You don't have to make it for it to be a fun trip, most of the adventure is in just trying as Steve Blackham can attest to :)
The Unpassable Pass (again crap title by me not the author) by Steve Blackham
For real adventure I'd recommend Engineers pass between Lake City and Ouray in Colorado.
We tried it last June. Pulled into Lake City about 8pm and saw a sign "Ouray... 30 miles". Thought great 30 miles in the right direction or 200 miles in the wrong direction through Gunnison. Off we went up this narrow canyon. After 5 miles the pavement ended, but the road was graded well so we went on. Beautiful canyon and mountain scenery.. We passed several old mining ghost towns and the canyon turned the corner there was a spectacular 1,000 ft waterfall falling through a hole in the rock. Then the road started to climb fast but still do-able for a bus (even mine which had just started to run on three cylinders..) Another five miles of climbing we turn another corner and see way off in the distance what we think is the summit. Two problems, it's now dark but the moon is full and off in the distance with the moon gleaming off it is a snowfield.
We're now at 11,000 feet. Can see in the moonlight that the canyon ends in a bowl (snow). Through this snow bowl we can bearly see a jeep trail switch backing up to the summit. We've come 20 miles. Do we go back or try to make the summit. It should be only 10 miles to Ouray. Let's do it. Up another 1,000 feet we go. Round a switch back bend and we don't believe what we see. There in front of us, 1,000 feet from the summit in the middle of no where someone has built the neatest cabin I have ever seen. It sits on it's own peak or ridge top. You have to take a rope footbridge to get to it. The sign over the bridge says "Thoreau's Rest".
Up on the summit we see two headlights. Two kids in a jeep drive up and look at us in disbelief. How did we get here in "that"? We ask how far it is to Ouray. "5 miles but its vertical" he says. 5 miles, no sweat. Off we go.. Now my 3 cylinder bus is beginning to chug a little. I'm a couple hundred feet from the summit but it's steep and its gravel. I can't get any traction, the road is five feet wide and the drop off is 1,000 of feet. My wife gives me that look. It's dark. It's getting cold. There is snow every where. It's near 14,000 feet and my bus just won't do it. Well it's beautiful up here. We carefully inch it back and forth on this goat trail called a road changing directions. My wife's knuckles are white and firmly attached to the panic bar. I don't know about you, but a road that you've taken but couldn't get over is a definite frustration.
This Fall, I'll be back! But with My Bronco.
Steve Blackham
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