I'm headed to Ouray in August for 7 days. My new to me 2012 FJ is bone stock and I'm trying to prioritize what I would need for a trip to Ouray and keep the spend as low as possible. My priority now is a CB radio set up and recovery equipment.
Define "recovery equipment", is it just tow straps and things for
other people to pull you out? Are you going offroading with other people, or by yourself? What are your attachment points front and rear? If you have a tow hitch,
adding an attachment point in the rear is easy. If you're not going with other people, the CB radio is moot as well as you will have nobody to talk to.
My advice would be to find a forum member who lives in that area and run the trails with them. Buy or borrow a pair of FRS handheld radios,
they're $25 on Amazon. If you were coming to Summit I'd say buy the CB for group communications, but for just running it yourself you don't need to spend the ~$190+ on a decent CB install for your truck. When you come to Summit, buy a CB.
The nice thing about the trails in that area is that they're fairly well traveled, you won't end up stuck and have to sleep in your truck unless you go out there at night. A good bit of the traffic is rental Jeeps so you can't exactly rely on them to know what they're doing in a recovery situation, but you get enough locals / experienced people that they can help. If it were any other part of the state my first piece of advice would be "don't go alone, your cell phone doesn't work here" but Ouray has enough people on the trails that there isn't much risk. Your biggest risk is getting lost, it can be a bit of a maze up there.
My wife is, shall we say, not as enthusiastic about the offroading portion of the trip. Her experience was Schnebley Hill in Sedona and another trail in a rented 2 dr Wrangler that was a bit of a bumpy ride especially in the back seat. I hope the FJ will be better with the slightly longer wheelbase.
Anyway, my plan is to take it easy. Start with Last Dollar and work my way up to Imogene as the "pinnacle". The Alpine loop area I planned on staying on the easy stuff closer to 550 and hit Animas Forks. I think the full loop would be pushing my luck a bit. We'll see how the week goes.
None of the trails you've mentioned are particularly difficult, the entire Alpine Loop / Engineer side is easy except for Poughkeepsie and even that has a bypass now. So the main risk is you mis-judging an obstacle, but there aren't many to be found anyway.
To raise the comfort level for your wife, air your tires down to ~20 PSI while offroad. The grip is a little better but the ride comfort will be much better. You can air up in Ouray at the gas station or buy an air pump, the cheapest one I'd recommend
is this one from Viair. That's my backup pump for when I run out of CO2.
One final word of caution, generally speaking. I grew up with a reflexively cheap father, and we were stranded in the bayous of Louisiana more than once due to a burned out fuse or other such triviality in the days before cell phones, destined to get home on the trolling motor or wait for some
Boudreaux or Thibodeaux to tow us back to the boat ramp. When it comes to your gear, modifications, your truck, everything about what we do you will find no more true statement than this one:
It's always cheaper to do it right than to do it twice.
A lot of people try to do our hobby on the cheap, and the shortcuts end up costing you money in the long run. Do it once, do it right, and if you can't afford it now, save up until you can.
I moved to Colorado 6 years ago for offroading, and there are a thousand things that can happen to you on the trail that are made exponentially better by having another vehicle with you. Getting unstuck, catastrophic engine failure, truck rolled off a ledge. The worst possible thing (short of dying) that can happen is that you're miles away from civilization with no way to get back to the world but walking. Make a friend on the forums who will meet you in Ouray and run the trails with you -- they don't even have to be from Ouray, just coordinate your trips -- and you'll find that the risks are so much more reduced than from buying the perfect lift or the perfect recovery gear.
Don't let all this ^^^ spoil your trip, it's a beautiful part of the country and a big reason why so many of us go to FJ Summit every year (7 for me this year). Good luck and enjoy your trip!