Yesterday our friends and co-workers, Mary and Dave Ward invited us to take a four wheel drive trip with them to Kennebec Pass. They had gone there the week before and wanted us to see how beautiful it is, and it’s a place we could not get to without a four wheel drive vehicle. Mary and Dave are experienced four wheel drive folks, and they just bought a new Jeep Rubicon Gladiator four wheel drive, and is it ever nice.
To our daughter, Shantel, you met Mary and Dave last year when you came out to spend the day with us at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.
The information I found on Kennebec Pass, after I took the trip, says “a truly epic road to the summit. Kennebec Pass is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 11,683 feet above sea level in La Plata County, in southwestern Colorado. Located in the San Juan National Forest, this ride is epic with a few tight turns. Starting from US-160 near the town of Hesperus, the road is 14.1 miles long. Along the way you’ll have to deal with some dangerous drop-offs. This is definitely not a Sunday drive and not recommended to newbies. The steep drive will take some skill, some patience, and some tolerance for vertigo”. Well, I’m happy to say I didn’t find the ride to the pass nearly as bad as the information I read about it said. I’m so glad we went because what I saw is hard to put into words. But I’m going to do my best to describe what I saw so our daughter, Shantel, might get a feeling of the beauty of the trip to Kennebec Pass.
On the way up to the actual pass we saw rolling hills and high mountains dressed in the greenest green grass I’ve ever seen. The grass looked like it had just been mowed all up and down the hills and mountain sides. We stopped and spent some time to just take in all the absolute beauty we were seeing.
Tall, tall green pine trees reaching all the way through the bluest skies with puffy white clouds that looked like giant marshmallows floating across the blue sky. Just breathtakingly beautiful.
Even the trees that had fallen over created a work of art. We passed one tree that fell exposing its roots, and the inside of the tree was hollowed out with a hole big enough for a person to climb into.
There were dirt hiking trails that stood out with a reddish brown color against the green grass.
The higher we went up, the more we could see down over the mountain tops for miles and miles. I thought to myself, this must be a glimpse of what it will look like looking down from heaven upon our beautiful earth.
Wildflowers of every shape and color. Blue white and yellow,
the brightest reds, and every color in between.
We took a walk along the hiking trail and had to keep stopping to just keep taking it all in,
and to capture a group selfie as a reminder of our day together.
Then it was time to move farther up the road to the actual pass.
Now anyone that knows me well, knows I’m afraid of heights, but I also do my best to not let my fear of heights get in the way of me experiencing things I want to do, to the extent that I can manage my fear. I’m glad I didn’t read the information about Kennebec Pass before we took our trip there, because it would have heightened my fear unnecessarily. I did have to pull my big girl panties up real high, but I wasn’t as scared as I thought I would be. I just sat on the side of the jeep that would allow me to be close to the mountain side of the road rather than the cliff side..
The only time I got scared, and had to dig deep to not let my fear get the better of me, was when Dave had to turn that Jeep Rubicon around at the top of the pass. But Mary got out and did a great job helping Dave maneuver that tight turnaround.
But again, the views from the top of the pass were spectacular! We could see for miles and miles down into a valley over 11,000 feet below.
If one wanted to, and we, or at least I didn’t, you could continue down the other side of the pass. but the day we were there someone had their four wheel drive vehicle parked right in the middle of the narrow road blocking the pass… So we headed back down the road the same way we came up.
We stopped to have our lunch in a field of wildflowers and green grass, and again we enjoyed spectacular views of mountains rising up to touch the deep blue sky, and puffy white clouds that were floating by.
After lunch, as we continued back down the mountain road, we saw a deer with her baby standing in the woods. The baby was very young and was nursing from its mother. The baby still had white spots on it and the mother and baby standing there together were looking at us as if to say hope you enjoyed your visit.
Indeed we did enjoy our visit. Thank you Mary and Dave for inviting Bill and I to go with you to Kennebec Pass. It was a trip of a lifetime for me, and definitely one for the memory book!
Stay tuned!
Fl
