Much of the history comes from the book,
"Backcountry Adventures Colorado" by Peter Massey, Jeanne Wilson,
& Angela Titus
This trail reaches an elevation of about
12,600. It starts at Howardsville and
ends at Hwy 149 (long day). It passes
the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.
Used by the Utes for centuries, Charles
Baker discovered the pass in 1860, while leading a party of prospectors into
the area. The Brunot Treaty opened the territory
to white settlers in 1873.
In the 1870s, a wagon road was
established and was heavily used by stage coaches as a major supply line for
the 4,000 miners working claims. It was
appropriately named Stony Pass as it is VERY rocky & rough.
Once again, there was a decline in the road
use due to the construction of the Silverton railroad, but the road remained
open and was even classified as a state highway in the early 1900s. Trust me, NO car would ever want to travel
this road. It was completely abandoned
only to be reopened by the Forest Service in the 1950s as a 4wd recreational
trail.
At the summit the trail opens into a
beautiful alpine valley. Wildflowers
were beautiful today and that's as far as we went today.
First, though, just for laughs,
we parked Charles' new Jeep next to a matching, very large snow plow:
I hiked up here to the state flower, Columbine:
More Columbines:
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