Alpine Loop direction

[smlobx]

Hi folks. This may sound stupid but is there a preferred direction to drive the Alpine Loop?
We are going out west next week and the AL is part of our itinerary but I haven’t seen any info if there is a preferred direction.

Thanks.

 

[rando]

I have done (parts of it ) in both direction, and don't think it makes much of a difference.

A couple of things to note - it snowed up there last night and will be below freezing tonight as well. Not a lot of snow but it is the season where it can snow at any point.

The other is that the Alpine Loop is a total zoo and, in my opinion anyway, it has been totally ruined by hoards of ATVs, side by sides and rental jeeps. In the summer there are literal traffic jams, with lines of side by sides blasting music. In a normal year, this late in the season it should be quieter, but this past year has been anything but a normal year in the CO mountains and it is leaf peeping season.

Unless you are dead set on the Alpine Loop, there are other much more pleasant areas to explore.

 

[Wallowa]

I have done (parts of it ) in both direction, and don't think it makes much of a difference.

A couple of things to note - it snowed up there last night and will be below freezing tonight as well. Not a lot of snow but it is the season where it can snow at any point.

The other is that the Alpine Loop is a total zoo and, in my opinion anyway, it has been totally ruined by hoards of ATVs, side by sides and rental jeeps. In the summer there are literal traffic jams, with lines of side by sides blasting music. In a normal year, this late in the season it should be quieter, but this past year has been anything but a normal year in the CO mountains and it is leaf peeping season.

Unless you are dead set on the Alpine Loop, there are other much more pleasant areas to explore.

The Zoo part I can concur with...just got back from a trip to Wyoming Wind River Range and in the TH parking lot [9,300 absl] there were 60+ vehicles from 23 different states....Pinedale was also overrun with traffic..

Phil

 

[smlobx]

Thanks guys. We were there in late June of 2019 and had hoped to do the loop then but due to the massive amount of snow they received the previous winter the road had not opened up yet so it is “unfinished business” for us. I am expecting to see a fair amount of people on the trail but we are not in a rush and hopefully we’ll get through it. We decided to split it up into 2 days and overnight in Lake City. We have been watching the weather and of course that will dictate our actual plans so it is a day by day decision.

We’ll be taking our recently completed Jeep Gladiator (as opposed to my F-350 with the Hallmark camper on board) that has been outfitted for remote travel so if we do have some weather or traffic we will hopefully have more capability to deal with it.

 

[smlobx]

Just an update to our Alpine Loop adventure…

We drove out from VA to do the loop, then take the Rimrocker Trail to Moab and then do the White Rim Trail…We’ll the best laid plans and all that..
When we started the approach to the Alpine Loop it had been raining at lower elevations each afternoon so that meant snow in the higher elevations. As we were starting to go up we ran across 3 locals in built Jeep’s who decided that it was too slick to run and urged us to turn back, which we did.

We then proceed to go into Utah and the rest of our adventure. As we were finishing the WRT Terri mentioned that the weather had been pretty nice back in CO and it might be worthwhile to take another shot at it so we drove back to Silverton and the next morning started out. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the temps were in the mid 50’s. Perfect!!!

Our plan was to take our time and spend the night in Lake City, returning the next day. Even with taking our time and stopping to see some of the mining ruins we still ended up in LC around 1 pm. We had literally only seen 3 or 4 rigs the whole morning..it was like we had the mountain to ourselves!

In checking the weather we could see some clouds forming and decided to return that afternoon and avoid being stranded in LC for a few days or even having to scrub the rest of the trip and head home. We made it over Engineer’s Pass as the temps started to drop and the little puddles had ice forming along the edges but with virtually no traffic it was easily manageable.

The next day the higher elevations got a bunch of snow so we definitely made the right decision.

I’ll post some pictures when I get a chance to download them from my Nikon..

 

[ski3pin]

Sounds like you had exceptional luck on your return to the San Juans in Colorado. Good for you! A gold star to Terri for suggesting it.