Creede, Colorado

Creede is a cool little mining town like so many in CO.  It had a population high point of 10,000 people in 1891, then declined but never quite became a ghost town, today there are approximately 290 residents.  We walked around town quite a bit, had a great lunch at Arp's, then went off to explore the Bachelor Tour Route, a seventeen mile dirt road loop of many of the historic mines.

We decided to go up #502 through North Creede site and remembered part way up that we had been there before but turned around prior to going over the 4wd part to reconnect with the main tour.  

The beginning of the tour

Remnants of an old mine

Neither of us could remember why we had turned around?  So we continued up and over to the point where I had to get out of the truck, walk up the trail, yes, trail, only wide enough for one vehicle, to see if there was some way I could make it without the impossible task of backing back down the trail.  Yes I am afraid of heights!!  So with me walking, Jan driving following me, we got past the shear drop off to the mine that this road was built for and we could continue the rest of the way.  We came around and rejoined the normal tour and continued around the tour.  

An old cabin along the way

Commodore Mine

Going north toward the Equity Mine

Equity Mine

As we were approaching the Equity Mine at the top of the tour, we passed a young couple with large packs on their backs walking up the road, we passed them slowly so to not kill them with our dust and continued to the mine.  When we had turned around they were coming up the road towards us, our curiosity piqued, we stopped and asked them where they were headed.  They explained they were heading for the Continental Divide Trail up past the Equity Mine, we thought wow and noticed they were speaking with a bit of an accent, so we asked where they were from?  They replied that they were from the Czech Republic and they were hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail from the Mexican border to the Canadian border.  Wow!!  That is 3100 miles!!  They had veered into Creede on the way by to resupply.  They had started 6 weeks before and expected at least another 3 months to make it all the way north.  They said it was much better now since they weren't having to make their way through deep snow like they encountered near Wolf Creek Pass.  Yeah, we felt a little old:)

We worked our way back to Creede and found a pretty nice spot to have a cup of coffee.

Coming down

A house with an amazing view

Creede from high above

Our coffee spot, not too shabby!

The next day we found what looked like a nice loop road that went out to the east from 149 south of Creede for about 25 miles and ended back in South Fork.  We figured it looked interesting.  So off we went, it climbed sharply from 149 with great views.

Very pleasant

We wandered back and forth in a nice high meadow with lots of mountains off in the distance.

Nice easy drive

In and out of trees

Very pretty

Our lunch stop, not a soul around all day!

After lunch we had several options for routes back to South Fork, but we decided to take the most direct one since we also wanted to go on up north of Creede to North Clear Creek Falls.  Well, the road kept getting rougher and rougher until the point it was really getting gnarly, thankfully we have 4wd, and were able to lift the truck with our air suspension because many of the spots were really bad.  All this while we are working our way down, down from way up the mountain, and know we really can't turn around as there is no room along the steep sides. It seemed to take forever.

Down we go.  It is much rougher than it looks,
and there isn't much off the right side of the road

We finally made it, tipping, rocking, sliding, and basically getting the crap beat out of us for the last 10 miles at a max speed of 3 mph:)  So we cut down through South Fork, got some gas and beelined it for the falls about 48 miles away.  

North Clear Creek Falls

They say these are one of the most photographed falls in Colorado

After our falls fix and watching some rock climbers across the canyon we went to a little spot we know not far away to have, you guessed it, coffee.

Oh yeah! Our coffee spot.