Forest Road 665 (I think)

 Hello Family & Friends,

On weekend days (which are normally crazy busy on the roads and in the mountains), we sightsee and try out new trails from the map Darrel keeps perusing.  Last weekend we headed out near the Natural Arch and took a back way in past the Del Norte airport.  We plugged along, didn't see people or many animals either but found a couple of old mines and some beautiful scenery.

You can see the "wagon trail" lanes that we travel, and sometimes it is not much more than that!

Again, a beautiful day with blue skies and puffy clouds (although mountains in the distance).

The mines are usually just big holes in the ground

But the tailings create a pile around the hole -- this one was weird because it kind of smelled like sulpher.

Darrel poking around to see if he can find a treasure.

We explored the area and found a few more that had been worked.

This one wasn't as deep as the first one we found.

We found these old timbers that were used to rig up the hole as they were digging.

We spent a good part of the day driving until we connected to the road to bring us back to the County Rd 15 and on home.  We found a couple more to explore as we were looking for Elephant rocks.  So another day, we will be back.

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

Big Meadows, working the stream

 Hello Family & Friends,

Been a little while since I posted so I am going to bombard you with probably a few to catch up -- they will be short and sweet I am sure??!!

We did a sluicing trip to Big Meadows, the water is so low in the streams and pretty sluggish, it is difficult to find a spot to put the sluice in to work but we did!

We haven't had measurable rain for a couple of weeks, some pop up showers after 4pm and a few sprinkles in the early afternoon.  Colorado still needs more rain!

The day was beautiful with clouds and sunshine, the views are spectacular!

The clouds rolled in ....

but they left in a hurry with the blue peeking through.

Found a flower bush, not sure if a mountain rose, but it had pretty blooms.

Mickey digging for the material to sluice with, I was around the corner taking the picture.

Brad and Darrel working the sluices, you can see that the streams are low, usually the water is nearer where the buckets are sitting.

We headed up the road towards the lake area to see what we might see, stopped at a couple of campground areas and poked around for mushrooms -- I think this year is a bust for find the fungi.

On our way down we saw a Marmot (and I have been spelling the name wrong, it is "ot" not "et"), sunning him/herself on the rock.  We watched quite awhile before it took off between the rocks to its burrow.

We had a great day, sluicing the dirt, looking for fungi and seeing the critters as we traveled home.

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

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