I took the new company car up Lincoln Creek Road to the very end while on a business trip to Aspen. Not really offroading -- my stock EA81 could have done it too, but it did perform better than I expected. Especially with highway tires. It's a mild dirt road near independence pass for 5 miles, then goes into two track for another 5 to the old town of Ruby around 11,400 feet. Then at the end, it switchbacks about 900 feet farther up the side of the mountain through some old mine tailings and such. A few creek crossings maybe 8" to a foot deep and mild rocky sections. One 3 foot long patch of snow at the very very top about 50 feet before the road ended. A Jeep Liberty turned around before the end, but I didn't (he could have made it to the end fine, but lost driver confidence...). I still like low range in my EA series cars, but have to admit that the combo of an EJ25 and a torque converter isn't bad -- going up at least. Going down I would have liked more engine braking. Only scraped the front bumper once, and dragged the trailer hitch mount once or twice. Got stuck and had to try again on one switchback when the offcamber combined with highway tires started spinning.

 

I do have to say, I am very impressed with how well it handles on dirt roads -- just throw it into corners and hit the gas and it zooms right around. I thought my EA handled well, but the outback is FUN on the two lane dirt roads. I'm a little less impressed with the gas mileage -- 25mpg average for the trip, and I drove pretty conservatively on the highway. My old EA82 I can thrash on the highway and offroad, and still get more like 28. Guess having all that power does use gas...

 

The place I didn't quite have good enough approach or departure angles. Picture doesn't do it justice but look where the headlight reflections are in the creek.

 

The end of the road, looking up the valley at the divide with a very light dusting of new snow (it was light rain where I was). You can see the switchbacks below me.

 

The end of the road, with Red Mountain behind me

Looking down the valley from the top. You can see the creek way down in the bottom.

 

Looking back up the valley on the way down -- the end of the road is about in the cloud on the left

Dude, nice scenery pics! What is the red mtn composed off? Looks like an old cynder cone next to it. Thanks for sharing.

Just oxidized rock. Not sure exactly what mineral. Some form of iron, I think. The rain on the tailings piles (which are orange/yellow, instead of red like the mountain above) sort of make the whole creek a disturbing orange color on the way down...

Wow beautiful pics man!! I like all of'em! Subaru it'll get ya there! Yeah i know it's not that hard what you did! You can do it with a Justy but the pic's are just cool!

awesome pics..they'd make great ads for subaru

Great shots! we live in the area, (newCastle) and ride the same road on the mtn bikes and in the winter ski up there. great to see a subie up there!

Nice pics! I want to go...you should post your write up at www.subaruoutback.org tell 'em 'Scooby" sent ya...