Yansing Gulch - Jeep Badge of Honor Trail

Yansing Gulch is a more recent addition to the Jeep Badge of Honor list in central Colorado, and it pushes the ratings upward with a 6-8 depending on the lines you take. This loop into the hills is a steep, narrow, and overwhelmingly rocky trail through dense trees with a few obstacles that don't have a bypass. It has a similar feel and difficulty as Holy Cross, another Colorado favorite, or John Bull in California. This was the first difficult trail on my recent tour through Colorado and Utah, and while I didn't struggle with the trail, my drone and main camera were out of commission, and twice I had to walk back down the trail nearly a mile after dropping a GoPro. At the top of the trail a huge group of older guys in older Jeeps were playing around on The Stairs obstacle, and they were doing slow crawling donuts for the entire hour I took a lunch break. Another group that I met in the parking lot started after me, and on my way back out I passed one of their broken down vehicles just after the first obstacle. The night before this trail I camped at Zapata Falls campground near Great Sand Dunes National Park, and my Jeep was packed with a week of supplies and camping gear which is never my favorite way to take on a rough trail. A quick tip is to take ratchet straps and secure every single box and item inside your Jeep for extreme angles. You don't want you camp supplies sliding into your head on the descent!