June 28--South Fork, Colorado

Another great adventure day today.  We planned to make a loop through the Rio Grande Forest that we/'ve done before so we weren't too excited. It encompassed several gravel roads to Summitville, an abandoned mining camp, and Grayback Mountain.  A few miles down Park Creek Road we decided to explore a small side road.  It immediately crossed Park Creek and just got better from there.  This rough, rocky track climbed into the mountains through creeks and mud holes to 12000 feet.  It was made even more exciting because evidently the national forest service does not see the need to mark the roads.  They sell you a map of the forest with forest road numbers but there are no corresponding signs on the roads--fun.  Two hours and lots of bumping later we actually came out on the right road.

Another unexpected surprise was a road to the top of Grayback Mountain--definitely a 4wd road but great, great views at 12,000+ feet.

PICTURES:  1. Lunch in Rio Grande National Forest; 2.Summitville, old mining camp; 3.Summitville; 4. top of Grayback Mountain; 5. view from top of Grayback Mtn.

June 23--South Fork, Colorado

The days are slipping by here being lazy and enjoying the cool weather.  We have a favorite Mexican restaurant in Monte Vista with the best green chili sauce ever.  Walks by the Rio Grande river are a daily routine along with drives in the surrounding mountains.

Gary and Frank Dees (our Texas friend) decided to hike the Continental Divide Trail from Wolf Creek Pass on hwy 160 today.  Frank and Bobbie are square-dancing octogenarians.  The hike started off in good order until they lost the trail.  Gary and Scott have had this experience on the CDT at Bonita Pass, but this time the GPS saved the day even though they never found the trail. 

June 17--South Fork

Gosh, ten days since my last post!  We rolled into South Fork, Colorado and Aspen Trails RV park on June 8.  We plan to stay here for one month (unless we get a call to come to Texas early).  Gary loves this park.  It has all of the "big six" (water, electricity, sewer, satellite, wifi, and cell signal) and is $285 (plus elec) a month.  His kind of place!  June is definitely off-season here and everything is pretty quiet.  But we didn't leave the wind in Utah; we put up our awning but had to take it down after a couple of days of high winds.

The roads here in the mountains are not plowed, but we haven't seen too much snow.  Today we went to Creede to check on the roads at the Forest Service office there.  We were told the Rat Creek/Willow Creek trail was open--so off we went.  This is a 4WD road off the Bachelor's Loop out of Creede.  We drove up the Rat Creek to the San Luis pass and then down Willow Creek (clockwise out of Creede),  We made it but I think that saying the road is "open" was tongue in cheek.  Several places the road is washed out and the creeks were very high and tricky to cross.  One washed out place I got out and was supposed to help direct the tires on each side of a crevice.  I was a lot of help--all I could do was scream "back up".  My driver finally got through another way with only 3 wheels on the ground.  But the pass was beautiful (and very windy).  We had a great time (5 hours on the trail) and didn't see another soul.  That's not too comforting when you consider how long the hike is back to town.

PICTURES:  San Luis Pass in the Rio Grande National Forest north of Creede, Colorado.

June 7

PICTURES;  1. California Gulch -- end of the plowed road; 2. California Gulch; 3. snow on Engineer Pass; 4. Pat and Gary on Engineer Pass; 5. Gary at Corkscrew Pass.

This is our last day in Ouray and we headed out to the Alpine Loop.  The road from Ouray to Engineer Pass wasn't open (later we were told that road is in really bad shape) so we traveled south on 550 and went to Corkscrew Gulch which we love.  Lots of snow had melted since last week and consequently the creeks that we had to cross were now rivers.  But we made the crossings in good shape.  We had been told that the road from Corkscrew to Hurricane Pass on to California Gulch into Alpine Loop was open, but guess what--still snowed in.  We did drive to Engineer Pass and enjoyed seeing the snow.  After that, we drove back to Silverton and onto the scenic hwy to Ouray.

June 6

PICTURES:  1. roadblock on Imogene Pass; 2. Cascade Creek waterfall in Ouray; 3. old Sneffels mine; 4. Atlas mine;5. another deadend; 6.  can we make it (yes we did)

Today was a drive to Yankee Boy Basin just out of  Ouray.  We tried Imogene Pass road but were stopped after a few miles with a boulder in the road.  Snow stopped us on another road, but had a good day seeing waterfalls and exploring old mines.

June 5

Moving day again.  We left Durango River Resort and headed north on hwy 550.  We had three high passes to cross to get to Ouray:  Coal Bank, 10,400 ft; Molas Pass, 10,800 ft; Red Mountain, 11,000.  We made it fine (little slow at times) and are staying at 4J Park in Ouray backed up to the Uncompaghre River.

June 3--Durango

PICTURES: 1. Ouray, Colorado; 2. lake at Corkscrew Pass; 3. snow banks on road; 4. red mountain view; 5. mountains from Pass
Catch-up day. So I'm posting more pictures of Corkscrew Pass and Ouray.

June 2--Durango/Silverton/Ouray

PICTURES: 1. top of Corkscrew Pass; 2. red mountain from Pass 3. top of Pass (lunch time but too cold to eat outside the jeep); 4. plowed roads leaving Pass; 5. remains of Mogul mine.

Snow, snow, and more snow! The mountains are really beautiful and the creeks are all rushing. Even though some of the high roads are not open yet we are enjoying seeing the snow. We've never been here for snow melt before and it is gorgeous (if you don't look at the muddy road).

We drove to Silverton and intended to drive the road to Cinnamon Pass (part of the Alpine Loop). Engineer Pass is not open so you can't drive the entire loop (and of course Engineer Pass is the best part of the trail). But somehow, I don't know how there aren't that many roads here, we made a wrong turn and ended up on the Gladstone/Corkscrew Pass road. We were saving this road for a bright, clear day (cloudy yesterday) but decided to go ahead. It was a great road crossing over the mountains at over 12,000 feet. We later learned that it had been plowed the day before so there was still lots of deep snow all around and judging from the tracks we were the first ones to travel it this year. How many ways can you say beautiful?

The trail comes back out on hwy 550 from Silverton to Ouray which is the "million dollar hwy" and just drop-dead gorgeous in it self. Toured Ouray and then enjoyed the scenic ride home.

June 1--Durango

PICTURES: 1. Silverton valley; 2. Ophir Pass road washout; 3. Ophir Pass; 4. snow along the road; 5. Mineral creek (almost went). Can you find the train in picture 1?

Unbelievably, it is June, but there is still mucho snow on the mountains. They are beautiful and great waterfalls and rushing creeks, but not so good for jeeping. Many of the trails we had wanted to try are still closed and won't be open for several weeks! bummer

We drove the Lime Creek Canyon road today and it was very scenic. It followed a torrential creek and the road went from mountain top to valley floor and back up the mountain. Then we drove into Silverton and got the sad word on the closed roads. It is a nice, scenic town, compact in comparison to Durango. We tried to drive the Ophir Pass road but after a couple of miles the road was washing out in front of our eyes--crashing, muddy water that defied crossing. We turned around and tried another track on the way back to the highway. It led to a creek crossing that was tempting but wisdom overruled (or the thought of tow charges) and we turned around there also. Overall, a very fun day. Oh, I forgot to mention that we saw a brown bear on the way "home". It was on the side of the road--definitely big and definitely a bear!