It's been snowy, but beautiful!

With all the inclement weather, we were starting to feel a little house bound, so we got out and walked along the Animas River trail.  Felt good to do a few miles on a beautiful day, and followed it up with a nice lunch in town.  We have gone through a rainy and snowy period, so it's nice to see the sun shining.  

We knew with the weather our favorite hike to Spud Lake might be in jeopardy, so we went as soon as we could and found the trail a bit snowy and icy, but passable and we remarked if we had waited any longer we probably couldn't have done it.

A view of Purgatory across the valley from the trail

Engineer Mt with snow

The intrepid hikers, the red bandana isn't a fashion statement
It's hunting season.

The trail

It was a little slippery here and there, but we got up to the lake and had it all to ourselves.  It was great, dead quiet, and absolutely gorgeous.  And I know it's hard to believe, but out here in the world of little humidity, the temps are palatable, even at 36 df.

First glimpse of the lake

Spud Lake

What serenity and beauty

We went up to Silverton for lunch expecting snow on the ground there, but it was completely bare, but we did stop for a minute at Molas Pass on the way back.

Molas Lake in the foreground

Another goal we had was to go up to Kennebec Pass on the Colorado Trail for coffee, but we were stopped by snow about 2 miles short.  We talked to a guy who was running tours in a Sno-Cat to the pass and over to a mine nearby.  He said it won't be accessible with a vehicle until spring, so we made the most of a nice drive and found a somewhat scenic spot to have our coffee:-)

We made do somehow here for coffee:)

Still another goal of ours was to get out and hike along Hermosa Creek.  You have to drive up and over Purgatory to get there, so we wanted to hit it as soon as we had a break.  Mother nature complied and on a clear, 60df day we gave it a go.  We passed many, many hunter's campsites along the way, and I rigged up my red headress to at least make us feel better and more visible.  I think in the future we need to get a couple orange blaze vests to really do it right.

Nice day

A remote cabin along the way

Hermosa Creek

We had a wonderful hike on a warm day, ran into no one on the trail, and had a very enjoyable time, capped with a hot cup of coffee before heading back.  Our time is drawing nigh here, it's amazing we've been here 4 weeks already!

Our home away from home in Colorado