These pictures are from a mountain trail ride I recently took in a GEO Tracker. Friends from Lake Havasu City, Arizona came here to Montrose, Colorado towing their GEO's. They are both four wheel drive automatics. I was amazed at how well they ran the old mining trails between Ouray and Silverton, Colorado. They huffed and puffed a lttle on the steep stuff, but they never called it quits. They have no modifications except they have been lifted 2 inches for clearance, but that was more necessary for fender clearance with bigger tires than for road clearance.
The ride started with airing-down, that is letting air out of the tires down to around 20 psi. This softens the ride (it can get jarring at some points) and it adds a little traction.
Here we go, zippin' down (er' up) the trail. It is usually dry and dusty, even if it rained a day or two before.
The scenery is beautiful...........
and there is still plenty of snow on the ground.
We buzzed by old mines...........
and above Lake Como (some summers the ice never completely melts).
There were others on the old mining roads, but today was great and traffic was light. It can get busy, this area is extremely popular with jeepers, ATV's, and motorcycles.
Our group consisted of two GEO's and this Jeep. The Jeep claimed to be the rescue vehicle, decked out with lots of heavy duty stuff and a winch. But, he wasn't needed today, as a matter of fact the GEO's performed perfectly.
The trip over the trails ended at Silverton in Handlebars restaurant, where good food abounds and atmosphere is thick (well in the restaurant only because the air is thin where Silverton sits at over 9,000 feet elevation). Today our trip started at about 6,000 feet, we climbed to over 12,000, and then wound our way back along Red Mountain Pass (Colorado highway 550) which drops 5,500 feet, has over 160 turns, and in places you can look out your window and straight down for 800 feet.
