The San Juans Badge Run: Five Passes From One Basecamp

There is a reason wheelers keep coming back to the San Juans. Nowhere else in Colorado packs this many legendary passes into one valley, and you can run the best of them without ever breaking camp. Base out of Ouray, point the rig at a different pass each morning, and sleep in the same bed every night.

Here is the week I hand people when they ask for "the list."

Why they call it a badge run

All five of these passes are official Jeep Badge of Honor trails. If you run a Jeep, you can check in at each trailhead in the Jeep app and Jeep mails you a physical trail badge for the dash. Ophir, Imogene, Black Bear, Engineer, and Poughkeepsie are all on the Colorado list, so one week out of Ouray earns the whole set. That is where the name comes from.

Basecamp: Ouray

Ouray sits in the middle of everything, which is exactly why it works. Box Canyon Falls is a five-minute drive, the Million Dollar Highway runs right through town, and four of these five passes start within twenty minutes of Main Street. Get a room or a campsite for the week and let the passes come to you.

Day 1: Ophir Pass (11,789 ft)

Start easy. Ophir climbs a shale shelf road from the old mining town of Ophir toward Silverton. It is the gentlest crossing of the week and a good place to shake down the rig before the big ones.

Day 2: Imogene Pass (13,114 ft)

The second-highest drivable pass in Colorado. From the Camp Bird road just south of Ouray you climb past old mine works to the summit and drop toward Telluride. Long, rocky, and all shelf road.

Day 3: Black Bear Pass

The famous one, and one-way only. Black Bear drops off Red Mountain Pass into Telluride past Bridal Veil Falls and the switchbacks called the Steps. Short wheelbase and steady nerves.

Day 4: Engineer Pass (12,800 ft)

The high point of the Alpine Loop. Wide alpine tundra, big views, and enough old mining history to fill an afternoon. A gorgeous day to breathe after Black Bear.

Day 5: Poughkeepsie Gulch

Save the hardest for last. Poughkeepsie branches off the Mineral Creek network into a genuinely extreme gulch, with the Wall near the top. Lockers, a spotter, and a short wheelbase earn this badge.

Before you go

These are high mountain passes. Most do not open until snow clears in early summer, and Poughkeepsie in particular is closed roughly mid-October through July. Check with the Ouray Ranger District for current conditions, air down, and carry recovery gear.

Complete your trip

This is the week in the mountains, not the drive to reach it. Everyone rolls in from a different corner of the country, so the basecamp and the passes are the part worth mapping in detail; the getting-there is yours to add. Once you save it to your account, drop in a travel leg from home to Ouray and a return leg back afterward, and the planner routes those connections for you. Pick your own lodging in town while you are at it. That turns this from a great week of trails into your whole door-to-door trip.

One last thing: there is no single right way to run these passes. That is half the beauty of wheeling and off-road travel, everyone takes a different line, a different pace, a different order. This is not the best way or the only way, just one way we wanted to share. Take what is useful and make the rest your own.

Grab the route

I built this whole week as a route on WheelingTrips, mapped pass by pass. Look at the full thing, and if you want it, save it to your own account and set your own dates. Every day slides to match.

See the route and save it

Have some feedback? Want to suggest an article or a route? Hit me up at troy@wheelingtrips.com.