July 4th in Durango, Colorado

Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, Colorado

What a breathtaking drive!

Our nation's Independence Day has been a favorite holiday of mine since childhood – summer, watermelon, ice cream, hot dogs, cooking out, parades, family, friends, fireworks – The Works!  But on the road and away from friends and family, this holiday can be less than ideal and plans must be made way in advance.  We made reservations over a month ago to be sure that we would have a place to stay for this year’s long Fourth of July weekend.   Even a month in advance we had a hard time finding a campground with openings and barely snagged the last spot at the KOA in Durango.  We don’t go camping so we can be with hundreds of others, but it is unavoidable on this particular holiday.

 

Telluride, Colorado

A really big ATV driving main street Silverton, Colorado

We rolled into the KOA in our very muddy RV and car and noticed eyes rolling from the employees.  David offered the man who escorted us to our campsite (coincidentally near the very back of the campground?) a nice tip if he would wash the RV and he just laughed at us.  He told us a story about driving cross country in rainy weather and how his RV looked almost as bad as ours.  We had to admit  that we wouldn’t have been glad to see us either.  Our car and RV had never been this filthy in all our 4-plus years of RVing.  As most campgrounds do not allow washing your RV or car in the park, finding a car wash was our first order of business.

 

The San Juan Skyway between Ouray and Silverton

It had been raining in the mountains and the road had its own waterfalls.

It took all the next day to get our vehicles, clothes and selves presentable again but we did it.  We no longer felt like the scum of the campground.  After all that hard work, we had 2 days to enjoy the holiday festivities.  On the third of July, we took a loop drive from Durango west and then north to Telluride and then back down through Ouray and Silverton.  This drive is known as the San Juan Skyway and is a spectacular drive through some of the most beautiful parts of Colorado.  From colorful rock formations to jagged mountain peaks through deserted mining areas and some very scenic old towns, the San Juan Skyway is quite a drive.  Some of it is even a little scary if you are afraid of heights.

We stopped at the Bear Falls pullover and learned about the geological

formations and how the road was engineered over the waterfall.

The San Juan Mountains consist of older Precambrian

shale and limestone and newer volcanic layers of rock.

The rippled rock on the left is the older Precambrian formation.

The bottom of the canyon at Bear Falls

Usually the water is clearer but rain runoff made things muddier.

Today we spent July 4^th in Durango.  We had breakfast at the Durango Diner, a popular local establishment located downtown, then walked to the train station to see off the 8:30 passengers on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gage Steam Train.  It is an all-day train trip from Durango to Silverton through the mountains and then back down again.  One of these days we may take the trip and the Fourth of July would be a great time to do it.

 

Our breakfast cooking at the Durango Diner

It is an old diner and you can sit at the counter and watch the cook make your food.

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gage Train

All aboard!

Happy July 4th!

After seeing the train off, we took a walk along the Animas River Trail which runs for many miles along the river both in the city and quite a way north as well.  There was a 10-K run this morning along the trail but we waited until it was over before we took our 10-K walk.  Many rafters were out on the river and we enjoyed watching them crash into rocks and turn in circles.  A few smug kayakers glided by showing up the rafters.  It would have been a fine day for floating the river too.  But we were happily enjoying our sight-seeing and walking with Maya.  Another time and perhaps we will do a raft or train trip.

 

Rafting the Animas River that runs through Durango

Dog walker on the Animas River Trail

With all the walking, we were working up an appetite again (funny how that happens) so it was off to get some seriously Texas BBQ at Serious Texas BBQ!  The food was very good and we tried both the peach and blackberry cobbler.  David was impressed that they had Shiner Bock beer. 

 

We saw this BBQ place and thought we had to try it for the Fourth of July

It was seriously good!

Now we are back at the campground settling in for the night.  Fireworks will start soon and that will be a bit of a trial for Maya.  She does like everything else about the holiday.  Tomorrow we are going back to the forest again for several days near the Lizard Head Wilderness.  We are looking forward to getting above the timberline for the first time this summer. 

Hope you all had a very Happy Fourth of July!

The Forest Blooms

A view of the mountains north of Pagosa Springs and an incredible Colorado sky!

After our wonderful time in Big Meadows, we stayed in a commercial campground in Pagosa Springs for the usual weekend chores.  We had some grocery shopping and cooking to do as were planning a remote camping adventure near the border of the Weminuche Wilderness.  

The Piedra River about 10 miles south of our campground, Cimarrona,

looking towards the Weminuche Wilderness.

Colorado’s largest wilderness area, the Weminuche contains almost half a million acres of rugged mountain land and spans both sides of the Continental Divide.  Three peaks, Eolus, Sunlight and Windom rise above 14,000 feet and many others reach above 13,000 feet.  During our stay at Big Meadows we had hiked a short distance into the eastern edge of this wilderness and now that Maya was feeling better we wanted to do a little more exploring.

Rock formations along the Williams Creek trail in the Weminuche Wilderness

With a few meals prepared, lots of food in the pantry and the RV water tanks filled to capacity we followed a fairly good dirt/gravel road about 30 miles north of Pagosa Springs to the Cimarrona Campground.  There were a few other forest campgrounds along the dusty road, but we chose Cimarrona for its nearness to the wilderness and the trailheads and also because it was so small and remote.

Wild rose with wild geranium along the Williams Creek Trail

Thimbleberry in bloom 

It turned out to be a great choice as there were only a couple of other campers there and one night it was only us and the campground host.  The quiet was only broken by the gentle breezes, bird songs and the soothing sounds of Cimarrona Creek as it flowed through the campground.  We owned our days.  It was like this poster I saw in a camp store near the Great Sand Dunes National Park – “The forest has no internet but you will be connected.”

View from top of Ice Caves Trail

Ice Caves

These formations or faults were about 20 - 30 feet deep with ice at the bottom

We hiked four days but limited our mileage to less than 6 miles most days.  Maya was back to walking ‘barefooted’ so we didn’t want to stress her too much.  Two days we took trails up into the Weminuche Wilderness and the other two we explored shorter trails in the San Juan National Forest.

The Piedra River Trail led through a rocky canyon.

Piedra Falls

Besides tons of birds, we saw our first bear of the season.  It was a cinnamon colored black bear and on the small side, so we were thinking young and possibly female.  We got a great look at ‘her’ but were not close enough to get a good picture.  And in a way, I am okay with that.  I love to see bears, just not too close.

Cimarrona Campground

Sunflower in the meadow near the campground

However, of all the things we experienced, we had to give the biggest credit to the wildflowers.  They were simply everywhere.  Meadows, mountains, streams and trails – everything was decorated with flowers.  Most were small and delicate, so photography (or perhaps the photographer) didn’t truly do them justice, but take my word they were breathtaking.  On two different days we hiked trails lined with wild roses and though they are beautiful, it was the smell that was so incredible.  The air was permeated with the delicate smell of rose petals.

Of all the wildflowers in the mountains, Colorado Columbines are the showiest!

Haven't identified this plant yet, but the leaves are so lush.

More wild roses with wild geraniums

Being stalked by Maya

It rained off and on our last two days but waited until we were leaving to really pour.  That 30-mile dirt road turned into 30 miles of mud.  Poor Silver was no longer silver...  We headed for Durango to spend the Fourth of July weekend most likely washing everything we own! 

 

And this was before the worst of the drive back to town!

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked    4
Total Miles Hiked   20.74  
Ave. Miles per Day     5.19
Total Elevation Gain     3,560
Ave. Elevation Gain per day  890

Tall Chiming Bells

Cow Parsnip

Nature's flower arrangement

Ditto!  Nature does her best...

Days in Big Meadows

Big Meadows Campground from the opposite shore of the lake

From Alamosa we drove mostly west on Hwy 160 towards Wolf Creek pass stopping in South Fork to visit the Ranger Station and get information on campgrounds in the Rio Grande National Forest.  A campground called Big Meadows was recommended to us and as the elevation there was over 9,000 feet, it was sure to be cooler than where we had been the past few days.  Mountains were all around us and much of the road paralleled the Rio Grande River, at this point a much swifter, narrower and less muddy version of the Rio Grande than we had just seen in New Mexico.

We heard the fishing was a lot better than the 'catching'

We had been slowly gaining elevation all along but after leaving South Fork, the climb became more noticeable.  Turning off Hwy 160 onto a forest road, we soon arrived at Big Meadows and were not disappointed or surprised in the least.  It was indeed a campground in a big meadow by the Big Meadows Reservoir, a nice little fishing lake made by damming the Archuleta Creek. 

Colorado Columbine

Since the campground had been constructed, Big Meadows was near a meadow and lake.  But events over the past 10 years have made Big Meadows a much bigger meadow.  The spruce bark beetle, a cousin of the pine bark beetle that has caused so much damage to pine trees, has been hard at work all through the Wolf Creek Pass area.  From 50 - 90% of the spruce trees have died in this area, with some of the worse die off being right at Wolf Creek Pass.

Looking at the 'spruce kill' near Big Meadows Reservoir

Sad to see the dead trees but life is blooming in the sunlit openings

We heard from several campers that had been long time fans of Big Meadows, that this campground used to be thick and shady with all the spruce trees.  The forest service has had to cut down the dead trees in the campground so they would not be a hazard to the campers and fishermen.  Today the site is very open and sunny.  Few shady campsites exist.  But after several days in the 90s, sun and 70s sounded just fine.  Actually, our charmed life was beginning to return as we had afternoon clouds and rain showers every day making it very pleasant. 

There were so many blue flowers in the meadow.   

We drove into Pagosa Springs to visit our friends, John and Cindy from Texas, who were also visiting friends in the area.  Cindy made us a nice dinner at Jim and Betty’s beautiful house just outside the city.  It was a lovely evening with amazing views of the San Juan Mountains from the deck.  Then we drove back to the campground for an evening of gentle rain and peaceful sleep.

Cascade Falls

Morning walk around the lake, pretty nice!

Yes, our days in Big Meadows were charmed.  Maya was recovering nicely and we were able to take short walks around the lake and to Cascade Falls.  Later in the week we took a much longer walk up Archuleta Canyon into the Weminuche Wilderness.  It was sad to see so many dead spruce, but hopeful to see so many young spruce pushing up everywhere.  The opening in the forest canopy from the dead trees made it possible for wildflowers, shrubs and aspen to take hold.  Nature has its seasons and as it has been said many times before, “there is a time for everything under the heavens.”  Our days in Big Meadows were our own time for rest, renewal, enjoyment and appreciation of all the good things that life can be.

Maya is learning to 'tolerate' her booty and she was able to walk 7 miles with it on!

Our campsite in Big Meadows, not many big mature trees but still great.

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked    3    
Total Miles Hiked    11.12
Ave. Miles per Day      3.71
Total Elevation Gain     1,172
Ave. Elevation Gain per day    391

Entering the Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado's largest wilderness.