Miner's Loop Trip Report 2008
We got off to a late start for what promised to be a very long day on the road and trails with 8 vehicles in the caravan from Colorado Springs. After a 2 hour trip we joined up with 6 other vehicles at the Gunsmoke Truck Stop in Johnson Village. We took a short break, and then separated into the 2 groups with Group 1 leaving early to get a quick start on the Miner's Loop.
Part of the charm of traveling the Miner's Loop is visiting the numerous mines, ghost towns, and still existing mining structures along the trails. After shortly starting on the trail we stopped at the Allie Belle mine's storage building, which is still precariously perched above the trail, and the ghost town of Hancock, the foundation of the saloon is the only evidence that the town ever existed. Then we started up the road to Hancock Pass stopping before the summit to take some photos and a quick video.
The trip down Hancock Pass was uneventful except that the trail is narrow in many spots which created some anxiety and lots of scratches for the full-sized vehicles in the group. Several folks in the group wanted to take a detour to see the Alpine Tunnel, so we took a 3 mile detour to the Tunnel. The road to the Alpine Tunnel is considered to be one of the most significant engineering feats of railroading in North America. The 500 foot stretch of the Palisades is held in place by hand-cut blocks of granite with no mortar holding the blocks together. The Tunnel has been permantely closed and it's been amazing and sad to have seen the destruction of the ghost town caused by nature and vandals over the past several years. We took a break at the Tunnel for lunch and to visit the remains of the small town and narrow guage railroad of the Tunnel.
At the junction to the FR765 Rollie Becker left the group for business reasons and the rest of us took off for Cumberland Pass. We quickly passed by the ghost town of Quartz and then stopped at the top of the pass to enjoy some more of the scenery that God has provided for us. The road over Cumberland Pass was starting to get very dusty until a quick shower settled the dust. We stopped in the town of Tincup for a stretch break, snacks and to enjoy the fresh mountain aire.
We quickly got on the trail to Tincup Pass, traveled by Mirror Lake and took a couple of breaks on the trail. By this time we were getting very tired of traveling and were looking for any reason to stop and get out of the vehicles. We stopped at the top of Tincup Pass for another break and then started the descent down to St. Elmo. There are not any significant obstables on the descent but after traveling 45 miles of 4WD trails the 6 mile descent seemed to last forever but was really only about an hour.
We arrived in St. Elmo at 6PM, which was 11 hours after we started this trip from Colorado Springs. The caravan broke up as some people were going to eat in St. Elmo, Buena Vista or had camping reservations at the Princeton Hot Springs. Since we had obligations on Sunday we returned to Colorado Springs and arrived at home about 9PM. It was a very long but very full day as we were treated to some of the finest scenery that God has provided for us in this life.
Tom Thompson
Trip Leader
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