On October 8, 2014, Karla and I, along with Karla’s brother Grant, set off to drive up and over Mosquito Pass, the highest drivable pass in Colorado at 13,185 ft. The pass is located in central Colorado and loosely connects the towns of Alma and Leadville. Before getting to the details of our trip I should mention this is not a road to be taken lightly. You’ll need a high clearance 4×4 vehicle, experience driving in off road situations, and be immune to driving on narrow ledges with steep dropoffs. We used this book as a guide and would highly recommend it: Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails.
The typical driving season for high passes in Colorado is a short one: from mid July, when the previous winters’ snows melt, to late September, when the snow starts flying. We were pushing it with an early October attempt, and given the storm that arrived the very next day, I feel comfortable in saying we were the last vehicle over Mosquito Pass for the next 8-9 months.
We chose to start on the west side, near the town of Leadville. On which side you start generally doesn’t matter, except that snow takes longer to melt on the east side of the pass, meaning if you start in Leadville in July you may end up turning back. If dining out after the drive is a concern, note that Leadville has far more dining options than Alma, so doing the reverse of our route would make gastronomic sense.
On Mosquito Pass road looking west
The road is fairly rocky and gains elevation at a good clip. About 0.5 miles from the pass we ran into the remnants of early season snow storms. This section of trail would normally be non-challenging, but the snow had really begun to pile up in this area, causing a bit of concern for those narrow ledges that were forthcoming. The picture below shows the snow before it was a problem — note the edge is not terribly far away when you’re slipping and sliding.
West side of Mosquito Pass road, before the snow got deep
Around the next bend in the road the snow was deep enough to obscure the trail, causing us to walk around for the better part of an hour scouting the way ahead. The direction we were headed had only one positive attribute: it was the direction we were headed. Outside of that it was not very appealing. The snow was deep enough, the ledge narrow enough and the angle of the snow heading towards the wrong edge of the ledge treacherous enough that we all decided this was not the way forward, with no discussion needed.
We had all but given up on the trail when, lo and behold, another vehicle came down from the top, heading straight towards us. Had this vehicle been some sort of extreme contraption with snow tracks, we would have applauded the drivers chutzpah, turned around and headed home. But no, the vehicle bearing down towards us was a late 80s Dodge Raider, which immediately doubled our resolve to get to the top.
Upon talking to the Raider driver we found out he encountered no snow on the other side of the pass (the east side, coming from Alma to Leadville). The top was a short distance ahead, and largely snow free once through the section we had been pondering for some time. Armed with knowledge that if we made it the next 100 yards we were home free, we made the attempt.
Near the pass on Mosquito Pass road
Sadly, no pictures exist of the attempt because both passengers (Karla and myself) were holding on with white knuckles and peering at the edge, which at times was far too close for comfort. It was only with Grant’s skill at trail driving in particular, and in deep snow specifically, that we negotiated this section without either getting stuck or tumbling down the mountain. There is an old saying that likely no one but me says, “one must maintain momentum in snow lest one get stuck”, that is applicable here. That is fine and dandy on a nice, flat road, but another thing altogether in a dicey situation. Luckily Grant has nerves of steel and “kept his foot in it” even while a lateral slide had his passengers questioning why we didn’t walk to the top — it’s really not that far. Have no fear, the Jeep’s deeply lugged tires finally bit into the snow and propelled us to the top.
Continuing down the other side of the pass, in about 2 miles we arrived at North London Mine, a mine founded during the gold rush of the 1880’s that become one of the mist productive gold mines in Colorado. The Park County Colorado Archives has scanned some great old photos of the mine on their site. The remainder of the east side of the pass, being completely free of snow, was a non-eventful trip down to Alma.
