Rampart_Range

Rampart Range Area

FR 348 is considerably different from the rocky section above. Don't get me wrong if you have a desire for a smooth trail with lots of turns and ups and downs, this is the trail for you. The humps and dives on this road can put you into the air at speeds around thirty miles per hour. After heavy rains watch for a great mix of puddles and slick sections. Our visit included dozens of puddles taking up the entire road and were a car length or two long. We were flying through there having a ball and I was really being cautious not to go too fast. If all those guys always give you crap about your IFS this is the trail to show you why they put it on the Kia. I should have taken a couple of puddle splashing shots, but we were just having too much fun. Try out this loop, I am sure you won't be disappointed.

FR351

Rampart Range has its good and bad points. First and foremost it is primarily geared toward motocross bikes and atv's. In fact the majority of the trails in this area are restricted to those vehicles. From the Sedalia side you have to drive pretty far on a boring graded dirt road before you get to anything worth doing. I have only been down in that area twice, so maybe I am missing some unmarked trails, but as far as I know the northern section of the area is best for camping and the single track vehicles. Anyway it is best if you are coming from the Colorado Springs side, so I recommend driving down from Denver all the way on I-25. This will cut your drive time considerably. This trip though we drove all down the length of Rampart Range Road to get to a little loop made by FR348 and FR351. I am pretty sure that 348 is the flatter one and 351 is the rocky one. The pictures above are all from a rocky stretch at the point of the loop furthest from the main road. It is not an extreme section by far, but taking the easiest line I would rate it a five and if you get creative maybe a seven. It is only a couple hundred yards long, but it's a lot of fun. When we got to the bottom we looked nervously at each other. This was the first trip off-road since the addition of my 2.5" lift and the mud terrain tires. I put into four low and creeped all the way to the top without hesitation. The scariest part for Cherie was the washed out section at the bottom. I had to go way off camber up on the side of the hill to avoid dropping into the gap. This of course put her hanging in her seatbelt looking out her window straight down the gaping hole. After we got to the top I pulled over and we went back to look. I didn't want to just snap photos of an empty trail, so she stayed there while I took the Kia back down and up again. The second time was much easier since I had more confidence from before. I would have scraped the hell out of the undercarriage had I not had the lift and larger tires. There wasn't another difficult area like this one on the rest of FR351.

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