Old Highway
Maps/GPS:
USGS 7.5' Map:	Lynx Pass, Gore Pass
Statistics:	Difficulty: Number: Miles: Altitude: Obstacles: Time: Easy 1 FR 206, 209 Routt Cnty 16 5.30 9,000 ft. NA 0.5 hours
County:	Grand, Routt
Adopted by:
Managed by:	Routt National Forest, Yampa Ranger District	300 Roselawn Ave (PO Box 7) Yampa, Colorado 80483	(970)638-4516
Summary:	Old Highway follows a section of the old road from Yampa to Kremmling. It passes one of the old stage stop buildings.
Attractions:	History
Seasonal Closure:	Natural - Closed by heavy snows.
Best Time:	June - Best July - Best August - Best September - Best October - Early snows possible
Trail Heads Accessed:
Camping:	There are a few dispersed camp sites along the road. Three dispersed sites are at the end of FR 209.
Base Camp:	This area would be a good place to base camp and explore the roads that head south toward the Gore Canyon and the Colorado River.
Fall Colors:	Average - The road runs through an area that is mostly large open meadows. There are some aspen in the surrounding forest.
Navigation:	From Kremmling, CO. head west on US-40 W/Park Ave toward 5th Street. Continue to follow US-40 W for 6.3 miles. Turn left onto Colorado Hwy 134 West and go 13.4 miles. Turn left onto a gravel road. This is Old Highway, FR 206. From Yampa, CO. head south on Colorado Hwy 131 S/Lincoln Street toward Main Street. Go 9.7 miles and take a slight left onto Colorado Hwy 134 East. Go 8.6 miles and take a right turn onto a gravel road. This is Old Highway, FR 206.
History:	Sir Robert Gore first traveled the Indian trail over Gore Pass on a hunting expedition in 1855. For many years thereafter, Gore Pass was the only route west from Kremmling into the isolated Egeria Park, Yampa, Oak Creek, Steamboat Springs, and Hayden area. By the late 1860s, the Gore Pass Trail was a firmly established, well-traveled wagon route that served as the major route into the region until the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached Wolcott in 1887, after which a Steamboat-Wolcott stage and freighting service was established. In 1861, Captain Berthoud, intent on building a road from the Colorado-Kansas border into the Colorado Territory for overland stages, surveyed the mountainous terrain. The Rock Creek Stage Stop, built circa 1880 by the Gates brothers, James and Clark, and James son Bert, is one of the oldest surviving historical landmarks in Routt County. Rock Creek Stage Station, historic   In 1878, it was a halfway station for the first Wells Fargo mail route from Georgetown to Hot Sulphur Springs to Steamboat Springs. Due to isolation and transportation difficulties, the station contributed significantly to the onset of settlement in the Yampa Valley. James built the structure in two phases: the ground floor served as home; the upper portion was added when he was granted a stage contract. For many years, James and his family lived and operated a hotel, post office, stage stop, and staging site for many hunting expeditions in the building. The Rock Creek Stage Stop is an unusually large, three-bay, two-story, rectangular, hand-hewn logchinked structure with a wide front door, narrow windows, and a moderatelypitched gable roof. The logs, squared on the sides and rounded on the tops and bottoms. Logs extend into the gable peaks. The building contains a large barn door on one wall and evidence that a balcony or deck originally projected from the second story. Partitions on the dirt ground floor suggest that it functioned as a stable; people were housed on the second floor and in the loft. Animals and people sharing the same structure was an unusual practice in Colorado. No evidence of an interior or exterior stairway to the upper floors exists. An extension on the back of the building, partially dug into the hillside, housed the kitchen and perhaps the dining room. The establishment was ultimately vacated in the 1940s. The stage stop was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The Steamboat Springs Tread of Pioneers Museum, Historic Routt County!, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, and the State Historical Fund have partnered to complete stabilization of the structure.
Description:
Starting from the west end, Old Highway is a two lane graded gravel road that follows the old stage route over Gore Pass. It heads south from Hwy 134 following Little Rock Creek through a large open meadow. You will come to an intersection with FR225 to the right. Stay to the left to continue on Old Highway, FR206. Looking back west photo by: Adam M It continues around a low mountain following Rock Creek heading east under some power lines. After approximatly a half mile from the intersection you will pass one of the old stage stations that has been restored. Rock Creek Stage Station (2014) photo by: Adam M Rock Creek Stage Station photo by: Adam M Rock Creek Stage Station photo by: Adam M Rock Creek Stage Station (2014) photo by: Adam M From here the road heads east crossing Rock Creek and passing a private residence on the north side of the road. Looking back west toward the Stage Station photo by: Adam M The next road to the right is FR209 a short spur road that dead ends at a gate. There are three dispersed campsites near the gate. Spur road FR209 photo by: Adam M Past the intersection with FR209 Old Highway continues east passing FR210 which does not show up on the Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map. Beyond this intersection the road will climb up into the trees again and pass a large dispersed camp site. Into the trees photo by: Adam M As the road continues through the trees it will pass another dispersed camp site on the left. Once you leave the forest Hwy 134 will be visible and Old Highway will tie into it. Just before reaching the highway you will pass a road coming in on the right. This is the Radium, FR212, road. Looking back west before joining the pavement photo by: Adam M
Data updated May 15, 2014        4WD Road driven September 1, 2013        Copyright 4X4Explore.com - 2000-2014