(Overlanding) California Gulch, F150 Ford Tremor, Southern Colorado Off Road, Animas Forks

Today we are in the San Juan Mountains doing the beautiful California Gulch Trail. With massive views of mountains, Ghost Towns, Old Gold mines, this is great trail to explore! The beginning starts at Animas Fork founded in the 1800’s then we climb to over 12,900 feet on the California Pass.

Hey guys and welcome back to trimmer trails today we’re on one of my most favorite spots in the country the san juan mountains and today’s highlighted trail is going to be the california gulch between old ghost towns old mines and 12 000 foot views this is a trail that you don’t want to miss out on let’s go california gulch is going to be located in the san

Juan mountains that’s in colorado just outside of silverton the trail itself is going to be 4.3 miles you can expect about an hour to an hour and a half to get this one done this trail is going to be gravel small rock gardens you’re going to have tight switchbacks and you’re going to have a pretty massive shelf road at the end the modes i used was just four high mud

And ruts highlights on this trail are several you have old mines all over the place you had the ghost town of animus forks and you have a mountain pass at 12 904 feet please remember that our cameras have stabilizers on them so the hills are not gonna appear steep and the bumps are not going to be as rough i also remember that we reviewed this and every child at

The end of our video let’s go thank you foreign foreign at the beginning of the trail is the ghost town of animus forks in the 1800s they discovered silver and gold in these mountains and animus forks became a massive mining town in 1876 they had over 450 people residing in the town they had a hotel they had saloons and of course they had their

Houses by 1910 most of the mines had given up all their ore and animus forks officially became a ghost town now all that’s left is a glimpse of what it used to be like and some old rusted nails thank you thank you foreign at the end of this incredible valley is california pass and its switchbacks here we’re going to climb over a thousand feet on a

Pretty cool shelf road the views are spectacular at the top and i’ll see you there foreign hope you guys enjoyed that that’s the california gulch this is a great trail if you’re brand new to over landing or off-roading or you’re brand new to the san juan mountain area itself this trail gives you kind of an idea in an easy format of what you can

Expect when you’re out there exploring the san juan mountains themselves most the trails in this area will take you to the top of a mountain pass and some of the trails get very steep and very technical that’s why i recommend this trail is a good first run to get you kind of familiar with what you’re going to experience they do a great job of maintaining the shelf

Road and the switchbacks on this particular trail and all in all it really is an easy trail as long as you have decent clearance you’re going to be fine on it i wouldn’t recommend it for a two-wheel drive though obviously the trail starts off in animas forks which i talked about a little bit in the video give yourself 30 45 minutes and go check out that ghost town

They do a great job of trying to keep it updated in its original format when things start to fall apart beyond that you’re going to see a bunch of old mines and the trail itself is just vast and open until you get to the switchbacks they do a great job of maintaining this trail for the most part and i really enjoy always doing it every time that i’ve done it on

This channel as you know we love to review all of our trails in a one to five format being fun fear technical and scenery for fun this is a fun trail it’s not a technical trail at all there are a few rock gardens that you have to navigate but i think the fun comes in just being out there seeing the old ghost town the old mines and climbing up that epic shelf road

To the top where you overlook and see lake como and all of the san juan mountains for that alone i’m giving it a solid four for fear there are a few fearful spots on this trail if you’re brand new to switchbacks and shelf roads this trail however like i mentioned is really well maintained so the shelf road itself is wide in certain spots and there’s not a massive

Fear of falling off the edge just remember keep your eyes forward and pay attention to what you’re doing when you’re on those shelf roads for the shelf row mode and the switchbacks i’m going to give it a solid three for fear continuing on with that theme for technical it’s going to get a technical rating of 3.5 and the only reason that i’m going to give it a 3.5

Is because you are exposed on that shelf road and on those switchbacks so just take your time getting up them once you get to the top you’re going to have all the time you need to check out awesome views just be careful out there it’s not a dangerous trail at all guys you can do it trust me just take your time getting to the top that leads us into scenery this is

One of the most beautiful parts of the country that i love to go to this is my second time to do this trail in particular and each time i go to the san juans i’m more amazed at how beautiful this place really is the scenery gets a solid four rating on this particular trail and other parts of the san juan mountains push five in beauty we just got back a couple days

Ago as you can tell the truck is filthy i haven’t had a chance to wash it yet but it was an epic trip a couple little side notes about the san juan mountains in general right when we got back october 2nd the top of the mountains were already covered in snow so it’s not advisable to go and fall through winter usually the trails open up around june is when you can

Get up to the top a lot of these mountains this is definitely a summer kind of trip that you want to do there’s so much to see out in the san juan mountains and the next few episodes we’re going to continue to dive into what the san juan mountains have to offer so please stick around for that thank you to all the people that have subscribed to us and thank you

For everybody that keeps watching these videos i truly appreciate it and i’m humbled by it if you have any questions comments concerns please leave them down below i’ll try and get to and answer your question if i can thank you so much and sincerely we hope to see you guys out there on the trail foreign

Transcribed from video
(Overlanding) California Gulch, F150 Ford Tremor, Southern Colorado Off Road, Animas Forks By Tremor Trails