Trail Overview
Taylor Mesa Road travels through a scenic, heavily forested section of the San Juan National Forest. The route winds through a mixture of mature evergreen trees and stands of aspens, creating alternating areas of dense shade and more open forest. Grassy meadows and low-growing vegetation border portions of the road, while other sections pass along forested hillsides covered with young trees, shrubs, and scattered exposed rock. Several areas contain dead or damaged timber mixed among the healthy forest, providing evidence of the changing forest landscape. The route itself varies between wider sections surrounded by open vegetation and narrower-feeling stretches enclosed by tall trees. Overall, Taylor Mesa Road provides a peaceful drive through a diverse high-elevation forest environment with changing vegetation and occasional openings that provide longer views through the surrounding landscape.
Difficulty
Wide, well-maintained gravel and packed dirt with no major obstacles, deep ruts, ledges, or technical sections. Minor loose gravel and shallow depressions may be present. Most stock vehicles should have little difficulty in dry conditions.
History
The Taylor Creek and Taylor Mesa area has long served as an access corridor into the western San Juan Mountains. Roads across the mesa have supported ranching, livestock grazing, timber management, hunting and other uses of the surrounding National Forest. Taylor Creek Road remains one of the primary Forest Service access routes onto Taylor Mesa and connects with an extensive network of historic and modern backcountry roads. Below the mesa, the Dolores River valley was also an important transportation corridor. The Rio Grande Southern Railroad once followed portions of this valley between Dolores and Rico, and sections of today's CO-145 were later constructed over or alongside the former railroad grade.
