My other hobby - off roading

Those are really cool pictures. I'm a Jeep guy myself, but I like those Toyotas.

Nice ride.

.... but show us the rocks you found on your trips!!

Keep these pictures coming! What state are you in? What the heck is up with the ice picture? Did the road melt out naturally?

I live in Colorado.  That picture was taken at 13,000' elevation at the end of July.  That trail, Imogene Pass, is only open from mid July to late August or early September each year.  It's snowed in the rest of the year. 

Imogene Pass goes over a mountain from Ouray, Colorado into Telluride.  It's probably the most beautiful high mountain pass in Colorado.  Here are more pictures from it:

I've only been to the rockies once, in a minivan. We wouldn't all fit in the Jeep for two weeks. I got nervous driving in the mountains on a paved road, I don't know how I'd do on gravel. I'd be going very slow, that's for sure. The worst I get around here is some snow and mud.

Your pictures make me want to go to Colorado. The mountains are beautiful. Don't you have any maples there? That's where the great fall colors are. I do like the fall colors with the snow though, we don't get that here very often.

Unfortunately the mountains are pine, spruce, douglas fir, and aspen.  The elevation is too high for anything else.  I was born and raised in Baltimore and I really miss the hardwood forests back east.  Each year I used to lead a group of friends on a drive along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah NP to see the fall color. 

Incredible Fall Color by Dave, on Flickr

Mary's Rock Tunnel by Dave, on Flickr

Bald Eagle by Dave, on Flickr

As for the shelf roads, they can get a little hairy at times.  My wife gets out and walks when we get to them.  She hates feeling trapped in a vehicle that is close to an edge like that.  They are a lot of fun when the road is very narrow and uneven so you are leaning at a 30 or 40 degree angle toward the edge.  Black Bear Pass in Colorado is the state's most notorious trail because of the tight switchbacks.  It was made for miners and mules to go from Telluride to some of the mines in the mountains and then on to Ouray.  My FJ was almost too wide for some spots.  There are very tight, narrow switchbacks that require more than a 3 point turn to get around.  There is a part called the steps that is steep rock steps with loose shale on top that drops down and around a curve with nothing in front to stop you from going off the edge and landing 2000' below.  Each year people go off  the edge and a lot of people have died on the Black Bear.  Each year the sheriff wants to close the road and we all have to start up campaigns to keep it open.  I'll add some Black Bear Pass photos to this thread.