Drive up Moffat Road to the Needles Eye Tunnel-Aug. 15, 2015
Drive in my Honda CRV up Moffat Road to the Needles Eye Tunnel area, which is about 55miles west of Denver near Nederland. Video shot with an HTC Re action cam. From Moffat Road.org, "David Moffat had a dream: a railroad line over or through the Continental Divide linking Denver with the coal from the western slope and beyond. In 1881 he failed with the Denver, Utah, and Pacific, a narrow gauge railroad. In 1902 he started building the Denver Northwestern and Pacific Railway, a standard gauge railroad. The "Hill Route" with 33 short tunnels was opened in 1904 as a temporary line until a tunnel could be bored through James Peak. He didn't forsee that the 24 mile route over Rollins Pass would be used as part of the mainline for nearly 24 years.
The 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel was completed in 1928. The "Hill Route" was closed, and abandoned in 1935. The rails were pulled up. The original route became a tourist attraction in 1955 as an auto road. Snow was cleared by July 4th and it was "passable" until snowed over in the fall. It was in 1979 that a rockfall near the north portal of the Needle's Eye Tunnel occurred. The road was closed to the public and the trestles were declared unsafe. "
Today the road is accessible via 4x4, motorcycle, bike or foot. Needles Eye Tunnel is closed, but one can walk up to it at the end of the road.
Shout out to all the back country drivers up there who showed total respect for one another in following the high county rules of the road. Lots of thank you waving!
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Excellent video! A great experience and well worth doing at least once. I drove up there in my tacoma this summer. It took me 1.5 hours to go the ten miles of trail. When the road ended I walked up to needle's eye tunnel to check it out and then spent the night in a tent by yankee doodle lake. It got real windy during the night and I didn't sleep much. The drive down was not nearly as much fun, bone tired, in the morning. The road is not challenging but is very bumpy and takes a long time.
Thank you so much for the tour, very interesting, I wish they could clear out the tunnel cave in to preserve the road as a historic drive
I remember driving over this entire road, exiting on Highway 40 just west of the original Winter Park ski area - late 1950’s….. you could drive the whole route then 😊
I haven't been up there in many, many years. Last time was as a kid with my dad and mom, in the early 90's. My dad grew up 4 wheeling in this area. Nothing really like it. Thank you for sharing this!
In the mid-1970s I lived near Rollinsville, a happy bachelor with a 55 Cadillac. In those days Rollins Pass was open all the way to the west side, and my Cad made it, no problem -- through the tunnel, over the scary trestles. Too bad the road is closed now, I guess forever.
navavids Thank you for the video . I went thru Moffat tunnel in the Train so I missed seeing what was around there . It was nice to be able to take a look at area beyond . View was awesome !
I tried to go up once but was blocked by snow drift in May or so. Thanks for sharing. I'll never see it personally.
The old Railroad from what I heard was a Nightmare to keep open as the tunnels kept on collapsing, there was heavy snow and multiple accidents, and the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad never made it to it's goal of Salt Lake City. David Moffat died almost penniless in 1911, and only in 1922 when his dream was realized that they built the Moffat Tunnel and by the time it was done it was a big weight lifted off of the D&SL's back and the line over the pass was abandoned, but the D&SL was bought out by the D&RGW 3 years after the Moffat Tunnel was finished and the D&RGW built the Dotsero Cutoff to it's Tennessee Pass line (which is now abandoned sadly but the rails are still there so maybe it could be used again) and the rest of the line from Bond to Craig is a branch line. But its cool how you can still drive and see the old Railroad and that there are still a few tunnels and the roadway to know that there used to be a Railroad up there. This is a good video you made.
@RobinaDunstan
2 жыл бұрын
My grandfather was a teamster and helped build the Moffat Tunnel. He was born in 1883 and my Dad in 1914. Before he went to work in the mines he worked loading ice into railway cars at Rollins. I was born in 1959 and in the 1960s and I think even to 1970 you could still drive through Needle Eye tunnel. I remember picking hickleberries along the grade as it was below timberline. I think the trestles were called Jelly Bean but I could be wrong. We drove in an old station wagon on the old grade including over the trestles. No 4x4.
Thanks for the great video. I tried it once as a very green kid in Sept of 1973. No idea how far I got because first it got dark and then a rock sticking out of the road tore off one of my mufflers so I carefully turned around and went back to Denver. Never returned sadly. But it was a poorly planned excursion and I was only in an ordinary 4-dr sedan. The road looks a lot better now than when I rode on it back in '73. Thanks again. Great video and wonderful views.
@navavids
5 жыл бұрын
I wouldn't take my CR-V up there again. lol I felt lucky I didn't damage it and that the tires held up, but have been up in a Jeep Cherokee a couple of other times. A cool drive to discover some Colorado history for sure! Thanks for watching. :-)
Looks like a nice adventure! Thanks for sharing.
A never-to-be-forgotten auto trip from east portal to winter park in the 1950s. I learned about the pass from a neighbor and coaxed my mother to drive over the pass. Her 1954 Ford sedan made the trip, though it was rough. In later years I would drive my dad's 1937 Ford over the pass to Winter Park (it had higher clearance). Too bad the pass is closed at Needle's Eye Tunnel; It COULD be reworked, but the cost would be prohibitive.
15 years ago that road wasn't in anywhere near that good of shape! But my old Daihatsu Rocky didn't even blink...