US Basin & Browns Gulch
US Basin & Browns Gulch (Silverton, CO)
US Basin & Browns Gulch is a nice six mile loop trail that takes off from US 550 near Red Mountain Pass and returns to the highway closer to Silverton. This loop makes for a nice short alternate route instead of taking the highway the whole way from Silverton to Ouray. Charles Wells includes this trail in his book as part of the Red Mountain Mining District trail. However, this trail can be run separately from the rest of the Red Mountain Mining District and is quite a bit different from the other area, so I am considering this one as a separate trail here.
The trail starts off near Red Mountain Pass and heads up to US Basin where you get some great views into the basin. In the spring, this basin is full of wildflowers. Once you pass US Basin the trail quickly climbs up high above 12,000 feet and offers great views down onto US 550 and the historic Chattanooga area. The trail finishes off by switchbacking down into Browns Gulch where you will pass through the Brooklyn Mine area.
This trail is pretty easy and any stock 4×4 should have no problems with it. The first time I tried to run this trail at the beginning of July, it was blocked by some snow drifts.
Please feel free to leave your comments and post your pictures from US Basin & Browns Gulch below.
US Basin & Browns Gulch KML Track
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Open file above in Google Earth.
