Scenic/historic trails within couple hours of Boulder?

Hey folks, I was looking for a scenic/historic/fishing trail to do with my wife within a couple hours of the Boulder area.

The Coney Flats/Mid. St. Vrain seemed like it might be an option but I am concerned about rock damage and water depth. While I've been wheeling for years, I've never been on that trail so don't know what to expect. Seems doable from vids I watched but ya never know.

The Jeep has a 2" OME lift with 31" Duratracs. No disco's, though I do have some on the shelf... This one's in pretty decent shape and I'm hoping to keep it forever so I am trying not to beat her up.

Anywho, love some input or other suggestions.

Thanks

I used to like doing the Caribou trail west of Nederland. It starts at the site of the town Caribou and does follow along a small creek and some beaver ponds. It was an easy trail back in the day.

I haven't been there is over ten years so I don't know the current conditions or if it is still open to vehicles at all.

Since the statute of limitations is long passed, I was there back in 2000, as an observer, with my 2 small children during the infamous MudFest put on by KBPI. I was lucky enough to get out before they started issuing tickets...

Hey thanks for the tip Matt. Did Caribou this weekend on your suggestion.

We started at Rainbow Lakes and drove the whole thing to the old town of Eldora. We stopped at the wetland valley where I presume the KBPI event happened. Had lunch under a tree in the field and checked out the old abandoned crane on foot. Beautiful place.

We continued on, checked out the town of Caribou, and then hit the trail again bound for old Eldora. Some great views right away, followed by some really odd trees. The weather must really be something up here in the winter. After that, you start descending though thick forrest down to eldora.

Overall I'd say difficulty was 5/10 (moderate). Pretty easy on 31's. I saw a bone stock YJ crushing it.

Sketchiness was a 7/10 due to a few spots.

1) The first mud bog when entering the forrest had some deep whoopdedoo/off-camber holes in it. Thankfully some one had placed a steel grate in it. We fished it out of the middle and placed it where we wanted to go with some rocks/logs and passed rather easily.
2) The switchbacks coming down into Eldora got real narrow at one spot. With large boulders limiting us to the right, and a big drop to the left, I was extra glad I was in the relatively narrow XJ at that point. We barely squeezed by.
3) Last but not least, the sketchiest section, again on the switchbacks, there was rocky off-camber section where the left hand side had washed out with a long fall below. Pretty creepy but we made it through with some rock stacking.

Overall neat drive. Saw some bunnies. Cow and calf Moose. Butterflies and chipmunks. Really loved that valley and the old crane.

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

BALTANAKT said:

Hey folks, I was looking for a scenic/historic/fishing trail to do with my wife within a couple hours of the Boulder area.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Both side of Rollins Pass. A Subaru can handle these roads, downside is they are just plain bumpy.

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1071286

Argentine Pass