Imogene Pass is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

in the southwest part of the US state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. It crosses a ridge connecting

Ouray, Colorado Ouray ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 898 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The ...

with

Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County, Colorado, San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River (Colorado), San M ...

, and is the highest mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains, and the second highest vehicular mountain crossing in

. The road is accessible by four wheel drive vehicles, and is not for the novice driver. From Ouray, the road turns off the road to Yankee Boy Basin above the Camp Bird Mine near the

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

of Sneffels southwest of Ouray, and climbs through Imogene Basin to the summit. From Telluride, the road takes off north of downtown and climbs past the

of Tomboy through Savage Basin to the summit. The first long distance

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

power line An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and Electric power distribution, distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more electrical conductor, conductors (commonly mu ...

was constructed over Imogene Pass to carry power from the Telluride area to the Camp Bird Mine. " Fort Peabody" was constructed in 1904 by a local unit of the Colorado National Guard on top of the pass to prevent union miners from crossing during a labor strike. An annual foot race is held over the pass between Ouray and Telluride on the first Saturday following

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

. The grueling race starts at around {{cvt, 7800, ft before cresting the pass at its peak, an elevation gain of just over a mile.

External links

Treknow.com: Map of the Imogene Pass area of the San Juan Mountains

USGS TopoZone.com listing for Imogene Pass
Mountain passes of Colorado San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Landforms of Ouray County, Colorado Landforms of San Miguel County, Colorado Roads in Ouray County, Colorado Transportation in San Juan County, Colorado Uncompahgre National Forest