Blue Mesa Reservoir, now Fruita

We stopped at Elk Creek Campground on the shore of Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest body of water in Colorado for a few days.  We really like the campground there and it was a stepping off point to do a little exploring.  

Blue Mesa right from our campground

We went into Gunnison for lunch and just so you don't think all of the restaurants we find are wonderful, we pretty much bombed at the W Cafe:(    But we made the most of it by having a good lunch in Crested Butte on another day.  After walking around the town, a little too hippy/chic for us, we tried to go up to Kebler Pass, then up over Ohio Pass and loop around in a big circle.  

Still a lot of snow

Pretty from this distance

Unfortunately Ohio Pass was still closed with snow, so we ended up making a really big circle up and over Kebler, then west on Hwy 12 to Rte 133 then south on 92 at Hotchkiss which takes you on the north and east side of Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  It was a long way around made much longer, much to Jan's distress by me the heights chicken of them all.  For those of you who have been to the Black Canyon know that it is about 2000' deep, and has the most sheer drop offs that we have ever seen, makes the Grand Canyon look like a cake walk.  And our Rte 92 has the vehicle on the drop off side of the road.  Now none of this bothers Jan at all, but after I was crawling along in the center of the road, only venturing back in my own lane when threatened by an oncoming vehicle, it made a long drive very, very long for Jan. 

This pic gives you the sense of steepness!

 So after that day we wanted to go up along beautiful Taylor Creek to Taylor Park Reservoir and then back up to Cottonwood Pass, 12,126', that we enjoyed once before.  We packed a picnic lunch and headed up along the creek.  

Beautiful Taylor Creek

It cooled off some as we climbed which was welcome as the temps are into the 90's.  We had our lunch overlooking Taylor Lake.

Taylor Park Reservoir

Then we worked our way around the lake to the Cottonwood Pass road.  It's all dirt and we could see they were in the process of grading and "treating" it.  We made our way around the graders and came up on a flag girl in the road who explained to us they were putting down magnesium chloride and the road may be a bit slippery and did we want to continue or turn around?  We asked if there were any other side effects, and she explained it would attach itself to our truck like concrete and if we went on it was her advice to clean it off asap.  She also said it was the same salt they treated the roads with in the winter.  We hesitated, but decided to continue on.  It was a bit like a muddy road but not bad, so didn't give it much thought.  After a few miles Jan yelled stop, and we were able to see a big bull moose eating lunch in the thickets along the road.

Bullwinkle

Up we went, a nice road, winding mostly through the forest until we broke out above the tree line.

View down towards Buena Vista

Cottonwood Pass

Still quite a bit of snow

A very pretty spot

We walked around a bit at the pass, and both of us could really feel the altitude, very easy to start puffing and run out of breath.  We hung out for awhile, amazingly it was very comfortable temperature wise.  Then down we went back to Gunnison.  I seemed to notice the truck wasn't shifting correctly, seemed to hold the lower gears and wouldn't upshift, but since we were barely doing 15 mph until Taylor Lake I wasn't sure.  We passed the lake and started down the pavement and sure enough it wouldn't shift up right, it seemed stuck in 4th and once in awhile 5th, it's an 8-speed transmission.  Hmmm?  We stopped to have coffee along the creek and took a look for the first time under the truck. Wow, it looked like cement in our wheel wells, and all over the running boards and all over the underside of the truck!  We were planning to stop at a car wash anyway, now it was imperative, the flag gal was right.  We got back to Gunnison, never would go higher than 5th gear and pulled into the car wash.  It took forever to get this stuff off, it stuck like glue!  We spent almost 45 minutes spraying the truck, what a mess.  No we will NOT go on if we see that they are applying magnesium chloride to the roads again.  I wondered if getting all the crap off the wheels, wheel wells, brake rotors, etc might have an effect on the shifting, well it did.  As we made our way to our campsite about 20 miles, it got better and better until it was shifting fine.  Happy days!

Now we are up in Fruita, just north of Grand Junction, frying.  It's in the high 90's, hit a 100 a couple times, so our air conditioners are working full time.  We are here for a couple days just chilling mostly before we work our way to the Salt Lake City area.

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.

On the move again

We only had a few days left in Pagosa Springs, so we tried to pack in a bunch of things.  The motorhome was in bad need of a bath so Jan and I tackled that and also ended up washing and waxing the truck just so we could buzz up some dirt roads and get it all covered in dirt again:)

Jan wanted to try a new trail, the William's Creek Trail, so off we went, yes on 29 miles of dirt to get there.  Well, I have to say she liked it more than I did.  It did meet one of my requirements for a good trail, it started up, that way, on the way back out, it is down hill. Now I have to say there is going up and there is going up, and this trail went up and up and up for about a mile then it went up and down to a point where it turned on the side of a cliff.  That was it for Billy.  It was mostly in woods but we did have some scenic views.  I may have complained a little more than necessary:)

Up we go

Looking across the valley, some weather moving in

A nice waterfall

 On our visit this year and every year we like to spend some time on the Pagosa Spring's San Juan Riverwalk.  We still make a point of walking most every day, and this pretty, peaceful, along the river path is superb.  It is a little over a mile and follows along the San Juan river that runs right through town.  It passes by the famous Pagosa Spring's Spa  and even has a few small pools along the path.  In the summer when the river comes down a little, there are rafts, kayaks, people playing in the water warmed by the springs, wildlife, and fishermen along the way.  Plus the surrounding scenery is fantastic, so it is a very nice place to do a couple mile walk.

A shot of the path from the town side with the Spa
in the background

We wanted to hike around Big Meadows Reservoir again, clockwise this time, so on our last day we went over fairly early and had a fantastic hike in gorgeous weather, went into South Fork for lunch, then headed back to grocery shop for the next week as we will be more in the remote areas of Colorado, and wanted to be back in time for "beer thirty".  Now this is a hallowed time each day at approximately 3:30pm that Harvey and Jan(Yon) stop what they are doing and have a beer and we wanted to spend that time with them on our last day.  As always stories were shared, some of them even true, and a good time was had by all!  

Leaving Cool Pines is very bittersweet, we love to be moving and traveling along, but leaving our western family is tough.  So we bid goodbye to all and drove up to Creede for a couple days, then will start our trek northwest.  We are in a nice campground here in Creede and will do a bit of exploring, and getting used to the elevation of 8800'.  That will help us lungwise for our upcoming hikes later this summer at over 10,000'.

All set up in Creede

Oh by the way, it was 32 degrees this morning, we even had frost on the truck!!!

Wow, have we been busy, busy having a great time!

I left you on the way north to Pagosa Springs with Jan and our granddaughter Faith heading for our friend Harvey's campground that he and his friend Jan run all summer long.  It is a cozy scenic place with our western family.  We arrived with a warm welcome from Harvey and Jan(yon), Buzz and Gay; Bob and Georgia pulled in right behind us.  It's still early in the season out here, so since then Vince and Suzie have arrived and we are expecting Jo later today, and will welcome her with a pot luck dinner at the club house.  It will be bittersweet as her wonderful husband and our wonderful, funny friend, Ron passed away since last season.

So the first thing we had planned for Faith was a horseback ride with Jan.  They had a wonderful time on their 2 hr ride after a bit of a mixup at the stable.

Jan and Faith ready to go

They even saw a fox right out of the gate!

After the horseback ride Faith started with her golf cart lessons.  She got to the point where she was chauffeuring Harvey and Jan(yon) around the campground as they did their chores.  Faith even had some jobs to do such as collecting and distributing mail, and putting chickens up for the night and she even had to get up at 5:45am to let them out.  She even got checked out driving the tractor as Harvey had to do some work moving a site around.

Faith and Harvey

Harvey and Faith

And one of the absolute highlights of Faith's trip was when Harvey and Jan(yon) presented her with her Certificate of Achievement showing she had accomplished the rigorous training course to become a Golf Cart and Tractor Operator!!

A beaming Faith!

Kelly and our grandson Christian arrived in the evening after we had a nice day starting with Buzz's famous sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast followed by a nice walk along the San Juan River Walk in Pagosa Springs, yeah, we needed it after breakfast!

After Kelly and I got the tent set up, and after a debate about who would stay in the tent and who would stay in the motorhome we had a restful night.

We headed up and over Wolf Creek Pass east of town to take them to the Lobo overlook, but that was unfortunately still closed due to snow, so continued over to Big Meadows Reservoir.  We did let the kids run around in the snow up on the pass.

We had a nice walk around and let the kids blow off some steam, pretty easy to do at 9250' elevation:)

Big Meadow Reservoir

Kelly getting used to the elevation

The flow out of the reservoir

Kelly, Faith, Jan, and Christian

We stopped along the way at the overlook for Wolf Creek Pass looking over the valley back into Pagosa Springs.

Kelly and the crew

The next day we wanted to share one of our favorite short hikes into Piedra Falls.  It's a short 1.5 mile round trip trail to, at this time of the year, a booming falls.  The kids had a great time, and boy was the river flowing!

Piedra Falls

Sure easy to get cold and wet!

After the falls hike we stopped along a creek for a picnic.

Lunch

Then we continued up to Williams Lake, one of our favorite places.

The backdrop to the lake

William's Lake

The next day we decided on a longer hike along the Piedra River.  We ended up doing about 3.5 miles with the kids and I think they thought it maybe a bit much:)  But it was another absolutely beautiful day!

Along the river

The kids breaking trail

Kelly and Christian at a cave he discovered

The two kids along the river

Well, what a whirlwind of activity that old Grandma and Grandpa aren't used to:)  We loved it and I think everyone had a good time, and the silence descended on us as Kelly and the kids headed back home.  We took a big breath and after a nice walk along the San Juan River Walk, we chilled and reveled in the silence for the next day:)

But not long being here we wanted to go back to Big Meadows Reservoir and do the trail around the lake.  The Archuleta Trail begins at the lake and continues 7 miles one way, but it appeared there was another trail that branched off it and continued around the lake.  We started off and watched the fishermen for awhile pulling in some decent sized trout.  It was another gorgeous day, and the trail was wonderful, nice and quiet and just a bit of up and down.  Lots of pics, hope you don't mind.

Nice and peaceful

One of the streams feeding the lake

Across the meadow

One fisherman

You can see the bar created by the in flow from the stream

Fantastic trail!

Almost around

Jan having fun

A gorgeous day!

It ended up only about 2.6 miles around and it was just perfect, good exercise, fantastic views, nice and quiet, a nice hike.  We'll be back.