My friend and I road the west Rollins Pass road last week. The trail head is in Winter Park. I found this ride scenic, historic, easy, and great fun. The road is an old railroad right of way that was built in the early 1900s. This is a popular "Jeep" road now, and popular hunting area. Our trail speeds were maybe in the 15 to 20 mph range, faster than normal. There are no difficult "technical riding" sections to pick our way through. The railroad abandoned this right of way when the 2.5 mile long Moffat Tunnel was built from Rollinsville to Winter Park. That tunnel is still used today by passenger trains.
The "ridge trail" that used to connect the west side and east side of Rollins Pass is now closed to all except hikers, see photo. The needles eye tunnel is also closed due to falling rocks. And again, I found the access road up the mountain to our parking area very rough and narrow with significant drop offs. It is too narrow for two pickup trucks to pass each other. We didn't meet anyone head on, but it would be tough to backup up hill to find a wide spot in the road so we could get by each other. If I could license my ATV, I could leave the truck and trailer at the base of the mountain and ride that 3 miles up the mountain to the staging area. It would be much safer to do so in my view.
We passed three identical Can Am Defenders by the trestle. We guessed they were rental machines. We kept on riding down hill and soon these three machines passed us. I think the side by sides can travel faster than a quad over washouts and rough sections due to the longer, wider wheelbase. I was impressed at their speed.
We enjoyed our ride very much.
David
