Engineer Pass

Awesome trail, rough at times, especially in the switchbacks down from Engineer pass towards Cinnamon pass. The path from Engineer pass to Oruay is currently closed for repairs during weekdays, easy way out is through Silverton.

We started the trail in Lake City going west to the peak. The beginning of the trail was great. Lots of pull offs for a break or lunch and primitive camp sites. Beautiful views and the trail follows close to the creek. It turned super rocky at the Capital City ruins. We deflated down to 25 there for a better ride. After you reach the peak its very rocky and rutted on the way down to Denver Lake. Much more technical driving. There was still snow but the trail was completely clear.

Pretty deep snow at the top but is passable

Still snow on top of engineer pass at the very top from the east/lake city side. Last .5 mile is obstructed.

So after getting stuck I found out the trail is closed on the Lake City side but not mineral creek/ouray side

Going east to west you can make it to Engineer Pass. It is a bit muddy and snowy. However there is an uphill climb just past the pass through several inches of snow which got even deeper. Someone had made an attempt before me and backed down. I ended up going just as far as they did before having to back down the whole hill. Would not recommend. Just stop at the pass.

We went Ouray side to Lake City. First time doing the trail, and I’m glad we went that direction. It was much rougher at the beginning than I expected, but we had fun, and the views were spectacular! We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather, and there was very little traffic.

Went up from the silverton side and down to lake city on 9/21 . Pretty much dry , couple of puddles but that’s it . Pretty easy trail with a couple of tougher obstacles higher up … 5th gen 4Runner with a 3” lift and 33s did fine . Lake city side is easy and the aspens are on fire right now !

pretty hot leaving lake city but that quickly changed. Temperature dip followed by some sprinkles. At engineer pass, it started to rain/sleet as we did the descent into Animas forks.

Fantastic views trail is chill on the lake city side but the back side with the switch backs are steep and tight and lots of shelf road not easy to pass. Completed it in a stock 4Runner no problem.

It can be done with larger vehicle like my truck, but off road tires and high clearance are necessary. I used an all stock f350 with rear locker and 35 tires, no clear all obstacle with no problem.

Mostly easy. A couple short sections need high clearance. A couple turns are made harder and need more clearance than usual because of snow banks.

Snow banks still lined areas of the pass. Trail was muddy and there were snow flurries above the tree line. The few obstacles this trail has were made more challenging due to the muddy and snowy conditions. Would recommend driving from Lake City to Ouray/Silverton if you want an easier ride. Drive from Ouray/Silverton to Lake City if you want more of a challenge before you reach the summit.