Road trip; Florida to Alaska

[Quicksilver]

Originally Posted by Mr. I - Man

The H2 is the best road trip vehicle. Last summer loaded up the wife and the rottie and drove to Ouray from Chicago 21 hours wheeled from Ouray to Telluride via Imogene Pass ( I know stupid did the closed trail backwards but lived)next day. Partied in Telluride that night then to New River AZ next day. Did Crown King,Table Mesa and Soldiers Pass (Sedona) Drove back from Phoenix to Chicago in 26.8 hours non stop (well stopped for fuel). Very Comfortable ride to say the least . Have a great trip.

Thanks. Whats the scoop with Imogene Pass? I'll be in Telluride just before Moab. Is that open around then? What do you mean you did it backwards. Any other SW CO drives?

[Mr. I - Man]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver

Thanks. Whats the scoop with Imogene Pass? I'll be in Telluride just before Moab. Is that open around then? What do you mean you did it backwards. Any other SW CO drives?

Well this is story I took the trail from Ouray to Telluride on August 7th following a trail book I bought a gift shop in Ouray to find out later the book was written in 1999 and when I got home I found this trail report on the net. Imogene Pass
Uncompahgre/Ouray
970-240-5300
Closed
8/11/06
COMMENTS:
8/11/06 - We have already reported on our experiences in June and late July. But it might be worth reporting that scuttlebutt has it that Imogene has been pretty bad since the first of August. It is a fact that a jeeper from Texas was killed by a rockfall on the Sneffels-Ouray section around the end of July, as reported in the Ouray News.
8/2/06- We came from the Ouray side & the trail was closed at the Imogene Trail head. Apparently there are 2 landslides that they have not cleared.
7/27/06 - The road is open -- sort of, as of the 27th. We traveled Imogene on the 27th, and found it to be rougher and rockier than our previous trip. Our party had an unmodified Rubicon and a stock Liberty, and some places on the Ouray side were marginal. Torrential rain on the afternoon of the 27th made it much worse. Rockslides and near washouts between the Sneffels intersection and Ouray were severe at 5:00 PM.
6/29/06 - The trail is open all the way. We traveled it from Telluride to Ouray on 6/29. The Ouray side is rough, and wet and muddy in spots, especially the last two miles or so from the Camp Bird locked gate to the Sneffels intersection.
6/23/06 - Plowed open, but is icy and muddy at the top. Use caution.
5/13/06 - Imogene Pass was snow covered from just across the bridge that crosses the creek.

Italian Creek Road/Upper Reno Divide
Gunnison/Gunnison
970-641-0471



I got to top of the pass the trail was difficult coming for Ouray, it was raining like a beyatch, I thought the landslide part was of an obstacle, became best friends with my locker button and only had three off the once. Not to bad I thought for have my wife who has never been in the mountains and has never off-roaded before, be it as may she walked the last mile to the pass cursing me and threatening divorce every step of the way. She felt better when this old guy Rich a jeep tour drive asking where I was coming from I said Ouray, he made this face and said that he had done Imogene Pass about 2000 time and he does even go that way. He said how did you do it. I said locker. He just laughed as said he thought I had kicked my wife out of the truck and made her walk, and he told Lori that she was safe in the truck because I was a helluva driver. The he told me that trail from Telluride to Ouray is a 4, but the way I did was rate an 8. So we followed him down to Telluride, because my wife felt better follw someone who what he was doing, that turned into a fun game of follow the leader on the way down we were flying. There was couple of tights spots on the way down to Telluride that part of your tire hung off the shelf road ( trail) by about 2 inches and the other side of the truck your rim and rock rail where scraping the rock. All in all a fun ride just be sure to check trail conditions before you roll and follow an up to date map. And go the right way.
One day I will post the pics. I just get lazy with those new larger capcity memory cards the pics sit in the camera forever

[H3 Alaska]

Originally Posted by Huck BB62

Getcherself to the Moose's Tooth in Anchorage! Grumpy's too! I'll be there in June.

Nice call on the places to go and eat/drink in Anchorage, but I need to make one small correction......

It's Humpy's, not Grumpy's

[H2bill]

You'll love driving the H2 on a road trip. If you pass through Orygun, give me a hollar.

[ROX]

Originally Posted by H2bill

You'll love driving the H2 on a road trip. If you pass through Orygun, give me a hollar.

I'm in Orygun, and you never told me that.

Great places in Anchorage.

Paris Cafe! Downtown. Great steak and seafood. (esp king crab)

Chilkoot Charlies, off Spenard and Northern Lights Blvd, (i think) Great place to have a beer and watch the sailors. (if you're into that sort of thing)

Theres another place called Whiskey Jacks or something. I remember it was a great place, too bad I can't remember the name.

Quick, are you driving back?

[H3 Alaska]

Originally Posted by H2 Rocks

Theres another place called Whiskey Jacks or something. I remember it was a great place, too bad I can't remember the name.

Platinum Jacks (recently busted by the cops for one of their owners being a front for dirty money), but a good place regardless.

[evldave]

I did a monthlong trip from Portland to Anchorage and back a few years ago. Lots of great places to stop. I set up a website and uploaded pics from the road, you'll be able to find plenty of internet cafes along the way - definitely keep it up because you'll develop a huge following of people living vicariously through you!

Here's some suggestions, if you plan on camping (I can give you more details GPS coordinates and a full map if you PM me).

• Yukon Brewing in Whitehorse was a great place. Their Cranberry Wheat is surprisingly good. Get some of their red.
• If you can get to Hyder, AK (next to Stewart BC) head out to Fish Creek, get up really early and you can see lots of brown bears feeding on the fish. Keep going and the road heads up and ends at a glacier (can't remember the name right now), great open areas camping out there and you won't see a whole lot of people. Meziadin Lake at the turnoff to Hyder is gorgeous on a good day and has good camping if you don't want to drive that far out of your way.
• Get to Nebesna Gold Mine (Nebesna Alaska). It's on the highway between Tok and GlenAllen. Turn off, there are a couple stream crossings, then you get to the town of Nebesna (population 7). Where the road ends and says says 'Road Closed' just keep driving, your H2 will get a workout. When you get to the mine, and the guy comes up to you (gun in hand), call him Jack (that's his name). He's a little wierd, but if you are nice to him, he'll let you stay on the property and walk through the old mining equipment - very cool stuff! Tell him the guy in the blue suburban with the big red kayak from 2-1/2 years ago says hi.
• Drive the ?? miles north from Fairbanks and see the Arctic Circle (there's a campground off the haul road)
• Get really adventurous and drive the 800(?) miles out to Inuvik. Spend $5 on a gallon of gas!
• The Chevron in Cantwell, AK has wireless internet, keep your laptop on at all times you never know where in the middle of BFA you might find internet.
• Go to Seward (south of Anchorage) and eat at the Rose Cafe, they have great Halibut poppers - you can also eat good italian food at Apollos.
• Drive to Whittier (S of Anchorage), take the ferry over to Valdez, or better yet, come into AK, head to Valdez, and take the ferry to Whittier and come into Anchorage from the south.
• North of Whitehorse, you can sleep on the shores of Lake LaBerge.
• Stop at Chicken, Alaska, because it's a town called Chicken and they are wierd people.

Sounds like a great time! Enjoy the trip and set something up for all of us to follow you!

[obzidian]

hey, im here in south florida. Miami, just came from the local trails... couldn't wheel this silly brick but going back next weekend.

Anyways, i have only gone as far as orlando in the H2 and i will say that she is the smoothes ride i have ever driven. Wide and very comfortable. Mileage isnt that bad, my old ZL-1 tahoe didn't get any better than that last time i drove to MI last may.

[H Duece]

What a cool thing to do! I've always wanted to drive across country. I plan of doing just that when I get back from Iraq. Good luck on the trip! Take LOTS of pix and video!