Shelf Roads, Switchbacks, and Mountain Camps Between Silverton and Telluride
Our trip from Silverton to Telluride was one of those “can we really make it?” kind of weeks. The kind where every turn, scrape, and switchback reminds you that an EarthRoamer might not exactly be built for every road.
It started with the Million Dollar Highway—infamous for being one of the most dangerous drives in America. Narrow lanes, no shoulders, no guardrails, and sheer drop-offs that plunge hundreds of feet down. The drive itself went fine, but it’s impossible not to grip the steering wheel a little tighter when there’s nothing but air between you and the canyon below.
From there, we cut across Ralph Lauren’s ranch. The first stretch was gorgeous: wide, graded, scenic. And then… it turned into a trail. The kind of trail where you know immediately you’re going to sacrifice paint. We scraped the sides, a lot. At this point, it’s just part of the journey. If we obsessed about keeping the truck pristine, we’d never take it where it’s meant to go. Still, it makes you wince.
Getting to camp was fine, but the realization hit us later: the road was so narrow, with almost no pullouts, that leaving could be a real problem. The idea of backing up a steep, tight trail for a mile with a 20,000-pound rig? Not exactly on our bucket list. So we came up with a plan. I threw on sneakers, grabbed our walkie talkies, and jogged ahead of the truck, ready to flag down any oncoming traffic before things got complicated.
We quickly discovered the range of the walkies was about a half-mile, so we leapfrogged our way through the tightest sections. I’d stop at a pullout, call Jacob up, then keep running until I found the next one. Miraculously, every single time we met another vehicle, it happened to be at a spot where we could squeeze by. Somehow, we never got trapped. It was also a good reminder to continue our motorcycle driving lessons.
Our final stretch was Last Dollar Road. Most of it was smooth sailing—gravel roads that eased into mellow trail. But as we descended the other side of the mountain, the switchbacks got interesting. I hopped out to spot. My spotting skills are improving with each trip, but this time I missed the moment when our back wheel went terrifyingly close to sliding off the edge.
As another EarthRoamer owner once told us, “These trucks can handle anything… if you just go fast enough!”
Watch our adventure below: