These two posts are ripped from JeepsUnlimited.com. I think you need an account there to read them, though.

More on recent Imogene Pass death...

More information on the recent death on Imogene Pass, from the Ouray Plaindealer:

• Killed were Daniel Gluklick, 50 and Jeanine Gluklick, 47, of Colorado Springs. Injured were their son, Cole, 11, and family friend Ian Nordstrom, 7. Last week Cole was listed in critical condition and Ian in serious but stable condition at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, CO.
• The Gluklick's 1998 Grand Cherokee was traveling from Telluride to Ouray. The driver had apparently pulled over onto a steep embankment to allow an oncoming vehicle to pass. As the vehicle turned back onto the road, it may have hit a large rock or dropped into a hole. The vehicle went off-balance and rolled onto its top and kept rolling and fell more than 1,300 feet off the side of the trail.
• Witnesses say the vehicle rolled for about 70 feet, then started to flip end over end and "exploded."
• The vehicle appeared to witnesses to be overloaded and top heavy, with a lot of equipment on a roof rack, that investigators believe may have increased its instability.

Ouray County Commissioners think about changes in wake of deaths...

With the two recent deaths in the San Juans in the past few weeks (one on Black Bear, one on Imogene), the Ouray County Commisioners have been investigating what changes could be made to make wheeling, an inherently dangerous activity safer.

So far their recommendations fall into a few distinct categories:

• A more prominent educational campaign on the risks of off-road driving, particularly information made available at local Jeep rental agencies
• Signs warning of the risks that lie ahead on the trail
• Making Imogene Pass one-way only, from Telluride to Ouray

Note that neither of the deaths were in rental Jeeps; the deaths on Black Bear were in a 2003 TJ Rubicon and the ones on Imogene were in a 1998 Grand Cherokee.
Currently support is running very high for the last suggestion, already the most common route as many people and tour companies already run Black Bear into Telluride and Imogene back to Ouray...

Real bad idea.

That would entice newbies to drive Black Bear to get to Telluride. Imogene is a very easy trail to pass on with the exception of one shelf road on either side near the summit. Both shelf roads offer more than adequate visibility to judge if someone is coming up or going down.

Education is the only solution, but every retard out there with a 4X4 thinks they are doing the right thing.

During GOX I was truly amazed by the dozens of people we saw driving trails who shouldn't even be allowed on paved roads.

We even got a photo of a Forest Service vehicle driving off-trail onto flowers to allow us by.

Like this dude at GOX Version 1.0

OH THE HORROR! Those poor flowers! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the flowers?



While a bad example, I hardly think that's actually a terrible thing on its own. I would try to avoid it myself, but I'm not going to feel like I've raped the earth if it happened.

Brent, the point is if you or I had driven off the trail in front of that Forest Service guy,(like he did himself), HUUGE fines would be levied against us. It's not always easy to set a good example but when it's your job, and the outcome affects literally hundreds of miles of trails to be closed due to that type of behavior, you'd better bloody well do the right thing..

Brent, I don't think you'll ever understand the importance of driving correctly off-road. I've seen you cut down a tree because you didn't know how to drive plus a bunch of other dumb shit over the years.

If I were the average Joe Moron SUV Owner, and saw a Forest Service vehicle drive 20 feet off trail, in an area where there was plenty of room to pass, I would assume that's the way it's done.

Joe Moron would then learn a habit that leads to the closure of trails, and would probably do the same thing every chance he gets.

Easily 90% of the vehicles we encountered during GOX did similar things. No one is learning.

Ian, I understand there are people that have a fit over things like that and they lobby to close trails, and that it's a bad example for anyone to do it, particularly someone that is considered the authority over such matters. Here and there it's not a problem, but if everyone starts thinking it's OK and it gets out of hand, yeah, it's a problem. Never felt otherwise.

But for every person that says "here and there it's not a problem" there are 10 people who see it - that's how a bypass gets made, and trails get overcrowded, and people start thinking that they can just do whatever they want, regardless of forest service signage.

It will always be a problem, and never ok, not even here and there.

I want to see those flowers when I get there. So don't do it here or there.

It's an Offroading thing, Brent just doesn't get it.

Hmmm....I thought the lesson here was not to drive jeeps on these trails.

Spread the word...Jeeps kill. Buy an Xterra.

Stupid people are everywhere and we see it on trails down here in Arizona too. It's been a noted phenomenon that most idiocy is perpetrated by Bud Light drinkers, as evidenced by the Bud Light cans scattered on trails down here.

Wish I had a buck for every beer can I've picked up along the trails.

As for safety, it was a real eye opener when the old guy died along the trail on this year's Arizona Run...he rolled his quad and we were the lucky ones who happened upon the scene. We had EMT's with us, but we lost the guy anyways.

Look, I'm not gonna drive over the flowers, but I'm not going to scream bloody murder if someone does either. I'll certainly mention to the offender that they're not doing 'wheelers any favors by doing so, and if they're just tearing things up for the hell of it, I'll note and report it. I don't wanna see trails closed any more than the rest of us. But in the end, even if they are tearing things up, it's not going to hurt the planet. It'll grow back, or nature will find something else to live there, same as if a wildfire went through, or a flood washed it away, or any other non-human act. It's selfish humans that want things to be just so that make it a "problem" in the end.

I didn't scream bloody murder Brent, I mentioned that we saw a Forest Service truck do it, someone who should never do it.

I was referring to the Sierra Club types...