It's difficult holding one's breath for so long . Join us as we head for treacherous Schofield Pass and depart our Bogan Flats NF campground (South of Redstone & Carbondale CO), then continue through Marble Colorado and head up the offroad trail above that town for Devil's Punchbowl & Crested Butte CO. Along the way we briefly stop at the world famous Crystal Mill & Falls, then continue thru the former 1880’s mining town of Crystal before tackling the difficult Devils Punchbowl trail. The Devil was waiting for us and we soon faced a snow/glacier obstacle that even Silver could not conquer, on this day anyway. This, despite it being June 27th and HOT in most lower elevation locales throughout the United States. There it was a sunny 70 degree MidSummer day and almost cloudless, so the Winter snow on and around the higher peaks above us was melting fast. Unfortunately, that record Spring snow had joined forces with the Devil to block our path over the 10,723’ Schofield Pass. Finally, watch the rest of this episode as Silver & I negotiate a UTurn on the narrowest possible shelf deep inside Devil's Punchbowl, while hanging precariously mere inches from the abyss of a roaring Crystal River.

Ever wonder how wide a trail it takes for a short wheelbase Jeep Wrangler to make a Uturn? Then this is the video for you! Rarely do I encourage my passengers to get out while attempting obstacles. But this turnaround was an exception, just in case … They took the external video, which I later combined with my GoPro dash cam. Thanks to all for helping keep Silver and me dry! My copilot Doug did a great job guiding us during each of the 9 points of our turn around...

History courtesy of the OnX Trail Guide: Crystal was a silver mining camp in the 1880s. It served many mines in the area and once had a population of more than 400. The mineral Silver was mined from crystalline quartz, after which the town was named and historic buildings still remain there. Several fatal accidents have occurred on this trail, including the worst in Colorado history. In July 1970, nine tourists died when their vehicle plummeted off the ledge above the Devils Punch Bowl.

In Ep12 we will complete Part 2 of this day’s adventure and join in with a Jeep Gladiator at the upper (most eastern) turnoff to Lead King Basin Pass. That adventure didn’t exactly go as planned either, and you’ll see what I mean next week. However, before long we were heading back down to Marble for some delicious Slow Groovin BBQ. Watch all that and more in Part Two (Ep12) next week.

Every year we take our 2004 Bluebird Wanderlodge M380 motorhome on an allsummer excursion to escape the brutal heat of Texas and the Desert Southwest. Besides the motorcoach Ride Alongs inbetween each of our campground locations, you’ll also find some fun Jeep tours in our well equipped 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon twodoor JL.

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