The Red Mountains of Colorado (8-28-22)

 Telluride, Ouray, and Silverton  are essentially a triangle of towns high in the Red Mountains of Colorado.

Paul and I have been to Silverton and (briefly) Ouray, but we had never been, together, to Telluride. So that’s where we started. We stayed at a lower elevation, in a state park just outside of Ridgway, CO. One of the things we were looking for here was wine glasses.  Somehow, we managed to break both my glass wine glasses, so  we  I was on the lookout for more. Ridgway has a thrift store that benefits the animal shelter- so yeah, I found a couple of wine glasses there.  I am spoiled in the sense that I really like to drink wine out of a glass.

Our first full day, we drove up to Telluride to check it out. We killed two birds with one stone, so to speak, by driving the back “scenic” road- Last Dollar Road 2.0 - to get from Ridgway to Telluride.

The road was actually pretty decent, and definitely had some great views along the way.  Not having to concentrate on driving, we started looking at the houses we were passing, and when I had signal, we pulled up Zillow to take a peek.

 

I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised that the lowest price we saw was $10,000,000, and the highest was $26 million.  But then, the view you see going to the store every day must be worth something!

Once we were down into town, we grabbed lunch, and then walked around.  There is a free gondola ride you can take up the mountain but the weather was not very good for that so we decided if we really wanted to do it, we could come back (We never did).

After leaving town, we checked out some nearby federal campgrounds to see if there was someplace nice to move to….nothing floated our boat, so guess what- that’s all we saw of Telluride.

The rest of our time in that area was really about the Jeeping and to a certain degree, the hiking- so that’s how I am breaking down what we did:

Perimeter Trail 7.0

The perimeter trail is in Ouray, and it’s a hiking trail.  After deciding against the federal campground, we actually ended up at a KOA- unusual for us, but the location was good. The 7.0 designation is mine and tells you what I would have thought of the trail, had it been a Jeep Trail.

We did hike part of the Perimeter Trail- but before we got  to that, we took a mine tour at the Bachelor Syracuse Mine.  The tour company offers breakfast on the weekends, so we bundled up (its outdoor dining) and had breakfast before our tour. 

As mine tours go, this one was beginner level.  We learned very little, and the guide didn’t know anything much beyond his script. My interest was sparked by something he said about Alfred Nobel. 

Nobel invented dynamite, the use of which made mining much safer, since it was more stable than black powder. After the guide’s  short spiel, I investigated online.  Interesting story.  Yes, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite which helped save lives but was also used as a weapon in wars.

Years later, Alfred’s brother died in an accident, but the newspaper got the brothers mixed up and reported that Alfred, the” Merchant of Death” had died.  Since that is not at all how he wanted to be remembered ( he invented dynamite hoping it would be so powerful it would end all wars)  Alfred wrote a will, for when he actually DID die- and left most of his estate for the establishment of prizes for individuals who stand apart in the fields of science, literature, and Peace- The Nobel Peace Prize.

After the tour we had signed up to do some panning for gold.  After being told we would get wet and “down in it” I decided to watch, instead.  I actually enjoyed this part of the tour- the woman who was teaching us how to pan is a Veteran who decided she loved traveling so much she bought a small camper to live in, and travels the country taking short term, or seasonal jobs along the way.

 

She was interesting to talk with.  One of the things I learned is that despite what movies show, panning for gold in a river will not get you rich. Usually panning in a river is to determine what metals are in the area, and whether it’s worth opening a mine.

So, the Perimeter Trail….We had stopped at the visitor center to get ideas on hikes and they gave us the sad news that many of the nearby trails were washed out due to recent rains.  But the perimeter trail was fine.  I was thinking it was just a loop around town but she said, no its a real  6 mile hiking trail that can be accessed several places along the way.

The nearest trailhead to us is the steepest access she said, but we weren’t worried about that. We elected to go the steep way, hike a mile or so to the waterfall, then cut off and finish walking through town to check out the stores. The views of the town along the way were pretty decent.

The beginning of the trail is very steep, but that was ok.  What wasn’t ok, for me, was that almost the entire trail to the waterfall was on a very narrow ledge with a very steep drop off. When it first started to bother me, (I get vertigo) I sucked it up and kept going, assuming that around the next corner we would no longer be on a ledge.

 

I went through that thinking 3-4 times and around every corner we were still on a ledge. Had I been able to turn around, I would have but it was too late.  Anyway, I got no pictures of that but Paul took a few for me. 

This is the hillside we were on and there is an arrow pointing to someone on the trail.

The waterfall was nice, once we got there, and we watched climbers rappelling down through the waterfall for a while before walking through downtown.

 

And now, this post got so long, the rest of the Jeeping will have to wait for the next one.

South Fork, CO (July 25, 2020)

Having no reservations, because we had no idea how long we would be in Farmington dealing with the truck, we called around Pagosa Springs but no one had availability. And that’s how we ended up in the small town of South Fork.....home to 5 restaurants and one gas station. 

Getting there required us to go over Wolf Creek Pass again but we were happy to get it over with and see how the truck performed. And yay, no check engine light and no code thrown.

We didn’t have any time to explore this little town- we were going to eat out but it was raining and 61 degrees - not conducive to eating outside.

Our one day there we packed a lunch and headed out to the historic mining town of Creede.

This is a neat little town with a dramatic back drop. It was an active mining town well into the 1900s, and since there is a mine tour, Paul was very interested. 

I was not, so I waited for him in the truck. 

Because of Covid they are only doing self guided audio tours, which was perfect, plus he was the only one in there, even better. It’s not actually in the mine, but they blasted through the rock to create the tour area, and he said it was very well done. 

From there we drove the 17 mile historic “road” to look at the remains of local mines and the Humphrey Mill. There are all kinds of warnings to make sure your vehicle is in great shape and can handle a very rough, narrow road. 

I had trepidation taking the dually but we figured we could always turn around. 

We made it the whole way but the most interesting part was at the very end, and we could have skipped the jarring trip there.

I had wanted to hike the short trail to the nearby pinnacles, but it’s 900 ft of gain, and just walking around casually reminded me sharply that we are at 10,000 ft.

With that plan nixed, we drove to North Clear Creek Falls. It was a gorgeous waterfall, and no hiking required.   

We took the backroads on our way home, just to check out more of the area. It seems that wherever we look in Colorado, the views are amazing.

November into December 2018

November was a relatively quiet month for us- we did some stuff around the house, and our daughter Jess came to visit for a few days.

That was actually pretty "exciting".
She had never been to the Desert Bar but had been hearing about it for ages, so we decided to take the Teryx there, using the back trail. Sadly, as you can see from the picture, we tipped it over.

Luckily no one was hurt and we continued on our way to the bar for lunch.
















After that excitement, things calmed down for a week or so.  As Thanksgiving approached we realized that other than Jess, we wouldn't be having any company for the holiday. That's unusual, and we got to thinking that there was no point in staying home if that was the case.

We threw out some ideas of where to go, and landed on Joshua Tree National Park.  Jess had never been there, it is only about 2 hours from her and about 3 from us. So, we packed up the trailer and took off.

We had cooked the turkey before we left, and decided to have our family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner- Turkey Enchiladas. We had a great day and had even found a spot in an RV resort with 4 pools and 6 hot tubs!







Joshua Tree National Park is obviously named for the unusual Joshua Trees that live inside the park- but I think its misnamed.

It should be called Boulder Park because the real fun of the park is climbing all over the boulders!

Joshua Tree is a small park and isn't as well known as some other parks, so it never dawned on us that it would be so popular the day after Thanksgiving!  We waited in line for over an hour and a half just to get into the park!

 We decided we might as well wait it out, even though we knew that parking would be an issue. Instead of parking at the hiking trails, which was our original idea, we parked along the roadway and explored the boulders nearby.













It wasn't exactly the outing we had hoped for, but we had a great time, and got to show Jess at least a little bit of the park.







Once Jess left for home, we had no intention of doing the same. Since we were out and about already, we kept going.

Our next stop was El Paso, to check in on Paul's mom.  Since it was a two day drive, we broke the trip up with a stop in Tucson, where we met up with our friends Dave and Nancy.

 After a couple of days with Paul's mom, we headed for our next destination- Bisbee, Arizona.











Our objective was to tour the copper Queen Mine.  We have toured quite a few mines in the past...so many that I could probably have passed on this one, but off we went.

After donning our hard hats, we boarded a small train that took us 1500 feet into the mine.

The tour was actually very interesting, and was conducted by someone who used to work for the mining company.

When I think I am going to be bored, I try to pay attention and find one or two bits of information I can come away with on a tour. I wasn't at all bored on this tour, but still, my favorite take-away was how they would use dynamite to blow an area into rubble. They set an ever increasing circle of dynamite sticks, and connect them together with fuses.
When they are done, they light it and walk around the corner. They don't have to go too far, because the way it is set off, it implodes, instead of exploding. They also needed to stay nearby so they could count the explosions and make sure there wasn't a misfire.

Once we were back on the surface, we drove past the mine on our way to our next destination.










Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has been on our bucket list for quite a while, and we finally made it there. This national monument is in southern Arizona and shares a border with Mexico.
Pictured is the Organ Pipe Cactus that it is named for.








Our plan was a simple one. Relax, explore, relax some more. And that's what we did. There are two scenic drives- we drove both of them. There are numerous hiking trails.... and most had incredible views.....

At night the weather was perfect for sitting by a campfire watching the sun set.

Once we had had our fill, we headed back home.

And yes, I am on a mission.