Engineer Pass is a 12,800 foot mountain pass along the famous Alpine Loop route between Silverton and Lake City Colorado.
The shortest route from our Mount Sneffels climb to our next two days at Wetterhorn Peak and Uncompaghre Peak is over Engineer Pass instead of heading up to 50 then down to Lake City and backtracking.
Shortest does not always equal fastest though, when the "road" is so bad that you’re crawling at 5mph.
The road is doable with proper high-clearance short-wheelbase four-wheel drive vehicles, but the best transportation would definitely be a UTV due to bidirectional traffic and some tight squeezes. Also not for the faint at heart with some steep dropoffs along the road.
I’d have more photos and some video of the road up the pass, but the rocks were bouncing me around enough that the camera stayed in its protective padded case.
Overhang
Pretty cool cutout on Yankee Boy Basin on the way up to Mount Sneffels.
Clouds and Cuts
The weather sucks, but it makes for some nice moody shots.
Dirt Everywhere
Including the dirty Jeep sitting below the Sunnyside Mill ruins.
The Animas
Looking back down over the Animas River as sun begins to set on us.
Engineer Pass
Greg finally knocks out the climb over Engineer Pass.
Setting Up Camp
Setting up our camp at the Nellie Creek trailhead to climb Umcompaghre Peak tomorrow.
