Bolam pass is between Purgatory and Rico(?). Drive north from Durango, hang a left at the Purgatory ski area, drive past all the ski area bits and continue up and West out the Hermosa creek to the end of that valley, hang a right angle turn North and drive close alongside the creek, eventually ascend up over 11,000 ft. Carry on all the way through the West side if you wish, to a small town named Rico that is on the paved drive between Durango and Telluride (which goes west of most of the San Juans). We’ve been looking at this spot for a few years now, as an off-the-radar pass that isn’t super hardcore (read: not interesting to the hoards of 4-wheelers) but high enough to count as Colorado alpine.
Last year we were less than a day away from departing en route to this spot when Karen found info online that said the road was closed for road work, so we diverted. This time we were interested to see what “road work” transpired (we couldn’t tell; but it may have been impassable previously for all we know, this was our first visit). In the interim, Jonny5 hiked the whole CO trail which passes right through this spot, so we had some boots-on-the-ground beta indicating it was excellent.
Whatever, point is, we went here, and the pass was beautiful but utterly filled with mosquitoes this particular moment, owing to the very recent onset of the rainy season. Bad luck on the mosquito timing front. That first night we had little time to kill until retreating to the mosquito-safe tent environment anyway so it was all fine.
At 4:30 AM someone started shouting really loudly right outside our tent. Somewhat alarming, woke us up quickly. Evidently some backpacker was passing through our camp at 4:30 AM precisely as a mountain lion was also passing through our camp, and the result was middle-of-the-night screaming. When queried the woman asked if one of us could hike with her for ten minutes (?). So I walked with her in the dark, more than half asleep and then returned to my tent to pass out for another few hours. It was a very strange experience, in the dark chilly hours walking silently with a stranger, trying not to wake up too much so that I could return to my comfy sleeping bag.
The following day we drove around the meadows just to the West side of the pass—quite nice—then retreated from the mosquitoes back down Hermosa creek to a camp site right next to the water. The bugs were WAY better, it was the right choice. I definitely recommend the creekside option; sleeping to the sound of running water is special.
Another thing to put down for posterity: the boys are currently into the mechanics of cars, and driving. They took turns sitting in my lap to steer, for hours, while we bumped slowly around the forest roads, and they are asking about transmissions and clutches and gears and motors and whatnot. Really, I am not prompting or directing them towards these interests in any way, just trying to support whatever they happen to be passionate about. I have been putting off replacing the clutch on the Xterra for months now. Perhaps it would be a good time to dig into that job, and try to involve the boys as much as they want.
Below is a 360 degree video—you can drag the view around.
