Imogene Pass
Imogene Pass was the only trail for the day. We started Imogene Pass on the Ouray side and drove towards Telluride. There were two road signs saying that Imogene Pass was closed near the town of Tomboy.
As we started out on Imogene Pass trail, we noticed a lot of forest-fire smoke lingering in the valley when we looked behind us, but the smoke cleared up soon after and we didn't see much smoke the rest of the day.
The first part of Imogene Pass was fun with a couple of small obstacles. We both did not have any issues.
Soon we were at the waterfall and we ran into two groups of people climbing around and taking pictures at the waterfall. They pointed out to us that there was a second waterfall off a side spur to the right, and we decided to drive there after we came back down as they all were heading there next. After a short break, we made our way up Imogene Pass to Hidden Treasure Mine.
After driving through the Hidden Treasure Mine area, we were at a the shelf road. We stopped at an overlook halfway through the shelf road. Matt and Walt parked their Jeeps on an outcropping of rock overlooking the valley below to take some pictures.
After a short break and taking pictures of marmots and other little critters, we drove up to a second overlook just before the top of Imogene Pass. This one had 360-degree views into three different valleys in all directions. Next to the overlook, there was a little foot trail up the hill to an old, recently restored lookout guard shack. Matt and the boys hiked to the top of the hill to take a closer look at the old guard shack.
After reaching the top of Imogene Pass, a tour Jeep with seats for tourists on the back and top had just arrived from Ouray, so we started down the second shelf road of switchbacks without stopping.
When we got to the Tomboy ghost town and mining area, we would see a lot of people parked and camping all over the area. We walked around Tomboy for some time.
After a long break in Tomboy, we started to drive a bit farther towards Telluride, and did eventually talk to some people who said they were coming from Telluride and the pass was all the way open. But we turned around and drove back up towards Imogene Pass. We ran into a few slow-going groups on the way up. They stopped at the top of Imogene Pass and we kept going.
We did the rest of Imogene Pass and back down towards Ouray until we reached the waterfalls again. We stopped at the second, more hidden waterfall for a late lunch.
After lunch, we finished Imogene Pass for an early end of the day and went to the Ouray hot springs pool to finish off the day. It was a great end to a great trip.
Reports from Other Days: 4
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Imogene Pass. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
