Lizard Head Pass is one of the famous passes in Colorado. Passes are a big deal in this part of the country if you want to go from one side of the mountains to the other, and most of them have an aura about them from the many stories told about getting to them, crossing over them, and being affected by them. They also have names that reflect their the experiences and feelings travelers have had with them.

Trail ridge, Independence, Cumberland, Iceberg, Slumgullion, Old Monarch, Cordova, Juniper, Red Mountain, Molas, Rabbit Ears and my personal favorite, Wolf creek pass, just to name a few. Wolf Creek is one of the lower passes at only 10,850′ of the batch named above and Trail ridge is the highest at 12,183′.

Many people worry about the dangers of crossing passes. They have a fear of falling off the road and hurtling to their deaths thousands of feet below. That’s usually an unreasonable fear. On most of these passes the most you can fall is a few hundred feet. I’ve always been curious about this and finally talked to one of the road maintenance crew about it. I asked “What are the risks of falling off the road?” His reply was “None, if you stay between the lines.” This is something that I have endeavored to do ever since that conversation. After all here’s a guy that drives these roads every day of the year in every type of weather. I figure he knows what he’s talking about.

Of course what makes a pass a pass is the mountains on either side of the it. On Lizard Head Pass they have some spectacular mountains. The image above is of Vermilion peak which is but one of the many mountains that the state has provided for the weary traveler to look at. There are others but they didn’t fit in the lens during this picture so they will have to be displayed separately at another time. Yellow mountain, Vermilion Peak (shown), Sheep mountain and of course Lizard Head itself are a few.

Vermilion is one of the more impressive mountains to look at, and as it can be seen from dozens of miles away if not more, and people spend a good deal of time looking at it. Consequently it has developed a routine to add to the shock and awe of its presence. One of the things it will do at the drop of a hat is interfere with the passing storm clouds that go by as regularly as the number 14 bus downtown. Here you see it scraping the bottom of a passing snow filled cloud. When this happens it tears open the cloud allowing all the snow it has to fall on it steep sides, kind of like a lucky hit on a piñata. This is enjoyable to watch as long as the snow stays up on the mountainside. When the cloud has more snow than can safely fit on the mountain it swirls down to where the highway is and dumps it there. This can be bad.

Instead of being a neat parlor trick for the tourists now things can get serious. Too much snow and of course you can’t see where you’re going, in fact you can’t see the road and this is where those bad things happen. See the paragraph above referring to “Staying between the lines.” This situation usually occurs more towards the dead of winter but can happen any month of the year depending on how capricious the snow gods are. Today they were just kind of messing around but it is always a good idea to move away from the area whenever they show up.

If you have an overriding desire to see passes and the mountains they live with I highly recommend visiting Lizard Head Pass. Simply go to Cortez, Co. on Hwy 160 and turn right onto Hwy 145, head up the hill and as you pass through the towns of Delores, Rico, Sawpit, Placerville, Norwood and Redvale to where it abruptly ends at Naturita, Co., you will have seen some exciting sights and driven right through Lizard Head pass. That’s assuming you have stayed between the lines of course. Good luck.