Where Would John Wayne Take You On an Off-Road Adventure?

story & photos by Allen Merritt

Members of the Shiite Methodist Mobile Mounted Patrol 4WD Club stop to lock hubs at the entrance to the Alpine Loop Trail.

If he was still with us, where would John Wayne take his friends for great off-road adventurers? Well, he left us some visual clues about his favorite off-road locations. He filmed many of our favorite westerns in the Red Rock Canyons of southeast Utah and in the nearby San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. Moreover, on a clear day, the snowcapped peaks of both locations are within sight of each other. The San Juans lie roughly between Ridgway, Cortez, and Durango, Colorado. According to C.W. McCall, who immortalized the mountains in the “San Juan Odyssey” and in his “Wolf Creek Pass” and “Black Bear Road” songs, the San Juan Mountains are the roughest, toughest, steepest mountains in the West. “You can hike ‘em if you’ve got the legs, you can ride ‘em if you’ve got a horse, or you can Jeep ‘em, if you’ve got the nerve, but one thing is for sure — you can’t see this country any other way, you’ve got to climb it.”

There are several superb San Juan tours you can take in a car, and there are many more trips that you can take in a pickup truck or sport utility vehicle. The San Juan Skyway is one of the most scenic highway drives in the world. The Skyway is an all-day loop through Telluride, Dolores, Cortez, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Ridgeway. The most scenic gravel roads anywhere start near the ranch town of Ridgway, where the town scenes of “True Grit” were filmed. While in Ridgway, have your picture taken with Marshal Cogburn’s jail-wagon in the town park or in front of the “True Grit” Saloon on the town square.

East of Ridgway, you can drive past unbelievably beautiful ranches and over Owl Creek Pass to Silver Jack Reservoir. The Owl Creek Pass road is one of the most spectacular mountain roads in the country and is an actual 1885 cattle-drive trail. Large herds of cattle and sheep still trod the gravel road every spring and fall as they move to and from their summer range. Along the way, the cows, sheep, and cowboys share the emerald meadows and sapphire lakes with campers, fishermen, and photographers. Just east of the pass, below towering Castle Rock, watch for a sign marking the meadow where Marshal Cogburn put the reigns in his teeth, filled both fists with iron and charged four outlaws in “True Grit.” You can also see Castle Rock in scenes from “The Cowboys.” Be sure to explore the three short 4WD roads that terminate at rushing streams east of the pass. West of Ridgeway, you’ll find more exquisite gravel roads, Elk Meadows Road, the Dallas Divide Road, and Last Dollar Road to Telluride.

The snake-pit scenes of “True Grit” were filmed near Ouray, also known as the Gem of the Rockies and as the Jeep Capital of the World. In the spring, mountain lovers in SUVs follow ruts, muddy with melting snow, through alpine meadows awash with brilliant flowers of every hue. During the short summer, the sure-footed 4x4s carry stouthearted explorers up steep, soul-stirring switchbacks through the two-mile-high passes. In the fall, four-wheelers photograph autumn’s riotous colors when quaking aspen leaves glitter like gold, and blue-green spruce contrast the radiant scarlet scrub oaks. If you’re driving an SUV, and if you’ve replaced your original soft side-walled “P for passenger” street tires with rock-resistant “LT for light truck” tires, and, if you feel comfortable driving rocky shelf roads, you should explore some of the 4x4 trails. With LT tires on light 4x4s, you can reduce tire air-pressure to 15-20 psi for a more comfortable ride over rocky trails, and still drive on the pavement for short distances at reduced speeds between trails. Be sure to air back up to recommended air pressure before driving at highway speeds or for extended distances on pavement. Many gas stations in 4-wheeling towns offer free air to their customers. Frequent wheelers carry tire-pressure gauges and 12-volt air compressors in their rigs to air their tires up or down as needed.

You may want to start your off-road adventure by wheeling over Engineer and Cinnamon Pass on the Alpine Loop from Ouray to Lake City and Silverton. You’ll drive over century old mining roads past ghost towns to summits over 13,000-feet high for a panoramic view of the surrounding 14,000-feet peaks. If you didn’t bring your rig, there are Jeep rental agencies in each town. Besides late model Jeeps, they provide good maps and daily trail reports. The tour folks will tell you where the flowers are prettiest, where the fall colors are most brilliant, and where snow blocks trails. If you’re not yet ready to drive over challenging trails, be sure to take one of the many available Jeep tours. The tour drivers know local history and tend to be excellent storytellers. The tour drivers will gladly offer 4WD driving tips, so you can take your rig on an off-road adventure another day.

If you’re confident of your off-road driving skills, you can drive your own from Red Mountain to Telluride over breath-taking, one-way Black Bear Pass. But, Black Bear, like Poughkeepsie Gulch, is for experienced off-roaders with modified 4x4s. Rental agencies do not allow their rigs on these trails. However, The Bear combined with 13,114-feet high Imogene Pass is a favorite trip for the professional tour drivers.

Silverton is located in the heart of the San Juan County at 9,318 feet and has the distinction of having the highest average elevation of any county in the United States. Today, Silverton’s fame comes from the historic steam train that carries tourists up Animas Canyon from Durango on 45 miles of narrow gauge rail. Campgrounds in Silverton and Ouray host several 4WD events each summer because the San Juans are so popular with wheelers. The campgrounds are an excellent place to join-up with other wheelers for group trips. Many of the off-road adventurers you meet in the campgrounds and motels have returned to the San Juans year after year and are excellent trail guides. If you wheel with a group, a CB radio makes the trip more enjoyable.

From the San Juan’s high roads, if you look west on clear days, you’ll see the three snowcapped peaks of Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Nestled between the three peaks and the Portal, where the Colorado River enters the Grand Canyon, lies the town of Moab. In addition to Dead Horse State Park, Arches National Park, and Canyon Lands National Park, Moab, is surrounded by millions of acres of public land. Hundreds of miles of 4-wheel drive trails, that were once ranch or mining roads, wind through an endless maze of cliffs, pinnacles, sand hills, and slick rock domes. From Moab to Monument Valley, these areas make southeast Utah the perfect set for John Wayne’s desert westerns like “The Searchers,” “The Comancheros” and “Rio Grand.”

Moab remains a favorite movie location and for over 30-years it has hosted the legendary Red Rock Easter Jeep Safari. The Red Rock Country is a favorite year round destination of off-road adventurers, especially during the months when the mountains are more suitable for snowmobiles. Moab trails vary from scenic dirt roads, that novice off-roaders in stock vehicles can wheel, to extreme-challenge 4x4 trails. Having taller tires, a differential locker, and a winch makes far more trails doable, especially when you wheel with a 4WD club.

A favorite late-spring through autumn off-road adventure consists of wheeling a few days in the San Juans and a few days in Moab. There are three good routes connecting the areas. The shortest way goes west from Ridgway to Naturita, to Bedrock, to La Sal, and north to Moab. Another way is to go north to Interstate 70, with a stop in Fruita to see the dinosaurs at Colorado Monument, west to Cisco at exit 202 and south on Utah 128. This two-lane blacktop follows the Colorado River, and is extremely scenic. The southern route goes west from Durango to Cortez, where you should spend a day at Mesa Verde National Park, a rich concentration of ancient multistoried pre-Columbian Anasazi cliff dwellings, to Monticello and north to Moab.

If you can visit only one park in Moab, make it Dead Horse State Park, Utah’s Grand Canyon. The park offers views of the river and canyon that are grander than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, 200 miles down river. Another reason to visit Dead Horse Park is that there are several good 4x4 trails to combine with the visit. Be sure to leave the park through Long Canyon and drive under the huge fallen rock at Pucker Pass. Like John Wayne, you’ll want to shoot plenty of film on these off-road adventures.

Many scenic trails like Yankee Boy Basin are suitable for small tire’d SUVs.

To do tough trails like Pritchart Canyon, Len Marks of Denver, installed tall tires, a lift, and locking differentials. A winch is added insurance.

Stock SUVs with good tires can wheel high into Yankee Boy Basin above Ouray.

Thousands of tourists chug 45-miles up the Anamis Canyon on the Durango and Silverton train each summer. The historic train is a frequent movie set.

If he was still with us, where would John Wayne take his friends for great off-road adventurers? Well, he left us some visual clues about his favorite off-road locations. He filmed many of our favorite westerns in the Red Rock Canyons of southeast Utah and in the nearby San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. Moreover, on a clear day, the snowcapped peaks of both locations are within sight of each other.

The San Juans lie roughly between Ridgway, Cortez, and Durango, Colorado. According to C.W. McCall, who immortalized the mountains in the “San Juan Odyssey” and in his “Wolf Creek Pass” and “Black Bear Road” songs, the San Juan Mountains are the roughest, toughest, steepest mountains in the West. “You can hike ‘em if you’ve got the legs, you can ride ‘em if you’ve got a horse, or you can Jeep ‘em, if you’ve got the nerve, but one thing is for sure — you can’t see this country any other way, you’ve got to climb it.”

There are several superb San Juan tours you can take in a car, and there are many more trips that you can take in a pickup truck or sport utility vehicle. The San Juan Skyway is one of the most scenic highway drives in the world. The Skyway is an all-day loop through Telluride, Dolores, Cortez, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Ridgeway. The most scenic gravel roads anywhere start near the ranch town of Ridgway, where the town scenes of “True Grit” were filmed. While in Ridgway, have your picture taken with Marshal Cogburn’s jail-wagon in the town park or in front of the “True Grit” Saloon on the town square.

East of Ridgway, you can drive past unbelievably beautiful ranches and over Owl Creek Pass to Silver Jack Reservoir. The Owl Creek Pass road is one of the most spectacular mountain roads in the country and is an actual 1885 cattle-drive trail. Large herds of cattle and sheep still trod the gravel road every spring and fall as they move to and from their summer range. Along the way, the cows, sheep, and cowboys share the emerald meadows and sapphire lakes with campers, fishermen, and photographers. Just east of the pass, below towering Castle Rock, watch for a sign marking the meadow where Marshal Cogburn put the reigns in his teeth, filled both fists with iron and charged four outlaws in “True Grit.” You can also see Castle Rock in scenes from “The Cowboys.” Be sure to explore the three short 4WD roads that terminate at rushing streams east of the pass. West of Ridgeway, you’ll find more exquisite gravel roads, Elk Meadows Road, the Dallas Divide Road, and Last Dollar Road to Telluride.

The snake-pit scenes of “True Grit” were filmed near Ouray, also known as the Gem of the Rockies and as the Jeep Capital of the World. In the spring, mountain lovers in SUVs follow ruts, muddy with melting snow, through alpine meadows awash with brilliant flowers of every hue. During the short summer, the sure-footed 4x4s carry stouthearted explorers up steep, soul-stirring switchbacks through the two-mile-high passes. In the fall, four-wheelers photograph autumn’s riotous colors when quaking aspen leaves glitter like gold, and blue-green spruce contrast the radiant scarlet scrub oaks.

If you’re driving an SUV, and if you’ve replaced your original soft side-walled “P for passenger” street tires with rock-resistant “LT for light truck” tires, and, if you feel comfortable driving rocky shelf roads, you should explore some of the 4x4 trails. With LT tires on light 4x4s, you can reduce tire air-pressure to 15-20 psi for a more comfortable ride over rocky trails, and still drive on the pavement for short distances at reduced speeds between trails. Be sure to air back up to recommended air pressure before driving at highway speeds or for extended distances on pavement. Many gas stations in 4-wheeling towns offer free air to their customers. Frequent wheelers carry tire-pressure gauges and 12-volt air compressors in their rigs to air their tires up or down as needed.

You may want to start your off-road adventure by wheeling over Engineer and Cinnamon Pass on the Alpine Loop from Ouray to Lake City and Silverton. You’ll drive over century old mining roads past ghost towns to summits over 13,000-feet high for a panoramic view of the surrounding 14,000-feet peaks. If you didn’t bring your rig, there are Jeep rental agencies in each town. Besides late model Jeeps, they provide good maps and daily trail reports. The tour folks will tell you where the flowers are prettiest, where the fall colors are most brilliant, and where snow blocks trails. If you’re not yet ready to drive over challenging trails, be sure to take one of the many available Jeep tours. The tour drivers know local history and tend to be excellent storytellers. The tour drivers will gladly offer 4WD driving tips, so you can take your rig on an off-road adventure another day.

If you’re confident of your off-road driving skills, you can drive your own from Red Mountain to Telluride over breath-taking, one-way Black Bear Pass. But, Black Bear, like Poughkeepsie Gulch, is for experienced off-roaders with modified 4x4s. Rental agencies do not allow their rigs on these trails. However, The Bear combined with 13,114-feet high Imogene Pass is a favorite trip for the professional tour drivers.

Silverton is located in the heart of the San Juan County at 9,318 feet and has the distinction of having the highest average elevation of any county in the United States. Today, Silverton’s fame comes from the historic steam train that carries tourists up Animas Canyon from Durango on 45 miles of narrow gauge rail. Campgrounds in Silverton and Ouray host several 4WD events each summer because the San Juans are so popular with wheelers. The campgrounds are an excellent place to join-up with other wheelers for group trips. Many of the off-road adventurers you meet in the campgrounds and motels have returned to the San Juans year after year and are excellent trail guides. If you wheel with a group, a CB radio makes the trip more enjoyable.

From the San Juan’s high roads, if you look west on clear days, you’ll see the three snowcapped peaks of Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Nestled between the three peaks and the Portal, where the Colorado River enters the Grand Canyon, lies the town of Moab. In addition to Dead Horse State Park, Arches National Park, and Canyon Lands National Park, Moab, is surrounded by millions of acres of public land. Hundreds of miles of 4-wheel drive trails, that were once ranch or mining roads, wind through an endless maze of cliffs, pinnacles, sand hills, and slick rock domes. From Moab to Monument Valley, these areas make southeast Utah the perfect set for John Wayne’s desert westerns like “The Searchers,” “The Comancheros” and “Rio Grand.”

Moab remains a favorite movie location and for over 30-years it has hosted the legendary Red Rock Easter Jeep Safari. The Red Rock Country is a favorite year round destination of off-road adventurers, especially during the months when the mountains are more suitable for snowmobiles. Moab trails vary from scenic dirt roads, that novice off-roaders in stock vehicles can wheel, to extreme-challenge 4x4 trails. Having taller tires, a differential locker, and a winch makes far more trails doable, especially when you wheel with a 4WD club.

A favorite late-spring through autumn off-road adventure consists of wheeling a few days in the San Juans and a few days in Moab. There are three good routes connecting the areas. The shortest way goes west from Ridgway to Naturita, to Bedrock, to La Sal, and north to Moab. Another way is to go north to Interstate 70, with a stop in Fruita to see the dinosaurs at Colorado Monument, west to Cisco at exit 202 and south on Utah 128. This two-lane blacktop follows the Colorado River, and is extremely scenic. The southern route goes west from Durango to Cortez, where you should spend a day at Mesa Verde National Park, a rich concentration of ancient multistoried pre-Columbian Anasazi cliff dwellings, to Monticello and north to Moab.

If you can visit only one park in Moab, make it Dead Horse State Park, Utah’s Grand Canyon. The park offers views of the river and canyon that are grander than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, 200 miles down river. Another reason to visit Dead Horse Park is that there are several good 4x4 trails to combine with the visit. Be sure to leave the park through Long Canyon and drive under the huge fallen rock at Pucker Pass. Like John Wayne, you’ll want to shoot plenty of film on these off-road adventures.

From the Alpine Loop, off-roaders have a grand view of Poughkeepsie Gulch. The autumn colors peak in late September and early October.

David Vance pilots the author’s 4-Runner up Poughkeepsie Gulch with the aid of a TrueTrack limited slip front differential and an ARB locking rear differential. A 4-inch Rancho lift, 4.88 gears, and 31-inch tires help, but without the lockers, a winch may be needed.

Ed Currey admires the La Sals from one of Moab’s jeep trails.

Members of Denver’s Mile-Hi Jeep Club regularly drive across the Rockies to wheel the San Juans.