Crystal Hill Mine Visit

Hello Family & Friends,

We have had sooooo much rain, we haven't been able to spend the day outside without the afternoon showers arriving and even some days are just water logged!  We try to take exploration drives but sometimes the roads are so muddy, and if you do go out, there isn't much happening to see with the dreary weather.

I am not complaining however since most of the San Luis Valley is under drought conditions.  Colorado can use the rain so we try to find other ways to entertain ourselves.

But today (July 27 and my mom's birthday!!!) we ventured out to Crystal Hill Mine which is near the Penitente Canyon area but a little further up the road.  Of course, it rained on us on the way home with some pea sized hail too!  We were in a Flash Flood Watch until midnight so we kept our eyes on the sky and made sure we watched for those flash flood waters!

Here's our pics of the trip:

The mine is another "reclamation" site where they have mined out all they are going to and have put it back to nature --- it was a pretty impressive process.

It is an interpretive site so you have the information on plaques to read about the area.

This is part of the mining pit where they terraced off the layers they took out the ore.

You can see the catepillar down there at the bottom and when we drove down to that level, we were greeted with an active mine notice and to KEEP OUT!

Didn't look like much activity to us, but we stayed behind the gate!

The storm clouds were starting as we left the mining area and 

took a road around to the backside Crystal Hill.

There was some activity on the backside of the hill/mountain as well - you could look up and find the holes and the tailing piles left from the extraction.

The pilings really create huge mounds.

Darrel is surveying the area for the campsites of the miners -- these holes can be pretty large.

This is the "hill" (I call a mountain) we climbed up to the tailing piles.

We had started to lose the sun so the pictures are too great, but it was a climb and Darrel was trying to remember where his aspirin was in case of a heart attack 😀

I was trying to zoom in on the pilings, but it was just too difficult to get the right lighting.  We want to go back so maybe we will have better sunshine to help out.

Here they come!

And we are headed down the mountain towards the blue -- but not fast enough as we got caught in the rain that was following us.

The old mine shaft (on private property now) was at the entry of the road up to Crystal Hill Mine.

We traveled home the back way which took a little longer than highway travel --- the rain slacked off and we made it back to the RV with just a light rain.  But then the soaking rain took over this evening.  I am sure we will go back as we missed some of the other structures still standing and want to explore the roads around the area.

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

Willow Creek Workout

Hello Family & Friends,

It has been over two weeks since I've posted (shame on me) -- I found these pictures on my phone and realized that I hadn't posted about our "gold" workout day on Willow Creek!

We went up Willow Creek which is really a nice drive (I've shared other routes we taken along in that area).  The trail up to the stream we panned/sluiced was a bit rough and bumpy.  We spent the day in wonderful sunshine and good weather.

We also found several gooseberry bushes and picked enough for Mickey to make a Gooseberry Cream Pie to share.

Brad, Mickey and Darrel are showing off the tools we use -- by the gooseberry bush, of course.

There is always one in every crowd that just has to be a little different, BRAD!

Mickey and I are usually the hard workers of the group, we haul the dirt to sluice and then we picked the gooseberries, too!

We had a great day working out in nature!

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

PS  Will try to be a little better on my posting, I think life got in the way!

La Garita Arch and Penitente Canyon

Hello Family & Friends,
On Sunday we headed to La Garita Arch (aka Natural Arch) and Penitente Canyon -- about an hour away.  We took the scenic way in along CR 15 and then FR to get to the La Garita Arch (as called La Ventana (Spanish for window).  When we arrived no one else was there so we climbed up a ways toward the arch.  About 15 mins into the hike, another vehicle joined us so we turned around and headed back down as we hadn't locked up anything. But Darrel managed to capture some great shots of the arch.

The sun was to our photo op disadvantage with trying to shoot with it facing us, but we managed.

We were headed up so closer shots as we got up the trail (or should I say boulders/rocks)

 The arch was carved out of a volcanic "dike" and you can see the signs of weathering on nearby companion arches.

This pic had the dead tree to the left and a haze from the sun starting to shine through.

zoomed for a closeup of the arch hole

Further back down the trail you can see the whole "dike" along with the companion arches to the right.

Lots of rubble from the opening right below (you probably cannot see it too well)

After we left the arch we headed to Penitente Canyon -- it was busy since we were closing in on noon time and with a weekend day, but the overflow parking had a nice area to eat our lunch and Darrel decided to leave me to eating and climb up "monkey rock".

OK, can you see Money Head?  Or not? -- that dot in the middle, is Darrel waving!

Now, waving his cowboy hat -- zoomed in a little closer....

 As he was goofing off, took him 10 mins to get up there, I was snapping pics of the rest of the views

The canyon is hidden as you drive in from the road to the entrance, blue skies were quickly changing to gray.

Swiveling away from Darrel's location was this view, with the gray skies closing in.

I waited for him to return --- thought about driving off, but figured I would just have to come back so I waited patiently as I had no idea where to connect up with him.... the grand adventurer!!!

He took 2 walking sticks to help with the climb up and down.

Finally to the parking lot, cowboy hat and all!

We did make it out of the canyon before raindrops fell, traveled back home a different route through Del Norte and the backway home to RV.

It was a beautiful day and I think we will return to Penitente Canyon during a week day to explore the hiking paths when the aren't so crowded.  The guide book told us that it is an internationally recognized climbing area for the novice rock climber as well as advanced, we shall see!

Signing out from the Grand Adventurer and narrator (who almost left him there),

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Exploring Forest Rd 361

Hello Family & Friends,
I don't remember when we explored Forest Rd 361, guess I should date/time stamp my photos but I never liked seeing that show up on the photo in the corner.  Pretty helpful though when you are retired and everyday is a Saturday.

Anyway, we took the road and headed up!  Along the way we caught a Marmet popping out of his den to look around -- pretty skittish but he/she allowed up a click or two before back down he/she went.

Pretty big guy, almost thought it was a badger, woodchuck but I still believe it is a Marmet.

We ambled on up to the top to a really beautiful meadow full of cows -- you really cannot go on any roads with coming across cattle.  We had a really nice overlook and found a chipmunk enjoying it as well.

He seemed to be enjoying the sun -- as we were watching the chipmunk, we spotted more Marmets sunning themselves on the rock outcrop just across the way -- too far to be photographed.

We took out the binoculars and spied for awhile, we believe it was a family with a young one not paying attention to mom's warnings and getting shuffled back down in the den.

We stopped to take in the view, you can see the beetle kill trees (the dead looking ones) but there seems to be a lot of new growth -- see the green in between?

The mountains across the way house Summitville at the top.

Darrel like this gnarly looking Aspen, we see a lot that have really weird branches.

One more view!

On the trip down we caught this waterfall with a lot of moss growing on the rocks.

We had a great exloring trip and on the way down got caught in a cattle roundup -- cowboy on horseback with border collie, gathering up the herd.  There were some BIG ones in that herd.  We managed to wade our way through and headed home.

Until the next trip out,

Sending blessings from the road,
Susan & Darrel

Exploring Forest Rd 360

Hello Family & Friends,
As mentioned in the previous post (FR 340) -- we try to stay close to the RV on holiday weekends, this was Friday, July 3rd and our last day out and about to avoid the crowds and highway travel.

We headed up to find a solitary spot to sort our equipment. --- things tend to get a little junky from time to time.

We headed to Beaver Reservoir and up Forest Road 360 hoping again to make the trail connect over the mountain and back through Willow Creek -- you should see the Forest Maps (difficult to make out the type of road, where it goes to, etc.).

The weekend has been off and on again rain with cloudy skies and then sunshine breaking through.  Typical Colorado summer weather, finally -- some much needed raindrops.

Found an interesting view from the tree I was sitting on.

We were sunshiney and fair clouds until .....

The storm clouds rolled in and rain fell.

It kept getting darker and darker....

We managed to stay dry and traveled up the 360 trail until we hit a gate that was locked.  We had hoped it would take us over the mountain and back down the other side.  

The ranger stations are closed from COVID and the only communication is through emails.  We have been fortunate that they have responded to our requests for the walking stick permits and other questions we've had.  Darrel would really like to learn how to read the maps a little better which would save us some time from running into dead ends!

But the rain moved out and we returned home with travel picking up for the holiday weekend. We are staying around basecamp Saturday and Sunday with resting and relaxing activities.

Oh, thought you might enjoy this pic, a RV'er from Florida brings a light up palm tree (the picture doesn't do it justice) -- they are across from us and I love looking out a night to see the display.

Enough for now, who knows what next week will bring???

We hope you had a Happy 4th of July -- everything was cancelled here except the Farmer's Market on Friday and the Community Fish Fry by the Fire Dept.  We stayed close to home with the traffic picking up on the highways.

Until the next time, sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel