Vacation: Day 15 - Last Day in the San Juan Mountains...

Today was our last day in the San Juan Mountains.  Tomorrow morning, at oh-dark-thirty, we're piling ourselves into the truck and aiming for St. George, Utah.

We only had the jeep for a half day today, as we had to bring it back and clean it before turning it back in.  So for our last little trip, we went to Clear Lake – a nice, easy drive off State 550.  The lake itself (at right) was half-frozen, and the lush pastures around it were too immature to sport the deer and elk we looked for.  We were hoping to see some wildlife, and we did: some elk just north of the Red Mountain Pass (on State 550), and then two moose and a snowshoe hare right at the beginning of the Clear Lake road.  All of these sightings were within the first 30 minutes of the drive; the rest of the time we saw only the most common things (chipmunks and marmots).  We did have one other fun sighting: we stopped at a campsite to look at what we thought was an axe someone had left behind.  As we walked around, a grey jay fluttered around us within arms reach, very curious.  Also, Debbie walked up to within a foot or so of a small chipmunk, who seemed completely unperturbed...

We also took another fork in the road that leads out to some campgrounds.  At the very end of the road, just east of a campground, is a series of beaver ponds (and the proud lodge).  These were beautiful, mature ponds with lots of willow around the edges.  The oldest dam has flowers growing on it.  Here are a couple views of it:

And here are some other scenes from the day:

Vacation: Day 14 - Repeat, Upside Down...

We enjoyed yesterday's drive so much that we decided to repeat it – but reversing our path (going the other way always looks so different!).  Our fond hope was that we could repeat yesterday's wildlife spotting bonanza, but such was not to be.  In fact, it was nearly the complete opposite – we saw a few deer (and no fawns), and lots of marmots and chipmunks – but no weasels, pikas, western tanagers, osprey, elk, etc.  If it wasn't for one rather nice encounter with a ptarmigan (more below), we'd have come up almost empty-handed.

The trip started with a quick run up to Engineer Pass – we were up there by 8:30 am.  The two panoramas below were taken from a small knoll just southwest of the pass.  Taken together, they form a 360° panorama from that location.  It sure feels like the top of the world!

The aforementioned ptarmigan encounter occurred on the road from Engineer Pass down to Lake City, at the same place where Debbie spotted the ptarmigan yesterday. We were on the lookout for it again, off in the draw where she had spotted it – when suddenly I spotted the ptarmigan, alongside the road directly in front of the jeep! I slowly got out of the jeep with my camera, hoping to get close enough to get a decent shot. As I walked toward the ptarmigan, she started walking away, and I followed – but then I noticed movement under my feet. Chicks! She had chicks following her! I think she was trying to lure me away from her chicks, but I took a quick couple of snapshots of them and of her, and left.  The little chicks made the most piteous noises as they ran around seaching for their mama.  As soon as we got back in the jeep, the mama came and rounded up her babies.  Photos below. The first one is the mama, the second shows a single chick, and the third shows two chicks (look hard!)...

This kiln is along the road between Engineer Pass and Lake City – really looks out of place, but the explanation makes perfect sense:

Here's a better shot of the cabin we saw yesterday and liked so much. We found out today that the asking price is $649k.

As we were driving up California Gulch, this snow caught my eye because of the curvy edge of it. If you look carefully, you can see that all the curves match the shape of the rushing stream below it – where the stream bumps up over a boulder, the snow was cut in a matching curve, and so on for everything that varies the shape of the water.

Here are some more scenes from today's travels:

Last but not least, here are the flowers from the day:

Vacation: Day 13 - All Over the Damn Place...

We made a grand tour today: up Corkscrew Gulch, over California Pass, down to Animus Forks, over Cinnamon Pass, up and down American Basin, down to Lake City, up Engineer Pass, and finally down Engineer Trail.  Whew – what a day!

But oh, did we have a great day!

The highlight of today was the wildlife.  Here's what we saw: over a dozen deer, dozens of marmots and chipmunks (including a close encounter with one crazy marmot, at right), a long-tailed weasel, two pikas, three Rocky Mountain Goats, two ptarmigans, an osprey, a Rocky Mountain dipper, one western tanager, and a partridge in a pear tree (no, not really).  A ptarmigan at the top of Corkscrew Gulch started us off.  Debbie pulled off another of her astounding wildlife spotter feats today – we were driving down a dirt road at about 20 MPH, and she was looking out the right window.  Somehow she spotted a ptarmigan on the ground, looking like it was sitting on a nest, at about 200' away – almost motionless, camoflauged in the grass and dirt.  Awesome.  Took me five minutes just to find it while she was describing where it was!  It was a great wildlife day...

The entire trip was beautiful scenery, including a lot at over 12,000 feet.  We stopped in Lake City and had a great lunch (Debbie particularly liked her brisket and grilled onion taco).  There were lots of beautiful wildflowers, waterfalls, storms, mountain scenery, abandoned mines, and even an old lime kiln (for making cement).  Ah, it was great...

On the road from Cinnamon Pass to Lake City, we ran into the crazy marmot.  For some reason, this marmot – unlike any other marmot we encountered – was almost unafraid of people.  I got to with a couple feet of him, several times in several location.  Here are some other photos of him:

Every day our dogs (Miki and Racer) are having a terrific time while we're four-wheeling. Racer surprised us by being very interested in everything – he's got his head hanging out the window most of the time.  He's especially excited by two things: any moving water (like when we ford a stream or splash through a puddle) and any animal (chipmunks, marmots, deer – doesn't matter).  Miki, on the other hand, is more interested in being with us than in the travel itself.  By being in the back seat, he's with us all day and that makes him very happy.  Both of them, of course, absolutely love being let out for a run!  Today we let them play in a rushing stream.  Race enjoyed this much more than Miki, and here's a few photos of him playing:

Here are a couple of the deer we saw:

We saw the summer cabin we'd like to have (note the suspension bridge linking the parking lot and the cabin!):

Some more scenery from the day:

And finally, the flowers: