CR30 is in awful shape

[XterraRob]

If we can get Lake City to shut down SxS catering, it would leave the San Juans better off.

Silverton, Ouray, & Lake City form the Triangle of Destruction for what was once a really beautiful, peaceful scenic drive. If you want to throw in Telluride to rope in the Imogene area, that works too.

[Boggy B]

Who yields to whom is subject to common sense applied to the specific circumstances. There was a decent rant about this in a recent trip report. I drive like a maniac on 4WD roads and have never had a problem or confrontation with anyone, even Texans.

And though it's fun to hate on the SxS crowd, the reason all the roads are in terrible shape is the same reason everything's still green and the leaves turned late. I'm sure dramatic increases in all types of motorized traffic have been compounding the natural process last few seasons.

[Peak200]

I will hate on the s x s crowd : do not like them at all
Loud , stinky , obnoxious and most are oblivious to
Nature. You go up there to gain peace and quiet in
Nature and with these you get the exact opposite. They tear up trails , go off the roads and tear up more stuff
It's great that silverton banned them.The Lake city side
Has turned into a fiasco and long term it's bad news for nature.

[Peak200]

Oh well I hope the road gets worse and stays horrible
Who needs all those extra thousands going into that
Area with a sedan. You want to get in there
Get a 4wd. Who says everyone has to get in there anyway.
Hinsdale county is very very very small anyway and they can't afford
To be overwhelmed by all these people using the roads
Every area in the entire state doesn't needs to be paved over
And accessed by everyone on the planet: that's a pristine
Area and between thousands of s x sides and now Jillions
Of cars it's going to turn into an area that is much less pristine

[RyGuy]

Yeah. I was absolutely shocked how bad the road is now. The rains in July certainly didn't help the section below Sunshine where there are washouts every year, but that area aside, the rest of the damage is all thanks to the onslaught of OHVs. They treat the roads like a racetrack and just tear it up doing 50 MPH around every curve. Even during the Fall Gathering, we repeatedly heard OHV's ripping by the Mill Creek campground. And it's the very end of the season! It must have been terrible during the middle of summer.

Hopefully Lake City will figure out how to ween themselves away from the money the OHV crowd brings and replace it with more respectful tourists. Then they need to follow Silverton's lead and ban OHVs in town, and don't renew the special exemption from Colorado that allows OHV folks to connect the Alpine Loop via CO-149. Just doing those two things would greatly help keep the roads in better shape. Meantime...have good tires, shocks and clearance.

[JQDivide]

For those interested....

The Lake City area just finished the second year in a three-year pilot program that allows OHV on the highway.

https://lakecity.com/ohv-regulations/

[aholle88]

Who yields to whom is subject to common sense applied to the specific circumstances. There was a decent rant about this in a recent trip report. I drive like a maniac on 4WD roads and have never had a problem or confrontation with anyone, even Texans.

And though it's fun to hate on the SxS crowd, the reason all the roads are in terrible shape is the same reason everything's still green and the leaves turned late. I'm sure dramatic increases in all types of motorized traffic have been compounding the natural process last few seasons.

Agree with this 100%. All the hate on UTVs is unjustified. If you don't like em, go to a wilderness area where they aren't allowed. Pretty simple. Rain/weather is the reason the roads have gotten bad, and lack of maintenance is the reason they remain bad. I witnessed Halfmoon road go from smooth as glass earlier this May to pothole hell by mid summer (driving it at least once/week). UTVs do not create the potholes. They may cause ruts that are already there to get deeper, and they might toss rocks around on roads already littered with loose rock, but they are not the cause of the bad roads. That is the weather and increased usage in general. Halfmoon road is smooth as glass again because they actually did work to maintain it. Other counties just need to step up and maintain the popular dirt roads. Or just let them go and have them be 4x4 roads, either way. It wouldn't be that big a deal if they just stopped maintaining the road up to GG, you can always bike to it, walk further, or get a 4x4. Just like Leadking basin, Beartown, etc.

[Mtnman200]

If you don't like [SxSs], go to a wilderness area where they aren't allowed.

The problem with your proposed solution is that not all mountains are located in wilderness areas.

[aholle88]

If you don't like [SxSs], go to a wilderness area where they aren't allowed.

The problem with your proposed solution is that not all mountains are located in wilderness areas.

And we, the hiking community, are not entitled to peace and quiet mountains everywhere. If that is the goal of your personal experience, there are plenty of places for it. Camping next to the most popular 4x4 road in the state and then complaining about noise is comical. Hell, the reason all these towns exist is mining. Loud, noisy mines and railroads built into the mountains. Let the 4x4 crowd have “their” areas and when we go hike there, just accept that’s going to be part of it. We have an abundant of space without that noise for when we want to go to a place of peace and quiet.

[Skimo95]

If you don't like [SxSs], go to a wilderness area where they aren't allowed.

The problem with your proposed solution is that not all mountains are located in wilderness areas.

And we, the hiking community, are not entitled to peace and quiet mountains everywhere. If that is the goal of your personal experience, there are plenty of places for it. Camping next to the most popular 4x4 road in the state and then complaining about noise is comical. Hell, the reason all these towns exist is mining. Loud, noisy mines and railroads built into the mountains. Let the 4x4 crowd have “their” areas and when we go hike there, just accept that’s going to be part of it. We have an abundant of space without that noise for when we want to go to a place of peace and quiet.

Well said!

[tmud]

The biggest problem with the 4x4 crowd is they are dead set on telling as many people as humanly possible about the places they drive their cars for extended periods of time, and posting as many pictures as facebook will allow, and advertising as much as they can. They seem like the type of people who go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and say "hey, this is great". And they insist on driving their cars in groups of 20, and seem to enjoy sitting in traffic. But everyone is right, the san juan's have been conceded to the 4x4 crowd. If you want quiet and solitude, go to the desert, because you aren't gonna find it in the SJ's anymore, the wem included.

[SkiFree]

The biggest problem with the 4x4 crowd is they are dead set on telling as many people as humanly possible about the places they drive their cars for extended periods of time, and posting as many pictures as facebook will allow, and advertising as much as they can. They seem like the type of people who go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and say "hey, this is great". And they insist on driving their cars in groups of 20, and seem to enjoy sitting in traffic. But everyone is right, the san juan's have been conceded to the 4x4 crowd. If you want quiet and solitude, go to the desert, because you aren't gonna find it in the SJ's anymore, the wem included.

The irony is that we do the exact same thing on this forum.....we do multiple orginized group hikes with 20+ members and have you ever looked at the plethora of trip reports for bierstadt.