SarahTincup pass is located near Almont, Colorado and is a 13-mile trail that connects the town of Tincup with the town of St. Elmo. The trail is typically open from March until October. However, this depends on the snow. This trail cuts through two National Forests and cross the Continental Divide at 12,154 feet.
LOCATION: 38.716711097122875, -106.4343850035978
The road was originally built in 1881 as a wagon road to move supplies between St. Elmo and Tincup (originally called Virginia City).
The road to Mirror Lake is a little rocky and can change seasonally. This road is bumpy, but with careful tire placement, you can get a passenger car up to the lake. Personally, we have seen a Toyota Prius make it, they were just a little slow compared to a vehicle with more ground clearance.
Mirror Lake sits beneath Emma Burr Mountain. This lake is great for fishing and wildlife viewing. It is truly an amazing place. To get to Tincup Pass you will need to drive to the far end of the lake. This section is very rocky, and we do not recommend it for cars or Subaru type vehicles. Most stock 4x4s with low range should be okay on this trail.
On the southeast side of the Lake, you must pass through a water crossing. The water levels will change depending on the season. During spring runoff, the east side of the road can be totally submerged and may be impassible to vehicles.
Until this point, our journey up the trail was uneventful. We were about 2 ½ hours into our journey and decided to stop on the far side of Mirror Lake for lunch. Upon stopping, we realized we had a problem. Our passenger front tire was losing air.
We had no idea how this had happened at the time. We quickly went into “fix it” mode. Dane quickly found the spare tire jack and started to work on replacing the tire with the spare. Can we say, “Thank God” for full sized spares?! Once the tire was lowered Dane replaced it while Everett chased a friendly bird near the lake (the bird will come back into this story).
With the tire replaced, it was time to put the jack back. This lead to another interesting realization about our Ram. The spare tire jack location is not great. Upon trying to put the jack back, we found out that you must be a super hero or divine being to get it back under the passenger seat. Our recommendation, don’t waste your time. Put the jack under the back seat instead – You’re welcome for the time saving tip.
With the tire replaced, we were ready to be on our way. However, do you remember the bird I mentioned earlier? Well, Everett had chased him into the truck and he was sitting on the front dash like we wanted to come along on our adventure. Dane and I are not bird people and weren’t looking to adopt a pet, so Dane grabbed his fishing pole and got him to leave the truck. Don’t worry the bird was unharmed and so was the dash of the truck.
On The Trail
Once on the trail we experienced what we remembered from our pervious journey up this trail. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks…and when I say rocks – I mean lots and lots of rocks! This trail is very rocky and will continue being rocky through most of the trail. The Tincup/West side is more technical than the St. Elmo/East side of the trail, but both are very rocky. According to most off-road guides, the trails technical rating is a moderate-difficult due to the rockiness and several off-camber sections.
We only had a few sections that the Ram had issues with. If you are familiar with new trucks, you know the standard break over angle is not the best. If you plan on completing this trail, just be mindful and place our tires on the high spots.
The Summit
The summit of Tincup pass is 12,154 feet and is normally very windy at the top. The day we went was no different. We didn’t spend to much time at the top since it was mid-afternoon and we wanted to complete the trail before nightfall.
The rest of our journey down was pretty uneventful. We had some passing of vehicles on the narrow shelf road on the east side of the pass, but nothing much to worry about. On the east side of the trail you will finally see camping spots. If you plan on camping you’ll want to plan ahead since these are first come first served.
The trail ends at the town of Saint Elmo, Colorado. Originally called Forrest City in 1880 but was renamed and incorporated soon after. There are about 43 buildings remaining in this ghost town. However, most of them are privately owned.
Trail Advice
Tincup pass can be completed in both directions. However, please keep in mind that the trail is easier performed east to west. Of course, we decided to complete it going West to East. Previously, we have completed this pass East to West in a 2005 Jeep Liberty. In all honesty with careful tire placement, I’d take a stock Jeep Liberty up West to East as well.
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