Calamity is one of my favorite Rockcrawling trails in Montrose.  There are multiple ways to get to this area, the main parking area is where Rim road meets Shavano valley road. this is where most people park their truck and trailer.  To get to Calamity, follow Rim Road until you see the power lines, there are two sets of power lines, you turn at the wooden structure power lines to the right.  Note, this is a great camping area if you want to camp as well. You follow it until you see some BLM signs pointing to Calamity. It is not the hardest, or the easiest trail in Montrose, but I think one of the most fun. This trail starts out down in a wash, immediately there is an optional route to the right, this is a fun option, and I suggest taking it. The option consist of a few ledges in a row and loops back around to the beginning again. Here is a video of the option.

Next you you continue up the trail with a few small ledges and random rocks for awhile, until you come to a split in the trail, where you can go right and take the second optional loop, this seems to change over time depending erosion and such. The second option on the right is fun, and can be run back down to where the option started, giving you the ability to run both the original exit, and the optional exit in the same trip.

Here is Jason starting up the 2nd optional exit.

 

Here is Seth heading up the optional exit.

 

Here is Seth on the optional exit, this line is tough because all your tires get stuck in a hole at the same time.

 

Here is Jason going up the optional exit , this is a fun cliff with many optional lines.  The lines change over time depending on erosion and rock stacking.  I typically run the right lines, the left lines are huge and very steep.  Someone filled in the large hole on this line with some rocks, the cliff was really under cut last year.

Here I am going up the optional exit. I typically go over the large rock on the right, but I took the line Jason used, and it went smooth.

After getting to the top of the optional exit, you can look to the left while driving out, and find a trail back down into the valley that takes you back up the original trail, so you can run that exit as well.  This section has some fun under cut ledges.

Here is Seth heading up to the exit, this is an under cut ledge that requires you to go high right.

The exit of this section has many options as well, the left lines seem to be the easiest, but they may vary depending on wheelbases.

Here is Jason trying the right line.

 

He went right up the left line.

Here is Seth going up the left line, right on up.

You can run Calamity including all the options in a couple hours easily, depending on how much you stop and an hang out, or you can spend a day on it if someone flips over on an exit, which I have seen as well.  Scratch and Dent is the easiest trail in the Montrose crawling trails, and in the same area, running these together is an option as well.  This is the closest trail to where we camp at Montrose, so it is a fun warm up trail, or a night trail too.