.


You can't tell in this picture, but this is approaching a slick spot on the Tomichi Pass trail.  We all got a little nervous as we were having our back ends sliding down the trail, while barely moving forward :).


This is the Allie Belle Mine.  Quite an impressive site.  It almost looks like the mine is going to fall over, but it's been that way for year and years so we weren't worried.


This is the Mary Murphy Mine, a bit past the Allie Belle Mine.

Day 2 of the Fall Colors run took us up Mt. Antero and back.  It was great, though only 5 vehicles (and two, including mine, stock vehicles) made it near the top due to icy conditions.  I'm not sure if it was determination or stupidity that led me to go all the way to the top, but I did and survived to tell the tale!
 
 


This is a water crossing neat the bottom of the mountain.  It can get much deeper in the spring.


As me and the other 5 vehicles were coming down the mountain, after much sand throwing and rock piling to get down the icy decent safely, we looked out and saw the other 10 vehicles ready to have lunch and head back down.  That's them in the center :).


This is on the decent of Antero, much later after the icy decent.  Here it was dry, but quite narrow and some of the switchbacks were a bit tricky to negotiate.

Here is some of the great views seen from the trail.


This is the antique ghost town of St. Elmo.  That's my vehicle parked in front of the Miners Exchange/St. Elmo General Store.  The white building is the church/town hall/prison. I'm told that in the summer of 2002, St. Elmo burned to the ground. Sad, just sad.