Ophir Repeat

We are down to only 5 Jeeps in the caravan today. We had an easy morning with our leader taking us to several mines and historic sites. On the Last Dollar Rd we saw beautiful homes and green valleys. We went up to Alta Lakes which is another mining community around a beautiful lake. Narrow Gauge RR trains came thru this area and there is a water tower and bridge trestles to mark its passage.

After lunch we try Ophir Pass again and again it is raining. Well not just raining but sleeting and snowing! We wait at the bottom for about 20 minutes to let that storm pass and then head up the mountain. This time we are going the opposite direction from the way we went on Sunday. Coming down is a car covered in snow and the surrounding mountain peaks have obvious new snow on them. What are we getting into?? It rains off and on as we travel the pass. The traverse is not as scary today as it does not have as much water on it but there is evidence of snow.

Even though it is a rainy afternoon, we are glad we made this one last trip before we move on to other parts of Colorado. When we got back to our campsite, it is completely dry! Strange weather!

Corkscrew Gulch

Along Hwy 550 south of Ouray used to be a town called Ironton. Over 300 people who worked in the mines lived there. Once the mines closed down, the town died and now there is nothing left. We climb up thru the forest and stopped near a beautiful, flat glade where our leader and his family used to camp. We turned onto Corkscrew Gulch road and it lives up to its name -- lots of switchbacks to get around Red Mountain. We then turn onto Hurricane Pass which goes by Lake Como. It is the bluest lake I have ever seen. From there we take California Gulch all the way to Animas Forks. This is another huge mining area with some building still standing -- mills, homes, boarding house and stamp mills. Several trails converge here. We head on down the mountain and stop at a campground to have lunch. Unfortunately rain cuts our BBQ short and we all agree we are ready to go back to our RV's. On the way, we stop in Silverton just in time to see the narrow gauge train from Durango come into the station.

A Black Diamond Day

Yesterday, we had the day off from jeeping so we did laundry, shopped and rode our bikes into town for lunch. That was a real workout! It was up hill all the way in but down hill all the way back and that was good because we had to beat the rain that was threatening. 13 miles round trip.

Today we got to do two of the most difficult trails in the Ouray area -- Black Bear and Imogene. The front 1/2 of Black Bear is tough but not a horribly steep climb, lots of rocks to go over. But then we have to go down! The first 120 or so feet is called "The Stair Step" and it is very steep and has very loose rocks that could slide. John did great job driving but I white knuckled it. Then came the switch-backs where we have to back up the jeep into the mountain in order to make the very tight turns. And its not just one or two but about 10 of them. It was a "Woo Hoo!" moment when we got the the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls. From there on in to Telluride was a piece of cake.

After lunch we went on Imogene Pass. It is not as steep as Black Bear but it is tricky due to narrow roads and big rocks. This is one of the highest passes in the Rockies at about 13,114 ft. Great scenery, lots of flowers, and some historic mines to view.

We finished early, so we stopped by another campground to see our friends Ann and Dick who we met on our Mexican trip.

Cinnamon Mountain High

Today we took Engineer Pass to Lake City, a moderately difficult trail that climbs to 12,800 ft. But to get to Engineer Pass, we had to first climb Mineral Creek which is quite steep and rated difficult. It was very narrow in places. Coming out of Lake City, we are on Cinnamon Pass Mountain Loop. It has been an absolutely gorgeous day.

The temperature is moderate and the sun is shinning. We had lunch along a mountain stream and have seen several different critters and of course, tons of wild flowers. Our leader claims he has never seen these mountains so green and lush. We came out of the mountains near Silverton so had a long drive home over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray.

Ouray Mountain Area

First off, its pronounced 'Your-Ray'. We arrived on Saturday after shopping and washing vehicles. We know 2 other couples in the group that will be caravaning together for 5 days. Our leader has included his 3 sons and their families, and there are 6 other Jeeps. We are from MO, NE, FL, TX, MI, MN, OR, OK, and CA.

Today was supposed to be easy introduction to mountain jeeping. Actually our first trail was easy. Called Yankee Boy Basin, it had some really spectacular display of wild flowers. Our second trail was Ophir Pass and it would have been easy except that it poured down rain, sleet, hail, thunder and lightening the whole time we were on it. One part of the trail traversed a rock fall on a very narrow trail. We didn't do much sight seeing along there as we were both concentrating on where we were going and not looking down! John did a great job of driving thru rivers of water. We saw flowers, sheep, deer and rushing water!

Rugged Mountain High

Oh, wow, what a day! We are camped outside of Crested Butte in a National Park campground. The 3 miles of gravel corrugated road rattled us to death in the RV but it is worth the drive as we are right on a mountain stream. After we got settled we drove on up the road to see what it was like. There were a lot of jeeps and ATV's coming down as we went up so we figured it would be safe for us to try out this trail the next day. We then had a nice afternoon and evening in the city of Crested Butte drinking wine and eating sushi!

Today we packed a lunch and set off in the Jeep up Cement Creek to Reno Divide and down Italian Pass almost to Taylor Lake. It was a 24 mile drive that took 5 hours! About 30 minutes into the trip and on a fairly difficult part of the trail we came upon a tree across the road. As we were contemplating what to do, 2 men on motorcycles rode up and between the 3 men and our wench (a machine -- not me!) the tree was pulled over to the edge and we continued on. Most of the roads were considered easy or moderately hard so we did not have any other trouble. The views were awesome, the people on the trail were nice and the weather was nice.

Rocky Mountain High

We have been in CO for 5 days now. Our drive out was uneventful (that's a good thing) and we stayed at the

Chatfield State Park just south of Denver. Our good friends, Ray and Judy, are also camping here and we have enjoyed going out on the lake in their boat as well as biking together. We also biked with Bob, Allison, and Garrett.

Today we headed into the mountains. We are camped at 11 Mile Lake. They have regular camp sites and back packing sites along a rugged shore line. We hiked thru that area and then back among the hills and meadows. We will do a 3 1/2 mile hike tomorrow along the lake and back into the lower hills then we will go for a ride in the Jeep, cruising the gravel roads and back areas near the lake and down to Cripple Creek.