Easier access to American Basin, Lake City or Ouray?

One of the places I plan to visit this July is American Basin. I would like to be there at sunrise one morning, but I don't plan on camping, so I am trying to decide whether it makes sense to stay at Lake City or Ouray for that day.

In looking at the maps and considering the 4wd roads (which I haven't driven but read about), it looks like its easier/faster to get to American Basin from Lake City. I am wondering how much longer it would take to get on Engineer Pass road leaving Ouray, go down to Animas Forks and across Cinnamon Pass. With either road, I would drive it in the afternoon before attempting to drive the next morning before sunrise.

I have a stock 2005 Xterra SE that I plan to use, which seems good enough for the roads I will be traveling.

SHORTER QUESTION: Which place should I leave from and when should I leave to get there before sunrise?

Phill, If you go from Ouray it would be quicker to drive the highway 550? to Silvertion then upto Animas Fork, you don't want to go up Engineer Pass early in the morning, That's my 2 cents.

American Basin is much closer and more accessible from Lake City, IMO. I think it takes about 45 minutes from town to get to the turnoff at the bottom of the basin.

It's a beautiful place, regardless of how you get there. Enjoy!

American Basin is better from Lake City. But as Jody wisely says, it's not bad over Cinnamon Pass from Silverton.

Thanks for your replies, I was thinking doing Engineer in the dark wasn't a great idea. Any good places to stay at Silverton? I thought about staying there instead of Ouray, or at least a night or two..

There's a great haunted hotel built in the late 1800's in Silverton though I can't remember the name. It has a restaurant on the bottom floor. Lake City is definitely the quickest way to American Basin, Phil.

Your Xterra should be able to handle most of the roads/trails in the San Juans if you use care in selecting your line.

I don't mind going over Engineer at night, because I've waltzed over most of those passes around there many times. I did, however, head up to the pass from the Animas Forks side one time in the dark, and noticed a pair of headlights coming down towards me. "Who besides me would be silly enough to do this at night?" I thought to myself. When I eventually crossed paths with the guy, he was standing beside his vehicle, visibly shaking, and asked "How far is it to Durango from here?" The guy was white as a ghost! He thought he and his gall would just take the scenic route to meet friends in Durango, and here he was still a half hour or more from Silverton and already hours late to his meet-up. I didn't have the heart to tell him about the drop-offs on the road ahead of him, and just told him to be glad that it's dark, so as far as he knew, he was only on the edge of a 6" cliff!

Having said that, you could certainly go from Ouray up towards Engineer Pass, and bypass the turnoff for Engineer and go over what's called Little Engineer Pass by Denver Lake, which will drop you down to the Cinammon Pass turnoff in short order. However, the road up to this point is pretty rough, and it is WORLDS easier to get to American Basin via the Lake City side. If you don't have experience on roads like this, which it sounds like you don't, you should go over both passes in the daylight just to get a feel for conditions. Oh, but wait, you have an xTerra SE? That might not make it. That extra black rubber molding on the sides is going to throw off your whole center axis point and threaten to high-center your gravitational pull and send you careening over the edge. Now, if you had the XE, you'd be fine.

And then there's Corkscrew Pass...

Thanks Todd, do you also hitch hike on these roads? Sounds like someone is going to come by eventually. In terms of my off-road experience, I have some but it is limited and its been a while. I sold my Wrangler about 3 years ago. I'm careful, which is why I wouldn't attempt driving anything at night without seeing it in daylight first.

Given my wife will be with me and she is waaayyyyy more conservative than I am about challenging terrain, it sounds like I would be advised to stay at Lake City when planning an early morning drive to American Basin. Thanks to everyone for their advice. Any recommendations for lodging at Lake City?

Phil, I was in Lake City Memorial weekend and stayed at Wagon Wheel. Not the Ritz but it was a clean, comfy, two bedroom with a living room cottage for about $85.00. They also have singles for less. Enjoy your trip!
John

Part way between Lake City and American Basin is a B&B called The Old Carson Inn. Very nice place. It is the closest you could stay to American Basin.

http://www.oldcarsoninn.com/