Corkscrew Gulch to Animas Forks, CO - July 4, 2005

 Corkscrew Gulch is one of the more popular trails into the mountains between Ouray and Silverton, primarily because of the gorgeous views provided.  Like all mining trails, this one is narrow, steep, rough and challenging in places.  It is definitely a 4WD road, but not as difficult or dangerous as some.  On this occasion, a heavy snow year had left lots of white stuff for July 4th.  In fact, the road had been open only a few days.  In places, there was plenty of evidence that avalanches had caused significant damage.

At the top, other trails are available for travel all over the mountains.  We took the Hurricane Pass trail that leads to California Mountain (13,000 feet), passing Lake Como along the way.

Looking back, we had a good view of the road we had just driven.

California Gulch took us down the mountain to the old mining camp of Animas Forks.  By then it was getting late, so we rushed to return our rental Jeep.