Nice Birthday

Will took me out for a lovely birthday dinner at " the Antlers."  Its an extra nice resort with a public restaurant that has lovely patio seating over looking the Rio Grand River. Pefect evening, lovely weather, lovely company. 

Had a nice birthday, phone calls and messages from my kids, phone calls and texts and messages from other dear friends.  Don't feel a day over 69!!

Enjoying the sites of the are. . .

Went to local rodeo one evening.  They called it the "Chute-Out". Thought that was clever.  No bronc riding, just bull riding. . .plus barrel racing, calf roping, mutton busting.  All ages participating and especially the teenagers are so determined.  Really fun.

Just cant quite imagine getting on the back of a bull on purpose.  Not many made the 8 second ride.

Another hike

We went out to the Rio Grand Reservoir and hiked the Ute Trail into the Wenematche Wilderness for a few miles. This trail goes up to the continental divide and over the mountain range but of course we didnt go anywhere near that far.  We got far enough for some nice vistas of the Resevoir and the canyon we were following. Was a nice gradual climb as far as we went.  Only problem was we had to cross the river to get to the trail head, not one you would want to do in spring when river was high. We took our boots off and had a refreshing plunge.

Our picnic lunch back at the trailhead.

Doing it all

I went horseback riding this morning.  Such a great ride. The trail ride was from Freemon's Ranch--same place that has fantastic hamburgers, out of town on the road to Lake City.  There were 8 of us for first hour who went up onto a mesa with dynamite views of the valley and Bristol Head cliffs.  Then because I wanted a 2 hour ride one of the wranglers and I peeled off and when the rest went back to the barn, we headed for the trail along the Rio Grand River for a private trail ride.  My horse was not liking it one bit that he couldn't go back with the others, but my  "expert horsemanship" changed his mind and he soon got in line.  He got a good long drink of Rio Grand cool water and then he was fine. In fact ai thought he was going to climb right into the river!

The wrangler and his dog made a interesting picture.

Will spent the morning biking.  We met up,went into town to a coffee shop to find wi-fi.

Creede

There is our rig!! I'm following for a few miles. Usually towing the car but for a short distance I followed Will..

These are views from the roads between Creede and Lake City.

Old ruins of an 1877 mining town near Lake City

Above Lake City, Lake San Cristobal, Colorado's second largest natural lake.  No idea what the largest one is. . .maybe Grand Lake?? This one is pretty scenic

In Lake City, the first church on the western slope, so sign says of this Presbyterian church dating back to 1876.

 

Clear Creek Falls

This picture has been on my blog for as many times as we have been here.  My favorite way-stop.  An endless view looking towards the headwaters of the Rio Grand.  A little cloudy today.

Movin' down the road.

Heading to Creede, but first a night in Pagosa Springs to see friends who bailed out of Tucson and moved to the mountains a couple of years ago. 
And then a soak in the Hot Springs.

Miss you Darrel and Melinda. I still think of you as Tucson people! 

Melinda introduced us to the term Arborglyphs. . .something we had seen on hikes but didn't understand.  In the 30's. 40' s etc. sheep herders up in the mountains use to carve  names, dates, pictures into trunks of aspen trees and you can find these old markings if you look for them on very mature trees. The trees scar from them in particular ways. I need to find a photo. The oldest one I could read was 1934. Old graffiti is interesting, new carving in trees in not good!

The springs is along the San Juan river and all the soak pools are on the patio of Spa and right down to the river.

Next stop,  Creede, Colorado

The gang

Hiking between rain showers

We managed to stay dry enough between rain showers to get a couple of good hikes in. These mountain showers pop up out of nowhere.  More likely in the afternoon so we have tried to be on the trail early.  More scary than rain which usually passes over pretty fast are the lightning strikes that also come out of nowhere at this altitude.  

Have to be creative at stream crossings.  

Last push across a mountain meadow at 10,000 ft. . .

For this view of water fall in the distance and El Dente before we turn back. 

Colorado state flower, the Blue Columbine is everywhere on this trail.  Along with tons of other wildflowers.

Faces turned toward the morning sun.

Marmot with thier piercing warning call.

A shorter 2 mile trail to Colorado's only real geyser.  

Its nothing like Yellowstone, but it bubbles up really hard for about 10 minutes and then settles back down to a simmer every 30 to 40 minutes. Strong sulpher smell in the air all the way up to it.

Back at camp during one of those downpours.  This one lasted maybe 10 minutes and the sun never stopped shining the whole time.  Like one big cloud stopped right over us and just unloaded.  There  had to be a rainbow somewhere but I wasn't going to go outside of RV to try to find it.

Hovenweep

Plan was to hike but but mountains were to wet and rainy so we went to see some more Indian ruins at Hoevenweep National Monument. 

No rain here. 2 mile hike around the canyon rim was hot and dry.  What makes these so different is that the dwellings were built on the top of canyon rim, not in the canyon as many cliff dwellings. These were multi storied towers built at various water sources.   This park is one of those you have to purpose to go to.  Its not on the way to anywhere--drive through ranch land and reservation lands to get to it--which is interesting too.