Chickened out again

As I said we decided to try to get to the old ghost town of Carson.  It's up near Lake City about 45 miles north of where we're staying in Creede.  Carson was one of the most inaccessible mining towns in Colorado.  It is situated on the continental divide at about 12,000'.  That's what we read about it anyway, because we were unable to get there.  We went up into Lake City to look around a bit and see a campground that we tried to stay at, but was booked, that belongs to the aunt and uncle of neighbors of our daughter's in Longview, TX.  That's a mouthful, huh?  Jan went in but couldn't find anyone but a host so we weren't able to make contact.  Lake City was a bit quiet as well.  We bought a couple t-shirts at a shop and the owner told us this year was very slow, and they had lost a lot of locals due to no work.  Don't need to say it but the economy seems worse this year than last.  Anyway the road out to Carson comes off the Alpine Loop road, a 4wd route that goes in a big circle up over Cinnamon Pass, over towards Ouray, and then back around over Engineer's Pass and back to Lake City, all in all a 65 mile loop.  We had tried to do it from Ouray a couple years ago, but a very narrow, high up shelf road stopped me in my tracks.  We started out the road to Cinnamon Pass which took us by Lake San Cristobal which was formed by the Slumgullion Slide about 700 years ago.  It was a gigantic earthslide that slid down across the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River to form Lake San Cristobal, the second largest natural lake in Colorado.

Up close

From above

Another interesting bit of trivia, seems the north side of the Slumgullion Pass, 11,530', which is on Rte 149 just south of Lake City is the steepest grade on a paved road in Colorado, 9%, which smart or not, we have taken our motorhome over a couple times.  Even got Karen driving Nancy and CT's motorhome up and over it last year!
We continued past the lake, going by some pretty homes in gorgeous settings.

Peaceful and quiet

Nice and secluded

We got to the "road" to Carson, Wager Gulch Trail, turned onto it, and almost immediately it became quite narrow, rough, and almost straight up the side of the mountain.  We raised up the Jeep as high as it would go, put it in 4 low and off we went, but only about 1 mile of the 4 miles necessary to get to Carson.  Our Jeep is an amazingly capable vehicle for a luxury SUV, but what we needed for this trail was a lifted up Wrangler with big tires.  It was fun and exciting, but disappointing that we weren't able to make it all the way.

About 1/4 mile in

Heading back out

So with that plan not fulfilled, we decided to give Cinnamon Pass a whirl, so we continued in, and started to climb and climb up to a shelf road that I tried for a bit, but as it became more narrow with no room for two vehicles, and nowhere to turn around, my nerves got the best of me, and I chickened out again!

My nemesis 

I truly wish I could get over my fear of heights because there is a lot of scenery we have missed because of it.  But we did get turned around and poked up another road, found a fairly nice spot for lunch:)

Not a bad view

Mountains above us

Looking up

The Chicken

The weather that has been plaguing us each afternoon started to move in again, so we decided to start our way back to Creede.  I say plaguing us and that is totally selfish, they need the rain so bad it is actually a blessing that it has been raining each afternoon.
There was a sign along the road for a waterfall that we have gone by many times in our travels and I don't know why we never went in, but we did this time.  It was the North Clear Creek waterfall.  Pretty impressive!

But the weather was threatening.

There was a dirt road that appeared to wind around out of the waterfall area and hook back up with Rte 149 according to the GPS, so we took it.  It's about 3pm right now, and those of you who know Jan, realize that this is "coffee time", so we tried to find a spot for a cup of joe.  I think we did all right!

Nice view, huh?

Weather's coming

After a pleasant stop and a jolt of caffeine, we made our way back, saw these guys on the way.

All in all we had a wonderful day, even with me chickening out on the high road.  We came back to our campground which we are becoming more and more confused about, but that's another post.