Visit the North Sand Hills and assorted trails.
| Time to experience the North Sand Hills. This is my first time to the area. |
| By the campsite. |
| The gent in the white pickup was from the Fort Collins area. He had a quad in the truck. |
| Some nice sun-brite snow capped
peaks. The power lines heading across the valley start at the Craig Colorado coal generation plant. One of the sets of lines heads to the Fort Collins-Loveland-Longmont-Estes Park power utility. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| First view of the sand hills. This is the north sand field. We're looking at a large hill. |
| On top of the hill - looking southwest over North Park. |
| Paul & Gary / Denise |
| Looking down the hill. Not too many people out for a nice Saturday morning. |
| Paul, Gary, Denise |
| Video Running up the large hill |
| Looking across the valley to the south sand field. |
| Ahhhh... |
| Gary/Denise, Paul, Bryan/Colin |
| The other side of those snow capped peaks is the town of Steamboat Springs. |
| Starting out on the Sand Hills Road trail. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| We're at the large tree across the trail. Quads and UTV's have been able to drive under the tree, but the jeep's are too tall. I'm trying to see if the base of the tree will give-way and allow me to pull it to the side of the trail. The "bent tree" is just right to allow my winch line past (highlighted in red). |
| In the end, the tree did not budge. We decided to not chain saw it as the bugs were nasty and the rainy afternoon was drawing on. |
| Rain coming across the valley. |
| We checked out a new stream crossing but it looked worse than the one we used to get to the trail. We'll backtrack to the first crossing. In the trees, ahead, was a nice looking spot to camp. |
| Heading down to the stream crossing. |
| I wouldn't wish to travel this stretch of trail if the ground was more muddy / slick. |
| From the campsite we could hear and all-at-once roar of multiple quads. A drag race. Here is the drag race section. |
| More "nothing to see here..." We were the first out to the sand fields after the rain shower. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Bryan & Colin |
| We followed the "edges" of the sand fields to explore what was in the area. At the southern edge we came across a trail through grove of Aspens. |
| Working our way up the eastern edge of the southern sand field we came across a group of quads, UTV's, and one VW sand rail with Texas plates. |
| Farther up the eastern edge we came across one guy on a sport quad toying with one of the steeper hills up from the stream. |
| Video Watch'n a sport quad play |
| The "catch air" bump. If one were to hit the bump fast enough the jeep could catch air under the tires. Neither of us wished to push it that far and just had a fun time driving at slower speeds. |
| Video |
| Hmmm... I remember stopping on the edge of the downslope hard enough to have the front tires dig in - but did I put it in gear to keep it from rolling down? |
| Over at "our part" part of the Sand Hills we had the place to ourselves. At one point I made a comment to "swap drivers". I'm sure Colin (14) enjoyed the learning time behind the wheel... The below pix and vid are of him driving. |
| Video |
