Exploring Colorado's Hidden Mountain Paradise

I've been wanting to work with Caleb Baker for quite some time now. Him and some other content creators are headed my way. I've taken it upon myself to be their tour guide for the next several days. Their requests for this trip are pretty straightforward. One, they want to see some historical mining sites. Two, they want to see some of Colorado's legendary mountain views, preferably from a campsite. And three, they want to be able to make the 16-hour drive home after doing those things. I think I've built the perfect route to blow these guys away. Okay, so I'm meeting up with Caleb Baker of Baker Overland, Benji of Newfound Overland Podcast, previously Budget Overland Podcast, and last, Jacob of Eagles Overlanding. And they're coming all the way from Missouri, Arkansas to meet up with me. They want to come out and shoot some content. So my number one priority is to try to keep these guys from getting altitude sickness. My number two priority is to give them a trip that is something that they're not going home with. I wish we could have done this because there was talk of going to the San Juans. The reason we didn't do that is because it would have added five hours onto their trip. I'm telling you, Colorado has way more to offer than just the San Juans. Definitely go out there and see it. It's one of my favorite places as well. I think a lot of people just concentrate on that too much. It's like Utah. Everybody wants to go to Moab. I promise you, Utah has a lot more to offer than just Moab. What up, fellas? Sorry, man. No, you're good. We texted you that we moved down there. No, it's all good. No, I got your coordinates and I drove right past it. How's it going, man? Once we get... So is most of what we're doing today going to be like pavement type stuff? No, I think it's dirt road, just easy going. Just assume that it's going to be like something pretty to see, good spots for drones and stuff, assuming it's not raining. And then tomorrow we'll be in the Buena Vista area, and then from there we'll go to Leadville. Okay, so something you guys are probably not used to is even when it rains like this, it usually doesn't matter that much unless it's super consistent because if this blows over and the sun comes out, you won't be able to tell it was raining within like 45 minutes. Want to air down now or what? You hook it up to any brand of air compressor, and you say, hey, I want my PSI at 40, and then you can press it and then you just walk away. That's cool. It will shut off any brand. The one I have is a 10.6 PSI Pro, which it has that built into, that tech. Okay. So he implemented that so anybody could buy any brand of air compressor. That's pretty smart. So this one's yours. Dude, thank you so much. It's so freaking handy to have. Man, it makes such a difference. In my early Colorado four-wheel drive days, I didn't know any better. So I do all sorts of trails fully inflated. Fun fact about aspen trees. So all of these trees right here are most likely all the same exact plant. They all share one giant root system, and it's one of the larger organisms on the planet. I got to admit that I didn't even notice the old cabin here until Benji said something. I'm going to need to recalibrate myself for this trip because I forget how exciting some of this stuff can be for first-timers exploring Colorado. So freaking cool. This is what's pretty exciting about traveling with people from out of state. They saw this old cabin that had broken down. And to them, that is like amazing to see. And I'm just, I've seen it so many times, the same kind of stuff. And I just blast on past it. And to see how excited they are about this kind of thing, it kind of makes me re-appreciate some of that. I'm looking forward to some of the other stuff I'm going to show them this weekend because I'm going to blow these guys away. It's starting to look like we're heading back into the thunderstorms that we got a brief taste of earlier today. Luckily, I'm not anticipating running into anything on this section of the trail that a little rain could interfere with. I intentionally planned for the first leg of this trip to move through the lower elevations. A couple of these guys have experienced altitude sickness before, so I thought it would be best to allow at least one night for them to acclimate. My welds broke, not Jacob's welds, mine welds broke. Because these things, they look bigger on TV than they do, or online than they do in real person. So we're going to put a roller cam on there. This one's the beefier three foot one. It's about what, an inch and a half, two inches thick. I'm just going to put it on the spare tire one for now. And if I have to, I'm going to loop them both. But I'm glad these are in. Having good luck with my drone today. A few minutes ago it did something it's never done before and it kind of dive bombed into the FJ. So I think it's due for a service. A malfunctioning drone is the last of my concerns right now. What's at the forefront of my mind is what tonight's campsite could look like. And now that I'm seeing it, I can let out a sigh of relief. This is exactly the kind of campsite that I wanted these guys to see tonight. It's even better than I could have hoped for. I need to be clear that these are not the kind of people that would complain even if we had to camp in a gravel parking lot tonight. They would be perfectly happy hovering around a burn barrel and watching the sun set over the mountains. And people like that are the ones that I have a desire to do the most for. So all right so we are at night one's campsite. And as you can see it is absolutely beautiful. I wanted to acclimate these guys a little bit and tonight we're at actually 9,000 feet which is a little higher than I wanted to be. So hopefully everybody's feeling all right and I've been encouraging all of them to drink a bunch of water. But as far as what I wanted to find for these guys, this is absolutely it because we have just incredible views and we're going to get to see the sun go down. We had the storms today so the sunset's just going to be amazing. I know these guys are looking forward to hanging out around the fire just because they had a long day yesterday. We've been driving all day today and for them this is just next level. And it is for me too but for them it's a different experience. So we're just going to enjoy the evening and watch the sun go down. Boys I gotta go cook. Me too. You want some whiskey before you start? What kind is it? 10 cup. Sure. Always. You gotta do the Colorado brand. Yeah. I do have a reasonable glass if you'd like to use it. I mean I don't want you to do dishes. I'm not going to do dishes. Exactly. Well I mean I'm saying I'm not going to not do dishes. That's great. Thank you. This is for you. Cheers boys. Yeah. Thank you. Off to a good start. That is some huge stuff. 10 cup man. It's one of my favorites. Look at that. It's pretty cool. Pretty cool campsite. Yeah I'm not mad about finding this area. I was like mapping this stuff out like I was like it's got to be cool down there. Sometimes in Colorado you'll think you're getting into something pretty neat and you're a little disappointed but it's worked out. It's just crazy to me that you haven't been here. There's just so many little offshoots. There's so much to explore in this state. Now that the chore of cooking is done, we're getting some real time to just sit and share ideas. We all know each other from expos in the digital world but of course the campfire opens up an entire new level of camaraderie. What other stories or things have you studied or written about? For me this is an entirely new experience. I've never really worked with other creators before and in a way it's reminding me of high school art class. Being surrounded by people that are just as interested in getting creative shots, riffing on wild video ideas and telling stories is something that I'm quickly learning to very much appreciate. And around this very fire, Caleb and I have already hatched a new project for the future that I am extremely excited about. That's for another day in a whole different adventure. But the National Park Service is very like cagey about talking about it and all these people go missing, lots of them. Can I get your, I didn't want to be like, can I get your number? Well the thing about locals and especially in rural areas, they all want to talk but they don't have nobody to talk to. But as excited as we are to share ideas tonight, we have ground to cover tomorrow. That's a good pose right there buddy. All right, so we're all wrapped up and we're going to head out. I'm going to take these guys over towards Leadville. They want to go check out the town but we're going to do some trails in the area. So I don't know if we're actually going to the town today or if we're going to go do that tomorrow as we're kind of passing through anyway. Either way, we're going to move on from here and we're going to move up in elevation and I'm going to show these guys some really cool parts of Colorado. Factoring in time to air up, today's destination is about two hours away. I know that last night's camp was far from an eyesore but today is going to be the spot that I think these guys will dream about for years to come. It's an area that I've actually seen before but it's been quite some time. The trail is surrounded by forest, it has plenty of water crossings and it's in the shadow of towering mountains. It's the perfect place to fly a drone. I gotta listen to this. That was the final, that was the final straw I think. Bummer dude. Well good thing you guys have one. Yeah we got two. If my drone is going to crash and burn on a trip then this is the best case scenario. It's time to press on. So of course I had to bring these guys over here to Twin Lakes which is right on Independence Pass and that's what the channel is kind of named after. And so I had to bring these guys over for a lunch break since we were stopping through. Check out that lake and then look over here where some dumb ass left his fire burning unattended and now it burnt up the forest. So even though it has a fire scar it's still beautiful out here. We have now reached the portion of this route that has everybody excited. This kind of trail is what people come to Colorado for with their four-wheel drive. Four low will be necessary. The historical significance will be unavoidable. We will all silently stare out of our windows on the way through and wonder why we can't just live out here. Kind of a hard spot to pose a shot for. These guys are from Arkansas so I'm well aware that it's going to take a bit more than a few stream crossings and a waterfall to really blow them away. As we continue our climb and the forest begins to spread out I know that these guys are feeling an incredible sense of awe. I know they're feeling it because even after all of these years of seeing places like this I'm feeling it too. You guys are gonna freak when you see what they built up here. We've nearly reached our primary point of interest along the trail but we have a few rocks that we got to climb over during the final stretch. In climbs like this in an independent front suspension vehicle really highlight how tire placement is everything. Yeah you guys might be able to get away with the the straddle but if I were to slide down off of that with my momentum on the roof it'd be bad news. There you go you got it you got it good job good job. We are across from the mine and I'm not entirely sure that I can get these guys to it like I intended to because there's a gate and it might be private now which is confusing. Maybe people are painting it or trying to tear it down unfortunately that kind of stuff happens. You at least used to be able to drive up to it so I'm kind of bummed that I can't get these guys closer because I know Caleb in particular is very excited about seeing this. Caleb Baker has a phenomenal in-depth video all about this mine and the history that surrounds it. I can't tell that story nearly as well as he can so to see a different chapter of this trip from a totally unique perspective check out his video on Baker Overland. We're not next to the road we've got an amazing view and we just got the whole area to ourselves and really we only saw three other trucks up here today. This channel is sponsored by Onyx Off-Road. I just really encourage building your own route doing your own thing. Maybe Baker will share some of these locations I'm not going to. I don't like doing that very much because today we saw three jeeps on a Friday maybe there'll be more up here tomorrow but having areas like this where it's not a traffic jam you know it's uh there's something to be said for that. For me personally and for people that may want to experience having a whole trail to themselves pretty much if I share all this that will not be available. It's one of those things where I encourage people to get out and find their own routes. There are literal trail maps. Onyx Off-Road will show you how to get into places. It'll tell you how hard it is and some of them even have pictures. Get on Onyx Off-Road and you can build a route and Overland 20 all lowercase and you can get 20% off and then you can plan your own stuff like this. All you have to do is a little bit of research and I promise you you can find amazing places to explore. Not every time is going to look like that but you will get good at it really quick and you'll be able to find spots like this. We're doing some of mama's finest hamburger helper but we've elevated it so come check this out. I think you'll dig it. So it also has mushrooms, spinach, onions, garlic. We put some sausage pulled sausage in it and jalapenos and it's bomb. But dude this is like spicy. We hit it with some Tony's. We'll just do it a potluck style. I like that. Walk around and I've got desserts. Don't let me forget. I'm just gonna be digging in Tyler's truck. Give her hell. Hey you're gonna send this to one of the freestanding awning guys. Are you tired of fighting your awning? You wish there was an easier solution? Well buddy here's your solution. All right I'm trying to be quiet because people are already sleeping but we just hung out around the fire for a while. It was a very enjoyable evening. We just watched the sun go down over the mountains and just got to relax. Unfortunately I think these guys are gonna have to leave tomorrow which is a day earlier than I'd expected. I'm really enjoying hanging out with these guys so that's kind of a bummer but you know that's the way it goes. They have a long drive to get back home and they got other stuff going on so that's just the way it's gonna work. We're all gonna get up in the morning and I'm sure hang out for a little while. Make our way back down the trail and then we'll just kind of see what happens. But I'm trying to work around their schedule but I was so excited to show these guys this area because I know this really blew their mind. So anyway that was two. I think I just saw something over there. So anyway the last two days have been awesome. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Maybe we will get into a little bit more but time will tell. So I'm gonna climb up in the tent. I'm freezing. Oh there's rabbits everywhere. Weird. Okay so as I was wrapping up filming I was about to go up into the tent and I saw reflective eyes and there are a bunch of snowshoe hares up here. This is the weirdest thing. I've never seen that many. I've never seen that many rabbits up in the high elevation like this and there are like there's like eight rabbits up there. That was very strange. Anyway I thought it was I thought it was like a weasel or something but it's just a bunch of bunnies. So anyway back to the tent. So unfortunately it's time to leave this spot. These guys got to get moving. If they had more time I'd almost say we could stay another day because this is just incredible and the places I was going to take them after this were not going to be this epic. But everybody's loaded up. We're packed up. We're ready to go. It's time to go. I think we would all certainly call this a successful trip. No one got altitude sickness. We certainly got the mountain views that these guys were dreaming of and as of right now their trucks will make the long drive back home. These Arkansas trail riders got to drive on dry rock for a change. They got to breathe the fresh mountain air and they got to experience something that I know that they will think about well into their old age. The first time to a place like this sets the precedent of a feeling that we all hope to achieve time and time again. Since this is the first time I've worked with other creators this trip really got me to thinking about how I got here in the first place. Nearly 30 years ago I started playing around with dad's camcorder. 12 years ago I was stringing up homemade cable cams over my campsites. I never would have thought my introverted hobby of hiding away from people in the mountains would have led to new friends who like to do the same. Like most things in life I never saw this coming. What I do see coming are some pretty exciting collaborations in the future. As always thank you so much for watching and click one of the videos in the corner to check out more of our adventure, off-road, and overland related content.