All 4 Fun 2017 Leadville Colorado

Well we just finished up a week's stay in Leadville Colorado attending the Mile High Jeep Club Summer event call 'All 4 Fun' which was their 51st year of putting on this event which rotates around 4 or 5 location each year. Since I've been working on a project in Montrose Colorado for the past year and a half, we had always seen and heard about All 4 Fun but living and working in Arizona we never took the time to attend, but living a lot closer made it a no brainer to attend last year in Empire Colorado, and again this year in Leadville. We loaded up the RV Friday and arrived Leadville on Saturday to register and set up our campsite with about 300 other Jeep / off road lovers. They set up a large tent to gather everyone for raffle drawing, a couple dinners and vendor show to make it a family and group event and they do a good job on it.
They run about 20 different trails with them ranging easy to difficult and each one running daily for five days.
We started out with Cloyses Lake with was South of Leadville about half way to Buena Vista. It started out easy on dirt roads going past Clear Lake and up the canyon to Vicksburg and Winfield which are a couple preserved 1880's mining towns that, like a number of old 1880's towns/buildings are being saved and restored and even being furnished with original items to promote the history of the area around Colorado.
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We did a couple creek crossing to start the trail.
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Made it up to the lake at about 11,100 feet in elevation and very scenic.
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The second day we chose to run the Mount Princeton run which my wife did the driving and got over her fear of driving a shelf road as it was 4 miles of shelf road from bottom to top.
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One of the only true completely clear days and the views at 12,300 feet overlooking Buena Vista to East and the Collegiate 14'teener around and Mount Antero to the West.
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Just another couple thousand feet up to the top....
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After finishing the run we ran up to another 1880's mining town of St. Elmo, which is also in the stage of being preserved.
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Following the creek up to St. Elmo, we got to see some great water / creek views.
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The third day was Mount Zion which was easy run but great views over looking Leadville and Turquoise Lake.
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Can't say that I saw all the rigs at the event but it looked like I was the only one sporting 'Wayalife' banner/stickers that I saw.
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Looking down on Buckeye lake at about 12,200 ft for lunch break.
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Afterward we did some side exploring and found this old miners cabin
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The Fourth day was a run called Birdseye Gulch and up to Mosquito Pass.
Starting up the shelf road looking down on Birdseye Gulch and Leadville.
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Mosquito Pass is the highest drivable pass at 13,185 ft, and as we got up there, a cold front blew through and got wind cold and snow and hail fell for a few minutes.
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About 2 miles over the pass we stopped at the North London mine and tram house.
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An old Air Compress sits outside the old mine entrance which has caved in.
 
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Hit the wrong button... continue on with the London Mine
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The old air compressor at the mine entry.
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After coming down we did some more exploring of the old Leadville mining area and checked out some old cabins.
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and found this old stove inside
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some other mines around the area
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The last day we went on Half Moon Creek trail and this was a great run up the creek
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At the head waters we came on to the Champion Mill site which is one of the largest mills around in great shape.
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It started in the 1880's and ran up in to the early 1900's and still has equipment inside the mill.
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We then went on up to the Champion Mine at about 13,000 ft. where they ran a tram system to get the ore down to the mill and a view looking down on Independence Pass road.
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The inside of the mine cabin / bunk house with the stove still in place.
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Some of the wildlife and flowers on the trail
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A view back down on the large mill building
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Coming off the trail at the water crossing.
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The event ended on a week of great trail runs and we had to head home. Until next year at Silverton, we had fun and thanks to MHJC for the great event.
Hope you enjoy the photos.
 
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Awesome pics! Looks like Chalk Creek was running pretty good.

Yes it was, in fact they had some pretty good down pours about a week earlier and the road between the hot springs and these falls was covered with gravel and rocks, so much that the county was using heavy equipment to clean it up.
 
So beautiful out there! Thanks for posting up the great pics from your trip :thumb:
 
Absolutely beautiful friend!!!! I just spent two weeks in Ouray doing all the trails around there too. The camera just does not capture the beauty and majesty of this part of the county. If anyone is reading this thinking about visiting Colorado, DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of the existing towns in the area will rent you a jeep if you don't already have one. I've been exploring these mountains for the last 35 years since my dad brought us here on vacation. You will never stop discovering new things. Thank you for sharing your trip! [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
I kept an eye out for WAYALIFE banners but didn't see any... must have missed you. I was at All-4-Fun as well. Nice place
 
Absolutely beautiful friend!!!! I just spent two weeks in Ouray doing all the trails around there too. The camera just does not capture the beauty and majesty of this part of the county. If anyone is reading this thinking about visiting Colorado, DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of the existing towns in the area will rent you a jeep if you don't already have one. I've been exploring these mountains for the last 35 years since my dad brought us here on vacation. You will never stop discovering new things. Thank you for sharing your trip! [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

I'm just down the road in Montrose and doing the same.... Really enjoying the mountains around here in Colorado while I'm here, and the San Juan's /Ouray area is the BEST ! To bad we didn't hook up to run some trails. :yup:
 
I kept an eye out for WAYALIFE banners but didn't see any... must have missed you. I was at All-4-Fun as well. Nice place

I was looking for the K/C group and your blue Toyota but didn't see either, I was camped next to a Nebraska group but no blue toy... maybe next year!
 
I was looking for the K/C group and your blue Toyota but didn't see either, I was camped next to a Nebraska group but no blue toy... maybe next year!

I actually did end up taking the Jeep... decided at the last minute. We were the only Nebraska group there, as far as I could tell. We had a red JKU, a black JK, a green-ish JKU, and an anvil JK. Of course, my yellow TJ :)
 
Great pics and write up. I always wanted to do an All-4 -fun but never have. Mostly because like you, I want my wife to learn and it's a good way for a beginner to do so in a group. It's still on the list.
 
Great pics and write up. I always wanted to do an All-4 -fun but never have. Mostly because like you, I want my wife to learn and it's a good way for a beginner to do so in a group. It's still on the list.

You two would love it, coming from the desert (all my life) there is nothing to match it to (not even the rim or Flag). The mountains are really scenic and the old mining history that is still in place is really outstanding. You need to move it up on the bucket list! :yup:
 
I was looking for the K/C group and your blue Toyota but didn't see either, I was camped next to a Nebraska group but no blue toy... maybe next year!

The KC group was there, but I was the only one that stayed at the campground. Sorry we couldn't connect when we were there. We ran Mosquito Pass (on our own Saturday afternoon), Bald Mountain on Sunday, Hagerman Pass on Monday, Lost Canyon on Tuesday, Half Moon Creek on Wednesday (on our own as there were no official trails on wednesday), Participated in a trail clean-up run on Holy Cross on Thursday & Birdseye Gulch on Friday. I went on to run Black Bear pass on Saturday before moving on to Moab where I ran Metal Masher, Fins & Things, Kane Creek Canyon & Poison Spyder Mesa. After 4 days in Moab I decided to go back to Leadville, CO and camp along Half Moon creek and enjoy the weather for a few days. Had a great time and enjoyed the event allot.

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