Black Bear Pass. The mere mention of those three words sends shivers down the backs of many experienced off roaders – and with good reason, for the trail is among the most treacherous and challenging you’ll encounter in the United States. The exceedingly narrow mining trail winds its way down through a series of tight switchbacks from a treeless summit to (relatively) flat ground. Look west and you’ll find the mountain oasis of Telluride beckoning, but peer down and it’s the off roader’s equivalent of Italy’s Stelvio Pass.
To say the least, it’s a daunting task in even the best-equipped vehicle. Black Bear Road isn’t a technically challenging trail for the most part, although it requires high clearance, a short wheelbase and, of course, nerves made out of something somewhat otherworldly in order to keep the sunny side up.
Especially if you’re driving a luxury SUV worth as much as a decent condo in many cities.
Destination in sight
Let me get a little personal for a moment. I’ve been traveling to Telluride since long before it was a destination for the elite. Back when a handful of ski bums and early fat tire fans populated the almost washed up mountain valley town. Long before investors came in and, well, tore the place up with mansions situated high above the city between numerous European-style ski chalets.
I’m as envious as I am spiteful. Luckily, old Telluride retains much of its charm, including the legendary bar at the New Sheridan hotel smack dab in the middle of town. Pull up a bar stool and order a frosty libation and it doesn’t matter if the guy next to you owns a real estate portfolio worth more than the GDP of Belgium.
It was the New Sheridan’s comfortable, mahogany-lined inner trappings – and a nice cold pint – that were on my mind when I looked out of my 2011 Range Rover HSE’s windshield at the beginning of Black Bear’s switchbacks.
I’ve put on many miles climbing some of the great trails that wind through the San Juan Mountain range – behind the wheel of everything from battered rental Jeep s to mid-range crossovers that shouldn’t be leaving the pavement. Yet I’ve never been able to bring myself to do Black Bear Road. The trail is only open for a few months of the year and, with the exception of one specific date, it’s only navigable in one direction – down (slow or fast, depending on how much you value your life).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If you need a recap of how we got to Black Bear – in a 2011 Range Rover, no less – read our first installment.
While our first portion of the Land Rover Colorado Experience – a preview of what is likely to become a public event around this time next year – was spent behind the wheel of a 2011 LR4, we stepped up to the biggest and most luxurious Land Rover on offer, the Range Rover for the most difficult trail. Hey, if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it in style.
Our vehicle for the day was actually a naturally-aspirated Range Rover HSE, although two supercharged variants – priced around $100,000 – were also part of our convoy. A supercharger doesn’t make much of a difference when your average speed is about 0.2 mph.
Although the current Range Rover’s basic shape dates back to 2003, it has been carefully re-crafted under three different owners. Typically, you’d wind up with a hodge-podge of parts and pieces, but that’s not really the case with the Range Rover. Look closely and you’ll find some BMW trim – the sunroof control, for example – but last year’s revamp ushered in a pair of new Jaguar -developed, Land Rover-re-engineered 5.0-liter V8s and a trick wide screen display where the gauges would otherwise go.
The result? It’s unquestionably the most luxurious Range Rover ever, but it’s also the most refined, most powerful and most technologically advanced. Previously, Land Rover was often on the tail end of the tech boom – that is absolutely no longer the case.
But as we crawled up the back side of the mountain separating Ouray from Telluride, luxury was the last thing on our minds.
A tight squeeze
Press a button to engage low range gearing. Another will turn on Hill Descent Control. Then use the cruise control switches to select the proper HDC speed. To fine tune things, twist the round Terrain Response lever to the proper setting. For Black Bear, the rock crawling mode makes the most sense because it restricts engine speeds and it allows for the maximum amount of suspension articulation.
Depending on your perspective, the button switching and knob turning is either akin to fine tuning a well-oiled machine or selecting the right settings to cook food in a microwave. Either way, it gets things done remarkably well, as we discovered (pun intended) in the LR4 the day before.
Even the most experienced driver wouldn’t attempt Black Bear without a spotter, so we were lucky to have several of Land Rover’s Camel Trophy-trained driving instructors on hand to point the way. Of course, what actually happened in the vehicle was entirely up to the driver. It’s a long way down to the bottom, to say the least.
Initially, we liberally left-footed the Range Rover’s brakes over a series of rocky moguls. It was here that the SUV’s street-oriented tires actually came in handy since their wide contact point and soft rubber did a better job gripping the dry rock surface than a set of dedicated off road tires would have done. It was only when a small stream created by melting snow – even in August – crossed our path that we began to worry. At the very least, tumbling down a rock face while putting every bit of muscle into the Range Rover’s brakes would make for an interesting obituary.
Fortunately, the rocks eventually give way to a relatively tame shelf road that winds its way down a nearly sheer cliff face. The only problem? The path is sized for roughly three-quarters of a Range Rover, even at its widest point. Then approximately 15 switchbacks require carefully orchestrated K-turns if you’re ever planning to make it to Telluride.
At about 80 inches in overall width, Range Rovers are portly vehicles. They’re also around 196 inches long and they weigh approximately 5,700 lbs. A two-door Jeep Wrangler is about 7 inches narrower, nearly two feet shorter and somewhere around 1,800 lbs. lighter.
And, frankly, the latest Wrangler is too large for Black Bear Road.
There’s a reason the sign at the beginning of the one-way Black Bear Trail reads “You don’t have to be crazy to drive this road – but it helps.”
Oh boy. Pucker up.
While the Range Rover’s HDC is more than adequate for just about any single obstacle a serious off roader might encounter, it doesn’t feature a “HOLY #$@&. WHAT AM I DOING?” mode. As such, the driver relies heavily on the brakes, moving at a mere fraction of a mile per hour over the absolute narrowest points of the trail.
Every 300 feet or so, a tight corner looms. Turn the steering wheel to near full lock, inch the Range Rover forward a few feet, then begin releasing the wheel while still moving despite the fact that the cliff’s edge is about a foot away. Carefully select reverse and begin backing up the Range Rover while still turning the wheel in the opposite direction. Back to drive and resume moving forward before repeating again. By the fifth or sixth switchback, I was relaxed and ready to place my trust in both the Range Rover and my driving instructor.
The Range Rover’s impressively tight turning radius makes K-turns a relative snap, while its intentionally flat hood means it’s easy to tell where the front of the vehicle is at all times. Combine those physical traits with the top notch brakes and traction control and it becomes clear why Range Rovers are probably the most capable SUVs on the planet. Land Rover engineering isn’t about trial and error; it’s about precisely selecting the right combination of attributes and engineering in a way that allows even a novice to feel like they’re king of the off road world.
Eventually, the mining trail becomes a much simpler, wider and better maintained two wheel drive path that climbs up to Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest waterfall in Colorado. A scenic sight, it provided both a beautiful photo backdrop and a nice place to look up – way up – at the beginning of one of the most difficult four wheel drive trails in North America.
From Bridal Veil Falls, it’s only a 10 minute breeze to downtown Telluride, where that ice cold lager awaits.
One more update
Soon, we’ll go into more detail about the highly sophisticated Terrain Response system and all of its related gadgetry that help make the LR4 and Range Rover the most capable Land Rovers ever built for nearly any terrain.
As we learned from two days of traversing some of Colorado’s most difficult trails, Land Rover’s engineers aren’t simply content with a trial-and-error system of building in capability. These are brilliantly thought out machines that provide utmost traction appreciable by casual off roaders and Camel Trophy Champions. Of course, all that tech comes at a price.
Words and photos by Andrew Ganz. Some photos by Gunnar Conrad.
