Enjoying Colorado

I left you in Silt looking for the part for our air leak, that seems to be okay for the time being.  I called and Googled around looking for the part and had some good/bad success.  I found the company that produced the module, but they won't sell just the plastic part, you have to buy the complete module for $200, and if that's not bad enough, they won't have availability until February.  So we are hoping our jury rigged repair holds.

So after Silt we moved down to Montrose, one of our frequent visits.  We stay at a nice campground south of town, Centennial RV Park with exceptional views.  

The view from our campsite!

Montrose lets us accomplish several things, it is an easy drive down to Ouray, as opposed to coming from the south, as from Durango, means you have to take the Million Dollar Highway north through Silverton, and I don't like driving it. We do enjoy Ouray, it is a cute picturesque mountain mining town with lots of shops, bars, and restaurants. 

Downtown Ouray

It also lets us go back to one of our favorite pizza restaurants, Colorado Boy, that has awesome wood fired pizzas.  There are several spectacular off road drives around the area, and one we particularly enjoy is the Last Dollar Road, it is a 20 mile dirt "road" that comes into Telluride with amazing scenery.  It was a gorgeous day so off we went.

Fantastic!

The aspens are popping,
people are saying they are way early this year.

The road starts as a pretty decent gravel road but deteriorates as you go becoming a very narrow rough path, but it is absolutely worth it.

Looking down into Telluride

Downtown Telluride

We only had a few days and before we knew it, it was time to go.  We were heading to try to do something very out of character for us, we were going to try to boondock in a small parking area off the road near Clear Creek where we had fished last year.  It is about 25 miles above Creede at 10,050' in a spectacular place, kind of across the road from North Clear Creek Falls, which is reputed to be the most photographed falls in Colorado.  Yeah, I know I use that spectacular word a lot but believe me it is true.  Our route would take us by Blue Mesa Reservoir, near Gunnison, and then south on HWY 149 through Lake City and over the Slumgullion Pass at 11,530'.  Now I should mention we were very curious to see the water levels in the rivers, creeks, and in Blue Mesa Reservoir because Southwest Colorado is in severe drought.  Their snowfall last winter was only 22% of normal!  

I should also explain we have been either camping on the shores of or driving by the reservoir for many years, and we have seen the water levels high and low so we didn't know what to expect this year.  Well, let me tell you, it was horribly low, we have never seen it this low before, they are saying this is the worst drought in over 30 years.

This gives you a little idea of how low the water is

This is the same bridge taken a few years ago to show where the water normally is

Everything here is normally water

It's all dry now

We were heartbroken to see the lake this low.  We continued our drive towards Lake City.

Along the way

Coming into Lake City

Then up and over Slumgullion Pass.  

Looking down at Lake San Cristobal near Lake City

The aspens are super

Snow capped peaks

All the dead trees you see were killed by beetles
There are acres and acres of dead pines all over

Even with all the beetle kill areas, you can see where mother nature is replacing the pines with aspens.  It is a continuous cycle, the aspens come in and as the pines push up and take away the sun from the aspens, the aspens die off and are replaced by pines, and so on.

Now this parking area we were heading for is used by folks who unload ATV's and Razr's, use it to fish, hunt, hike, etc., so we had our fingers crossed there would be room for us to squeeze in.  As we rounded the corner, we saw there were 3 trucks and trailers already there but they wouldn't interfere!  Hooray.  We pulled in, got situated, and before long the 3 couples on their 3 ATV's came back, loaded up and left us all alone!  Awesome!

All alone!

Did some fishing, but the water is so, so low

Gives you an idea of how remote this is

We had a wonderful day and night.  We were all by ourselves, peaceful, quiet, and oh so dark, it was great.  It got down to 25 degrees even, but we were toasty warm inside and the temps came back up soon after the sun rose.  We absolutely loved this experience and want to do more of it.

One more in panorama form

So after our time there, we went all the way down the road, 22 miles to our new campground, Antler's Lodge near Creede for a few days, another spot we have enjoyed in the past.  I'll pick up there in a bit, and share our most recent new "problem" with you :-)

Down the road I go,
Jan drove the truck, it was only 22 miles,
no sense hooking up.