click on profile for more detail

1.(7020ft,mile00) START-END SOUTH: junction of 8rd and US550 2.(7290ft,mile04) take right at T 3.(10114,mile15) TOP: Owl Creek Pass 4.(9020ft,mile22) road crosses Cimarron River. Junctions with roads, going up and down stream are on both sides of the river. Continue downstream on main road. 5.(8300ft,mile35) p77rd leaves towards left. Profile continues downhill along Cimarron road. For connecting profile, see Cerro Summit 6.(7070ft,mile41) START-END NORTH ALTERNATE: junction with US50. Profile continues  west to Cimarron 7.(6880ft,mile43) START-END NORTH: Cimarron.

Approaches

From West. The Owl Creek Pass road can be picked up from US550, a short distance north of Ridgway via county road 8 or 10. CR10 is a little longer but affords better views of the Mount Sneffels range. The lower half of the approach leads through private land with virtually every inch fenced off. A signed viewpoint well up the pass road leads to a view of Chimney Rock and Court House Mtn. The view appears is in perfectly flat backlight in the morning and as a three dimensional front lit scene during late afternoon. Even though the profile shows this a completely uniform slope, the switchbacks towards Turret Ridge become quite steep in the turns. They tunnel through luxuriously dense forest to the top, vertical rock formations appearing through the forest foreground like a scene behind a transparent curtain. The top is marked with a sign.

From North. Riding this pass is either directions is perfectly feasible. Advantages of a counterclockwise trip, that is, descending this approach are as follows. The ride in its entirety is probably faster because less braking is needed down the northern side. For the rather long dayride suggested below this is an advantage. Also, afternoon storms are more likely to cause precipitation on the southern approach than on the northern approach, which is surrounded by lower scrub dessert hills of the the Gunnison and Uncompahgre valleys.. An advantage of a clockwise trip is that the western approach experiences more interesting sunlight in the late afternoon, assuming that the weather produces good sunlight.

The northern approach is described here in a downward direction. As already mentioned, the road descends more gently than on the western side. It makes its way down a straight valley between two layer cake rock ridges, leaving behind the more imaginative rock formations. One more scenic highlight happens above Silver Jack Reservoir, where various forks of the Cimarron River emerge between abruptly cut off ridges. A few miles below the reservoir the road enters private land and acquires a rolling hill character. The turnoff onto P77rd to Cerro Summit, suggested in the dayride below, skips the last steep downhill to the junction with US50. If turning up this way from US50, a sign on US50 labels the route as "Cimarron Road", and a second sign mentioning Owl Creek Pass is encountered a little further up the road.

Tours

Dayrides (unpaved and paved): A ride from a camping site in the Billy Creek SWA, branching onto CR10 and then CR8 to the top of Owl Creek Pass, continuing over P77rd to Cerro Summit, bypassing Montrose via another dirt road, Kinikin rd, and finishing the loop back to the starting point via Paghre Road, and a few miles of US550 measured 86 miles and 6970 feet of climbing in 8.4 hours. About 5 miles and 280 feet of that is involved in accessing the circle from the Billy Creek SWA. 

History.

Otto Mears Passes (<Cerro Summit|Red Mountain Pass>}Prior to acquiring its current name, the pass was called Cimarron Cutoff Trail. It was one of Otto Mear's many toll roads in the area and provided access to the Silver Jack area from Ridgway.

back to Colorado Pass Tables Page