Ordered the Off Road Package. Needed to do more than just pull off the driveway into the back yard.

[GerryS]

I had ordered the Off Road package on the Ram. I was darn sure I was going to use it at least once!
My wife informed me that we were taking a week off.
I did some research.
Results:

We drove to Colorado last week. Left on Aug 23. I am a novice on the four wheeling stuff. Actually, I'm no stranger to riding dirt bikes and taking dune buggies off road, but it has been since the mid '80s
since I've done any of that. I decided it would be best to do some light off roading on this trip, since I was inexperienced and I didn't want to scrape up the new truck.
We started with the Old Fall River road in Rocky Mountain National Park. That was an easy one way road, and a good confidence builder. The next one was the Last Dollar road into Telluride. Again another easy beautiful confidence building road.
After a nice lunch at Smugglers and window shopping, I had planned on Ophir pass to get to our "Home Base" in Ouray. I was a bit nervous about this one because of the stretch of narrow
shelf road on that trail. At the beginning of the trail, we pulled in behind a couple of vehicles with Pennsylvania plates( Dominic, Chad and Kate). They stopped to air down, and they were friendly enough to help us air down (25 on the front 20 on the rear with the 20" wheels), give us some advice and let us follow them up the pass. We scraped the running boards and a little on the front and rear of the truck on the lower part of the trail, but the shelf road was pretty fun and not really scary at all. Mostly because there was no opposing traffic. At the end of the trail, we all helped each other air up and went our separate ways. Here we are at the top of Ophir. That's Chad hanging off the sign.

Next day we were on our own. We started up Corkscrew pass, and hit a few more on the way to Silverton.

The wife decided that off roading wasn't as boring as she thought, so the next day we headed out again to the Animas Forks area out of Silverton. They got a lot of snow in the area. There were a lot of avalanches. This area with the snow is one area where the snow was so deep that it hadn't melted away yet.

Here's a place for sale.

Short ride out towards Yankee boy basin.

 

[devildodge]

Awesome. Thanks for the ride along. Sounds like a great time, and glad to hear those Pennsylvanians helped you out.

Great pics.

Glad to hear you got the wife to enjoy offroading, makes life more pleasant.

 

[GerryS]

Awesome. Thanks for the ride along. Sounds like a great time, and glad to hear those Pennsylvanians helped you out.

Great pics.

Glad to hear you got the wife to enjoy offroading, makes life more pleasant.

Thanks! It was a great time! And yes, I'm glad the wife enjoyed it.

You know that if the wife isn't happy, nobody is happy...

 

[GerryS]

Funny thing happened when we were up there above the treeline. We would stop here and there to take pictures or a leak. We get back in and start the truck and the heated seats and wheel would start up. Climate is set to auto with heated seats and wheel as well as vented seats set to come on when too hot or cold. What the heck? The trucks outside temp said it was like in the high 30s. We were out in shorts feeling like it was in the 80s. At lower altitudes, we didn't have that problem. Could the air temp really be that cold and the strong sun was making us feel like it was 80?

Gerry

 

[CaptainCJ35]

What a great trip! Some of those pictures are breathtaking. Thanks for posting.

 

[GerryS]

What a great trip! Some of those pictures are breathtaking. Thanks for posting.

Thank you! And you're welcome!
Gerry

 

[JB2]

The trucks outside temp said it was like in the high 30s. We were out in shorts feeling like it was in the 80s. At lower altitudes, we didn't have that problem. Could the air temp really be that cold and the strong sun was making us feel like it was 80?

Infrared & UV are quite strong up there. Latitude in that area is ~37/38'ish, so the sun angle this time of year is helping too. In the absence of wind, you will definitely feel warm on sunny days even when ambient temp is low. I have a house in that area and often sit on the deck in shorts & t-shirt in the winter if the winds are calm.

 

[Rob5589]

Great stuff! My brother lives and wheels in CO and always has great pics like that. Thanks for sharing.

 

[GerryS]

Great stuff! My brother lives and wheels in CO and always has great pics like that. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!
There is a bar in Ouray that has rooftop seating. It's pretty interesting to watch the vehicles coming through. Mostly Jeeps with winches and big tires. Lots of Razors or whatever they are called on the trails though. They were ripping around having fun but they are open vehicles subject to dust and rain. While there was no rain on our trip, there was plenty of dust... for them. We were dust free on the inside and listening to Classic Rock on the radio!
There were some on the big BMW motorcycles. That looks like fun! Also looks like work...

And, speaking of work, there was one guy pedaling his bike up the road from Telluride up past Bridal Veil Falls. I was behind him and didn't know if I should pass him or not. I was not going to be travelling much faster than him, and I thought he would probably pass me on one of the switchbacks anyway. I decided to pass. I got up a little ways and stopped to ask a downhill driver where the trail became one way with me going the wrong way. (Black Bear Pass road) Well, as he was explaining to me that I could go to the falls, the guy on the bike pedaled up between our trucks. I asked if it was bad form to pass him (Heck, I'm a novice and figured I'd ask)
He pedaled on by without a skip in his beat and said it's fine as long as you don't frigging stop to talk...
Message sent and received!
Being a flat lander from Illinois, I was in awe that this guy was pedaling that bike up that trail.

Gerry

 

[Helmetface]

Funny thing happened when we were up there above the treeline. We would stop here and there to take pictures or a leak. We get back in and start the truck and the heated seats and wheel would start up. Climate is set to auto with heated seats and wheel as well as vented seats set to come on when too hot or cold. What the heck? The trucks outside temp said it was like in the high 30s. We were out in shorts feeling like it was in the 80s. At lower altitudes, we didn't have that problem. Could the air temp really be that cold and the strong sun was making us feel like it was 80?

Gerry

Regardless of being on Auto setting, there is an option on your head unit settings for the truck to start up with heated seats and wheel going.

I can't remember what section ita under, maybe comfort? But it is certainly there.

 

[Richard320]

Funny thing happened when we were up there above the treeline. We would stop here and there to take pictures or a leak. We get back in and start the truck and the heated seats and wheel would start up. Climate is set to auto with heated seats and wheel as well as vented seats set to come on when too hot or cold. What the heck? The trucks outside temp said it was like in the high 30s. We were out in shorts feeling like it was in the 80s. At lower altitudes, we didn't have that problem. Could the air temp really be that cold and the strong sun was making us feel like it was 80?

Gerry

Yes. that' why when the sun goes down in the mountains it gets cold so fast. It doesn't; it just feels that way because it already was cold. Solar load has a huge effect on perceived temperature.

 

[GerryS]

Added a 10 min YouTube video of parts of Ophir pass to the original post. Lisa, my wife, was handholding her iPhone. I kind of wish I had bought a GoPro for this trip, but how many times can we watch ourselves do this? I suppose if I was an avid YouTuber it would make more sense, but I'm not.

Cheers
Gerry

 

[odhinnhrafn]

Funny thing happened when we were up there above the treeline. We would stop here and there to take pictures or a leak. We get back in and start the truck and the heated seats and wheel would start up. Climate is set to auto with heated seats and wheel as well as vented seats set to come on when too hot or cold. What the heck? The trucks outside temp said it was like in the high 30s. We were out in shorts feeling like it was in the 80s. At lower altitudes, we didn't have that problem. Could the air temp really be that cold and the strong sun was making us feel like it was 80?

Gerry

When I lived in Ft. Drum, NY (WAAAY up north, next to Lake Ontario), our winters were BRUTAL. Months below 0*. When it hit 34* out, sun shining, we were all outside in shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops. It can be a significant change, especially with the sun at higher elevations. Like Lake Tahoe, you have to apply sunblock far more often because the sun is much stronger at those elevations.

 

[GerryS]

When I lived in Ft. Drum, NY (WAAAY up north, next to Lake Ontario), our winters were BRUTAL. Months below 0*. When it hit 34* out, sun shining, we were all outside in shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops. It can be a significant change, especially with the sun at higher elevations. Like Lake Tahoe, you have to apply sunblock far more often because the sun is much stronger at those elevations.

We used to head out to Colorado for Spring skiing, and yeah, the sun was strong enough to bake your face. I'm just surprised that the truck would decide to turn on the heated seats and steering wheel based on the outside temp, and not on the temp inside the cab. Even when we jumped out for a minute or two, there was no way the inside cab temp went below 50. (Auto was set to 70). Wouldn't it make more sense to react to the inside temp rather than the outside temp?

Cheers
Gerry

 

[odhinnhrafn]

We used to head out to Colorado for Spring skiing, and yeah, the sun was strong enough to bake your face. I'm just surprised that the truck would decide to turn on the heated seats and steering wheel based on the outside temp, and not on the temp inside the cab. Even when we jumped out for a minute or two, there was no way the inside cab temp went below 50. (Auto was set to 70). Wouldn't make more sense to react to the inside temp rather than the outside temp?

Cheers
Gerry

Yeah, it's weird. I'm not sure if they've programmed the delta between inside and outside that well. Maybe they just want you to warm up quickly. lol.

 

[GerryS]

Yeah, it's weird. I'm not sure if they've programmed the delta between inside and outside that well. Maybe they just want you to warm up quickly. lol.

LOL But I was already warm! I wonder if since it was set to auto, would it realize it screwed up and turn off the heated wheel and seats, and turn on the AC? It didn't do that for the few minutes it baked my **** until I figured out what was happening...

 

[DavidNJ]

Looks like fun. Need to show the video to my wife.

Did you use 4WD Lo for maneuvering over any of the tricky stuff? Did you have an opportunity to use the Hill Descent feature? Did you use the Surround View front camera at all in the slow speed tricky stuff?

A hindrance was probably the sport package which swapped the 18" rims for 20" rims...7" sidewalls for 6" sidewalls. The ORG's 1" lift should give enough room for 34" tires (e.g. 275/65-20) which would add an extra inch of side wall (7" on a 20" rim) and an extra inch of ground clearance, including the diff.

One caution: switching to 18" rims is tricky because of brake clearance. A 34" tire on 18" rim (e.g. 285/70-18) would have 8" sidewalls.

 

[judsonlimited]

Looks like a badass trip! My GF and i went to breckinridge last month and rented a 2019 Ram Limited from DEN. We through boreas pass road up to breck and the truck did surprisingly well for having slicks and 22" wheels. Was because of this trip in that rental ram that i bought one for myself when i got back lol

 

[Bluelinebuild]

Really great pics! Love the outdoors and that looks like a place I would love to visit and maybe use it to convince my wife that a 2" mopar lift will help get us there..haha