Flatfenders in Colorado High Country

I forgot to mention that there used to be a kinda cool obstacle that you could do right before the summit of Black Bear. You can see it at the 2:33 mark of this video:



... sometime either this year or last, they put a culvert in there and now its just a smooth road.

As always .Stan, an excellent video 👍🏽 I much prefer the phone in hand video’s over a go pro, as it adds much character to the product 👌😎 I use my iPad and the bigger size keeps the fingers out of the way 😂 I may be out that way in a few weeks so your adding much pre-trip excitement 😬

Lee

sonoblast77 wrote: Yes rocnroll my seats were imported from the south.

Looks like there was fun had by all!  What year is the yellow jeep? What for drivetrain is in the Yellow Jeep?  What for other modifications does this Jeep have? Lift height, tire size, lockers front and rear? 

Now I see what's going on .... leave the kids with Grandma (me) and go have fun in the jeep.  

Thanks for sharing the videos and photos.  Looks like it was a great trip!

Thanks again for sharing these.

My father did his infantry basic training in Ft. Carson, Co., during the early days of the Korean War (36th Infantry Division). Very few in our family had ever set eyes on the Rockies before, but for Dad and his slightly older uncles and cousins who had seen them during mountain training in WW2/Korea, it was a revelation.

Uncle Sam taught Dad how to safely drive a Jeep and camp in those mountains, and he excelled at both the rest of his life.

Later Dad bought a house in Creede near the seven mile bridge. He mistrusted Jeeps; he thought they were unreliable. Instead he preferred Broncos after they became available and I still have his. Few people knew those roads as well as he did, and his boyhood as a farmer gave him a very sensitive and reliable sense of the weather. By 1970 Dad had been diving and camping in the San Juans for twenty years, and it was not unusual to hear the Park Rangers ask Dad's advice about road conditions and weather.

I won't bore you with stories here, but suffice it to say that those mountains were a very different place in the 1960s, with only about ten percent as many tourists present in the summer in those days. Through Dad I met so many of the World War One generation whose parents had been among the first generation of non-native Americans to settle the ranches in the more remote places in those mountains; that was a real privilege!

Dad left Creede about 1990 but moved only as far as Durango. He kept up camping and fishing in the true high country until the early years of this century; but by 2005 or so he could no longer run the really rough roads. Alas, my years of having one of the most competent off-road drivers in Southern Colorado as my personal guide were over. Your video and photos bring back those days so vividly for me. So, I am really sincere with the profuse thanks!

Very scenic shots, glad they could fix your phone, that can be a bummer.

We did come across one “super hero” on Imogene!