Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

Now typically anywhere out here in the west is clear, compared to the east, given the much lower humidity, but some days are absolutely spectacular.  The aspens are popping with their yellow brilliance, and sometimes you have to pause and just be amazed by the beauty of the mountains.  We had a couple of those days all in a row!  First off, we wanted to get up to Silverton before the covering of snow left.

Frosting on the cake

Along the way

Looking down into Silverton

We took advantage of the day and walked from one end of town to the other, had a mediocre lunch, but it didn't matter as the day was so beautiful.  We noticed the train was parked awaiting its trip back to Durango so we ambled over to take a couple pictures of the classic.

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Then we headed back up and over Molas Pass back to Durango.  We've noticed a tiny cabin off the side of the road many many times before, but never realized there was a rough winding road that led to it.  Well it called and we went:)

See the cabin?

Close up

Who knows what stories this place could tell.  We did a bunch of looking on the internet, but I was unable to find any info.  It is just north of Molas Pass and there is evidence of several other foundations, and some remnants of some buildings down in the draw nearby.  If anyone has any luck learning more about it, I'd love to hear it.

The view from Molas was spectacular as well.

Not wanting to lose this day, we got back to the coach, made some coffee and headed up to the overlook above Hermosa and Durango.

Looking north towards Hermosa

And back south to Durango

We wanted to hike up to Potato Lake (Spud) once more before we left the area, and since the aspens are almost at their peak we figured the time was at hand.  Another amazing day greeted us as we headed up the trail.

We took our time basking in the sunshine and enjoying the views.

When we arrived at the lake we were all alone, it was like our own private paradise.  We found a nice spot and enjoyed our picnic lunch.  An hour went by before we saw another soul.

Our view for lunch!

Soon a lone man came around soon to be joined by his wife, who meandered their way over to us.  We had the pleasure of meeting Jim and Nina from Oregon who are avid hikers, in fact they have hiked all over the world.  We had a very enjoyable conversation with them recommending several off the beaten path places we will absolutely have to visit, in fact one of them south of Farmington, the Bisti Badlands we plan to see later next week.  It's serendipity that at a remote place in the mountains you get the opportunity to meet incredibly nice people.

We made our way slowly back down the trail stopping now and then to savor the colors.

Beaver pond

We had a wonderful time, and lucky we did for the next day was rainy, foggy, cold, and dreary.  It's all about the timing:)  I'll leave you with this.

Spud Lake

Fall or is it winter?

As I mentioned last post Jan and Jason were on the 11 mile roundtrip hike into Crater Lake.  They made it, but it kicked their butts.  It was advertised as a fairly long, but not bad as far as climbing went, 800' elevation gain, well, not quite the truth, actually far from the truth.  They ended up climbing more than 2400' feet over the whole of the 11 miles, but they had a good time, a beautiful day, although their dogs were barking when they got back.  Also remember the hike begins at 10,770'.

Getting started

Nice views along the way!

Is that Crater Lake?
No, another mile to go:(

Having a good time with his mother

Yeah!  Crater Lake

Just enjoying the views

There was one more thing we wanted to do while Jason was here and that was walk up to Kennebec Pass, 11,700'.  Now to do that we had to first drive up a very rough steep 4WD road to get to the Colorado Trail, then you walk about 3/4 mile to the pass itself.  It was another gorgeous day, and we were rewarded with incredible views.

Our fun had to end and Jason headed back to Atlanta.  Jan and I managed to go fishing a couple days with no luck:(  

The weather was forecast to be quite unsettled so we hunkered down.  The wind blew, the rains poured, thunder and lightning, the temps dropped, and, yes, the snow came down.  We had flurries where we are in Durango, but up in the mountains just north of us they got snow.  Silverton which is about 3000' higher, had real snow on the ground and the mountains were covered.  We had a little bet between us when we arrived as to when we would see snow on the mountains we can see from the campground, I picked Sep 26th, and Jan picked Oct 6th, well we were both wrong!  We took a drive up to Coal Bank Pass, 10,640' and turned around there.  The road the rest of the way to Silverton gets a bit more treacherous beyond there, steep drop-offs with no guard rails and since they were calling for chains we turned around there.  

It's 33 degrees:)

Pretty

So a little blast of reality, pretty early in the season.  The weather is supposed to moderate and go back to normal the next few weeks, highs around 70, lows in the high 30's and low 40's, very nice fall weather.

Jason's here! What a whirlwind time of it.

We've been busy showing our son Jason the sights here in Durango so I haven't gotten a chance to update the blog.  He got here late Friday night, and we've been playing with the weather or I guess I should say the weather has been playing with us.  Quite a bit of showers and thunderstorms rolling in and out, so we've been making the most of it between the raindrops.

First off was a huge overview of the area, a 220 mile round trip loop that encompassed Silverton, the Million Dollar Highway, Ouray, Ridgway, a back country cutoff to Telluride, and then back through Mancos to Durango.  We ended up with a beautiful day, had a good lunch in Ouray, and gave him a good sample.

Our route

We got some oohs and aahs along the way which was what we were going for.  I didn't even flinch going up the Million Dollar Highway from Silverton to Ouray.  I guess I wanted to look brave in front of our son:)  

Perusing the info board above Ouray

Ouray, CO

Our lunch stop in Ouray

Maggie's Kitchen

We continued up to Ridgway, and made the turn towards Telluride and decided to take a nice cut off dirt road, the Last Dollar Road to Telluride.  There are a few fantastic overlooks on the way.

Jason on one hill, me on the other

A couple of "cabins" near Telluride 

After poking around a bit and watching several people come down the famous Black Bear Pass, we went by Ophir and up over yet another pass, Lizard Head Pass at 10,220'.

View from the Lizard Head pull off

Later we took him on one of our favorite hikes to get him acclimated to the altitude, Spud Lake.  He did incredibly well with the thin air.

Jason leading the way

Jason and Jan

Spud Lake(Potato Lake)!

He even treated us by making dinner one night, it was delicious!

Another thing we wanted to do was to expose him to some of our off road adventures north of Silverton, specifically up and over Hurricane Pass, 12,730', past Lake Como, over California Pass, 12,930', through Animas Forks, and back to Silverton.  It was an iffy day for weather, rain showers blowing in off and on mixed with snow showers, yes I said snow showers!  But it worked out beautifully.  

The road coming up from Silverton towards Hurricane Pass

Getting higher

Jason and I walking around at Hurricane Pass,
don't let our dress fool you, it's about 45 degrees and blowing, with
rain and snow off and on

We then cut by Lake Como, and went back up to California Pass.

Lake Como

Jason on the top of California Pass

Jan and Jason, you can see by Jan's reaction, it's cold!

We were going to picnic on top but it was too cold so we waited until we got down to a lower elevation.

Our picnic spot

The road behind Jason goes down to Animas Forks
That's snow behind him!

The weather was getting better as we made our way lower to Animas Forks, a mining town that in its heyday had 450 people living there.

Can you picture yourself living here?

This just includes part of our doings, in fact Jan and Jason are on a hike that Jan has wanted to do for some time, an 11 mile round trip hike to Crater Lake up near Molas Pass.  It starts at 10,770' and climbs more than 800'.  Jan and I had done pieces of it before and I knew that at that elevation I didn't want to do it (couldn't do it?), so she and Jason are knocking it out today.  More to follow later:)