Stony Pass

Fantastic way to start the Alpine Loop with great dispersed camping! The trail is a solid 3, maybe an easy 4 when you hit the forested area mid way through around waypoint 15. The camping way points identified were all pretty great, we stayed at 16 and it was amazing. The Lake Kite trail is a fun and worth while detour as well.

Ran this east to west in a 4th gen 4Runner, with ~3" lift and ~32" tires, in order to access the Hunchback Pass TH up the Kite Lake Road. Great scenery, but also a good amount of traffic (including lots of SxS traffic). The hardest part is by far the Timber Hill segment (wypt 15). A few bigger rocks here made me glad I had a bit extra clearance, but no traction problems at all (we did air down for the whole ride). I was also glad we didn't run into any oncoming traffic in that stretch; not many passing opportunities around the hardest bits, and it's tree-y and windy enough that it's hard to see who/what's ahead. The rest of the trail is considerably easier, and with that came lots of big ol' trucks with out of state plates. I'd say the trail without the Timber Hill segment is a solid 2 or an easy 3 at most. And I think the Timber Hill segment is a bit easier than the 4 rating, I'd say a strong 3 (stock vehicles might want a spotter in one or two places, but not too hard).

Did it in two days spending the night at 30 mile campground and then completing the next day. Highly recommend airing down. I did with towing an off-road camper. Watch for free range cattle and ATV traffic. Totally worth the trip.

Completely open. Went from East to West. Very little traffic once you get past the campgrounds. More scenic and quiet than expected. Tons of dispersed camping

Road is open from the Silverton side to just before the stony pass summit. There is one small snow drift before the summit that makes the road very narrow. At the summit a large drift covers the road. Wheel tracks were in the drift, might be possible to cross depending on what you are driving, however there were signs of vehicles that had gotten stuck as well.

East to West. I drive a 2nd gen tacoma with a 2" lift. Fun trail! Pretty easy for most of it. As stated, way point 15 was the most technical. Much easier and less technical than Engineer pass in my opinion.

Did the trail from Creede to Silverton. The Aspens were at peak color adding a beautiful accent to already breathtaking scenery. From Creede the trail starts mild but eventually begins to get rockier. There were some challenging ascents and rocky passages but overall the trail is not difficult. Perhaps it was due to the time of the season, but the beauty was absolutely stunning. This is definitely a do again trail for me,

Really fun trail that almost makes you forget you're on the same trail the whole time. One minute, you're next to a river in a valley on some rolling terrain and a little later, you're high up among the peaks on nothing but rock. Very easy trail with no real obstacles but some portions were pretty bumpy and annoying. Some of the camping was amazing and I would definitely hit this area again if I'm close by and wanting to spend a night or two.

I was passing through Silverton and had a few hours to kill and took a trip up to the Buffalo Boy Mine and the actual pass. Always a good one with the steep climb up and epic views.

Open all the way. No snow. Plenty of mud from recent rain. East of the Pole creek crossing there is some down timber that makes it narrow in a few places. I made it through in my Wrangler, but a full size pickup would have trouble.

Great trail. Open all the way through with some deep water crossing at pole creek. There was a flatbed tow truck that skid off into the ditch on the way up the east side of the pass that made getting around it rather difficult since it was a narrow potion of the road. Plenty of wildlife to see and the mines on the west side of the pass were really interesting to see.

This trail is not seasonally closed until 3/15. Although it might be impassable, the seasonal closure is only a couple of months long, in the spring. This information can be found on the Rio Grande National Forest, Divide Ranger District MVUM. The San Juan National Forest side of the pass does not have a seasonal designation and is opened via dozer when conditions allow.

The county has closed the trails for the season due to snowfall.

Ran Stony Pass from East to West, a lot of camping spots along the route and beautiful scenery. I camped the night before just outside of Creede to the Southwest along the river and it was beautiful and quiet. Came across a moose and a heard of sheep along the trail. Pulled my Smittybilt trailer the whole way with no issues at all. Great way to get Silverton, took about 4 hours with some stopping along the way.

*Big Caveat to the "Open" status. Silverton and the pass expecting 12"+ of snow 9/8/2020. I would not expect it to be open after that.* TL;DR: Ran West to East from Silverton on 9/7. Pole Creek was easily passable, maybe 12-18" at the very deepest for a few feet. Ran in a mostly stock WK2 Trailhawk with 32" tires. Took ~4 hours, with photo stops, to get to the 30 mile mark. OK, first off: beautiful drive through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the southwest. The Alpine tundra was amazing and the descent along the Rio Grande was magnificent. Aspens were just starting to turn, lots of wildlife (pack of ~5 wolves, some deer, critters, etc...). 10/10 would do again just for the scenery. If not for... ... this is a VERY rough trail. (Full disclosure: I've been playing with Jeeps offroad for 20+ years, but never in a very demanding way. Please take my opinion FWIW.) TOF's difficulty system is accurate, no fault there. The obstacle criteria are what is described in the rating system mostly. I would question the "tire placement" or "narrow shelf road" points. (I may have made up the tire placement criteria, but I thought I saw it somewhere.) While you always have a full track to run on, it is at places JUST as wide as your vehicle with some sphincter-clenching drops (no trees) to one side and a solid rock face on the other. And that's just in the first couple miles, with many more to come. Once you get past Waypoint 3 (WP4 through 7 are optional side trips, I did not go that way.) the trail is not quite as rigorous the rest of the way to the pass. Totally worth it to get there, but NOT for the faint of heart or those with even mild vertigo. Even then, once past the pass, from roughly WP14 through about maybe 23 the trail is EXTREMELY rough. Much of the trail is cleared through aspen forest growing up through old avalanche scree and talus fields which means the trail is mostly just broken rocks and not much in the way of dirt. And still with many many shelf type trails in places. There are some smoother sections and some very pleasant stretches in between, but you will spend A LOT of time crawling up and down through a lot of trees with just a bunch of broken rocks as your road base. At full 12" of ground clearance in my WK2 I managed to avoid any major scrapes or hard hits to the skid plates, but if someone told me the road had materially worsened before my next attempt, I would seriously reconsider. Once you get past the Rio Grande Reservoir, the trail evens out to a standard National Forrest road: rough washboards, but wide and easy to cruise. So, 4/10 difficulty? Sure. Not technically incorrect per TOR's rating system. I have little technical skill and successfully completed this trail. I loved it and hope to do it again. However, this is not an easy trail for anyone looking to just go up and back for quick bit of weekend fun.

This is one of my new all-time favorite overland routes! Technical driving, epic scenery, awesome (and plentiful camping), and some incredible history! It just doesn't get any better than this!! Can't wait to come back!

Traveled east-to-west from Highway 149 to Silverton. My only regret is that I did not bring camping gear on this trip. There are some beautiful campsites between waypoints 12 and 13.

Always one of my favorites! Traveled west to east camping one night along the way. The Pole Creek crossing was way lower than we expected. Nothing to it. Traversed in full size stock Chevy.

Now open for the season! Please note that the water crossing at Waypoint 13 is still very high.

Wow, what a beautiful route through some amazing landscapes. The trail wasn't that hard but did have a couple rocky spots that will require 4x4. We really liked all the great camping once you get near the river. There are some spots where I could just sit for a couple days. The trail was totally clear and there weren't any really narrow spots. Not much traffic compared to all the other trails we visited in the area. We chose not to visit the optional mine sites.

Stony pass is now open all the way through. Pole creek crossing is listed at “cross at your own risk” by Forest Service, water is high and fast moving but passable in a capable truck with experienced driver. Overall this wasn’t a challenging route, just a nice long scenic drive with lots to stop and see along the way.

Important: Due to dangerous water flow at Pole Creek, Stony Pass is temporarily closed

It was reported that someone lost their life while attempting to cross the water. Use caution on the trail and do not go alone or attempt if the water is too high or fast.

Stony Pass is open all the way through as of yesterday. San Juan County finished plowing their end. Expect muddy conditions and Pole Creek crossing at waypoint 13 is extremely high and fast. Be careful attempting to cross.

I drove the full length of Stony Pass from Silverton to Hwy 149 in my 1988 Isuzu Trooper. The road is open and in good condition. There are a few wet spots but overall dry. From Silverton to Kite Lake intersection (Waypoint 14) I was with a group from Isuzu Wheelers (Facebook group). Together, we drove the spur road up to Buffalo Boy Mine, then back down and over the pass, and up-and-back to Kite Lake. After completing Kite Lake, I proceeded east to Creede and the others went back to Silverton. This is a fantastic connector road with lots of history/mining artifacts and wonderful mountain scenery.

We've done Black Bear Pass, Engineer, Imogene, Cinnamon and many others in the area. This one often gets overshadowed by those others, but should not be overlooked. This is one of our favorite trails and is much less crowded than the more well known trails in the area.

Open and completely dry and clear, road in good condition.

Per Ouray County, Stony Pass is now open.

I love Stony Pass for the journey. At 40 some miles, this is just a great adventure. We left Silverton late and camped along the way. The camping next to the Rio Grande to me is one of those iconic moments you just have to experience.