by Logan Phillips

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My Mount Blanca experience began with a phone call late Thursday night from my good friends Joe and Drew: "We are going to Mt. Blanca this weekend, load your scout up and meet us at the trial head." I put a damper on things when I explained to Joe that my scout was out of commission because of a hole in the gas tank, but he said just get there any way I could. Luckily I have a S-10 blazer also and a Honda 200XR 4-wheeler, so I loaded them up, called the girlfriend and told her to get ready for a weekend at Mt. Blanca.

We were loaded up by noon on Friday and left Denver about 1:00. It took us about 7 hours to get to the town of Blanca. An S-10 with a trailer is not the fastest way so I would say it is probably about a 5 hour drive from Denver if you could average 70 m.p.h, the speed limit is 75 all the way.

After reaching the town of Blanca we headed toward the Great Sand Dunes national monument. Mt. Blanca was well in view and all ready had a dusting of snow on it. About 3 miles from the sand dunes is the turn off to Mt. Blanca, it is a dirt road heading straight for the mountain, we could even see the switch backs working their way up. So I pulled the S-10 into 4-High, to help with the sandy road, and started our way to Blanca. It wasn’t long before we spotted Joe and Drew's camp and pulled in. We made it just before sun set and prepared for the next day and the trail up Mt. Blanca.

Joe drives a Black 1978 International Scout II with a stock 345-V-8 and 2bbl carb with 4" inches of lift 33 inch Wild Country mud tires and Lock Rites spinning the Dana 44's. It is a well equipped vehicle that has proven it’s self in Moab and the 21 Road in Grand Junction. Drew is driving 1979 CJ-5 with a home built Spring over, that lends a incredible amount of travel. Drew's jeep is also equipped with the stock 360-V8 and Dana 60 axles with a Detroit Locker in the rear. I was driving a Honda 200XR 4-wheeler, 2 wheel drive and a low range, not much of a rig. None of us had ever been to Mt. Blanca so we didn’t really know what to expect except from what we had read from books and magazines.

We were on the trail by 9am, my girlfriend and I loaded up on the 4 wheeler and we took off out in front of the jeep and the scout. The road starts off as a easy trail through the woods, with some great camping spots. Any stock truck can make it to the first switch back, probably wouldn’t even need 4 wheel drive. After the first switch back 4 wheel drive becomes necessary due to the steepness and loose rock, but still a stock vehicle can make it. After about a mile of switchbacks the road drops down again, this time in to a grove of aspen trees and some mud holes. It is right after this that we came to Jaws One, the first major obstacle on Mt. Blanca.

Jaws One is a large about 3-4 foot fin of rock that comes diagonally across the road, there is no way around except going up and over. It can be approached at different angles though, the first of our group to go over was Drew and his jeep. He went straight over with out dragging a thing. The short wheel base of the CJ-5 sure helped, not to mention the lift from the spring over. Next was the scout, Joe too a little different angel than drew, which gave him a huge wheel stand. Still proceeding forward the wheel began to come down but the frame on the scout caught the rock before the wheel did, and Joe was high centered. We think at a different angle the scout would have made it without getting high centered. Drew has a 12,000 pound winch on his jeep and with it we had Joe off the rock and over Jaws One pretty quick. My 4-wheeler was not up to the challenge of Jaws one and had to be pushed over by Joe and Drew with me flooring the gas.

After Jaws one the road tames out some, but is still fairly rough. It is not long till you come around a switchback and there is Jaws Two. Jaws Two is another fin of rock coming across the road, but not quite as big as Jaws One. The catch here is the road is steep approaching it and there is a drop off to the left. Again first was Drew in his jeep. This time the wheel base of the CJ-5 didn’t help, it hurt. The jeep just wouldn’t pull up the steep rock. Drew gave it his best but decided to back down after a few attempts of almost getting too close to the edge in a semi side ways position. Joe gave it a try in his scout and climbed right up on the first attempt. Joe does have two lockers and is a very good driver. Once the scout was up and over we hooked the wench to the back of the scout and winched Drew’s jeep up and over. It was much easier with the wench helping out. By this time we were getting pretty high on the mountain and the views were great, especially looking west over the San Lunis Valley. Again my 4-wheeler needed assistance to get over.

After Jaws Two we went over a few more switch backs and came to a rough spot being referred to Jaws 2 ½, it offered little difficulty for Joe and his scout. Drew and his jeep also made it even though the 360 V-8 was choking for air some at the high altitude. Even I made it in my 4-wheeler without assistance and with my girlfriend on the back.

Soon after that we were at Jaws Three. Jaws Three does have a by pass, and I took my 4 wheeler on that and parked it at the top of the obstacle. Joe made Jaws Three pretty good, again doing a huge wheel stand in his scout. He even stalled the engine, started it back up and took off with the right front wheel about 3 feet in the air. The jeep couldn’t pull it though, and Drew took the bypass. With every one in our group up Jaws Three we decided to break for lunch. By this time there were several groups coming up and traffic started to back up. We let them by and after lunch decided to turn around and head back down so we could get off by dark. We didn’t go to the lake because of the back up’s.

Going down we took about the same line as going up. Going Down Jaws Two is tricky, it was harder for us to go down then up. The angle wants to push the front end toward the drop off, which could lead to a roll off, and that could be the end of your 4 wheeling. We all made it down ok though and got back to camp just in time to light a big fire and have some dinner.

It was a great weekend and I will defiantly be back. Mt. Blanca is a rough road, and I would not recommend it to any one that didn’t have confidence in their driving and vehicle. While we were there a 98 TJ rolled off just before Como Lake. It totaled the jeep, but the passengers were ok. I never saw the Jeep but the driver stayed with us in camp that night, and him and his buddies went back for the Jeep the next day. Anything can happen on Mt. Blanca, but if you take your time and have lockers and fairly large tires you should make it with few difficulties. We sure had a great time.

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