Copper King Road

Trail Run on October 15, 2016
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader

Monica I.

Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Roger R.

White 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

Mike S.

Silver 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Walt S.

Gold 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Julie M.

Green 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

We finally completed all of Transfer Trail, and it was a pretty awesome experience. We were heading back to Naturita and home base, but it was early in the afternoon. We weren't far from Nucla, so we decided to check out a trail or two on our way back to town. After going over Columbine Pass, we went down into Tabeguache Basin just a short distance to take the first trail we came to.

It started off as a shelf road with some amazing views, so we were already happy with it. There were hunters checking things out, and we scooted past. The shelf road ended soon, though, and it was flat and in the trees for a long distance.

We saw cows and a pond where they were gathering, and then we came to the intersection. It seemed that everything was on the leftmost spur, so we took that one first. We didn't see any evidence of the Copper King Mine, but it didn't look like it was near the trail.

We were wondering what Starvation Point would look like, and we had it on our GPS units. When we were right next to it, we saw a little chunk of rock that wasn't much higher than the road. We knew that there was a steep slope next to us, so we thought maybe there was more to it and we just couldn't see it. Either way, it wasn't very exciting from the trail.

When we got to the end, we found a few people with a UTV who were familiar with the area. They said that you had to get around to the other side of Starvation Point to really see it, so that was our next plan. We hung out and chatted with them for a bit, and with each other. The weather was still perfect.

Eventually, we took the turnaround that went around a tree and headed back out. The other spur at the intersection didn't seem like it would offer much. We went for a short distance and it got very skinny. Monica went just a bit farther and then announced that it was too skinny to be worth it, so we all turned around.

We headed back out to the trailhead, thinking we'd go to the other side of the basin to see what we could see. That was Glencoe Ditch, and it was an even shorter trail. That last trail would work out well for almost all of us.