click on profile for more detail

01.(mile00,10027ft)START-END WEST: slightly south of the town of Montezuma, joins with Webster Pass Profile 02.(mile01,10167ft)stay left on main road 03.(mile02,10640ft)stay left on main road 04.(mile05,11296ft)turn right onto steep Argentine Pass single track trail 05.(mile06,13207ft) TOP: Argentine Pass, single track becomes double track 06.(mile08,12237ft)stay left 07.(mile09,11699ft) jeep trail joins from right, continue straight 08.(mile09,11578ft) stay on main trail to right, now a reasonable dirt road 09.(mile14,9671ft) route joins Guanella Pass road, for Georgetown go left 10.(mile18,8570ft) START-END EAST: Georgetown

Approaches

From West. Between points 1 and 4, the route follows a valley dirt road. Past there, the approach is largely on a steep hiking trail. Extensive walking may be necessary. Alternatively, having to portage the bike up a few cliffs is also an option.

From East. The profile includes the initial approach on the Guanella Pass road between points 9 and 10. Continuing to the top, the route is a jeep trail, at times very ridable, at other times very rocky. Crossing the past from west to east (going down this side) is in my opinion preferable, because descending on this side is less troublesome than on the other side.

Tours

MTB Dayride. There is a way to loop over Argentine Pass in a dayride, largely avoiding pavement, even if it is the longest dayride from a time standpoint, that is suggested in these pages. The ride starts either (on pavement) in Georgetown or at point 9, where the Guanella Pass road joins the Argentine Pass road. The last option avoids pavement entirely. The route heads over Guanella Pass, turns off onto the Burning Bear single track trail ( which is also called Hepburn Pass ), to join the Webster Pass road. It crosses that pass and saves the steepest ascent of the trip, up the west side of Argentine Pass for last ( measured total: 58 miles, starting from Georgetown, m1:87.08.08 ). The picture below is taken near the top of that last climb, just as the sun started to set. The last descent was accomplished in darkness.

History

Colorado gold rush of 1859/60 (<Jones Pass|Webster Pass>): Several passes were pioneered long after the initial two years of the gold rush. Their purpose was to serve as easier supply routes to the gold camps. All of these involved crossing the continental divide west of Denver. A previous attempt to ease movement of goods to the mining towns west of the divide was over Jones Pass.

Argentine Pass was the most direct attack on the wall to the mining towns on the other side of the divide. Jones Pass had no affect on the movement of goods. The problem was still the complicated route to the city that had all the supplies, Denver. In order to get to the Front Range, Breckenridge miners had to cross Boreas Pass, South Park and Kenosha Pass. By this time another option was for wagons to cross the continental divide west of Denver over Rollins Pass. But that did not get them any closer to the mining towns in the Breckenridge area. That pass was too far north. All through the 1860s silver had been found on the west side of what would become Argentine Pass. So close to Denver, yet its distance to be traveled to a mill was over 200 miles. Georgetown, east of the ridge, and all its adjoining wealth and industry, was less than a dozen miles away as the crow flies. If only a road could get across that ridge. Motivation to build a road was very high, and so was the pass that resulted.

The businsess man for such a venture had to have a matching ego. Stephen Decatur also had business dealings and wives to match the ego, 5 children from 2 white and several indian wives. His motto was "no orthodoxy, no monogamy and no monotony". If he had his way, the capital of the new mining district that was to be created from his road, would be called Silveropolis

So how did Silveropolis turn out ? Incredibly Argentine Pass was built from Georgetown to the top in 1869 and started cutting down the other side during the spring of 1870. By the time the first toll gate was installed at Waldorf, our hero Decatur was drinking heavily and resigned from the Georgetown Snake River Wagon Company, maybe to promote his Silveropolis.

That was just as well. The road was blocked with snow except for July to September. And when the road was cleared of snow, chances were high that it was blocked by a rockslide. Paying customers of the road were forced to clear the road themselves, on top of doubling and tripling their wagon teams. But 1877 the road had essentially become a pack train trail. Another pass was built to adress the same problem in 1878, Webster Pass.

back to Colorado Pass Tables Page