Vacation: Day 6 - Wandering All Over...

We set off today intending to do a course with a couple of loops that would take us to Engineer Pass, Animus Forks, and some other places.  We ended up going up Engineer Mountain Road, but then getting turned back by snow drifts across the road to Mineral Spirit, and then wandering off course on our way up Engineer Mountain.  I paid too much attention to the scenery and not enough to the GPS!

But no matter – though we wandered all over the place, we saw and experienced much that was fun.  We particularly enjoyed a rough road that wound up into a small gulch northeast of Animus Forks – there were great views and lots of wildflowers up there.  We spent most of the day above 10,000', including several hours above 11,000'.  The timing of the wildflowers is starting to look almost random to us.  We saw Colorado Blue Columbine in prime at 11,800' with a southern exposure – and also at 9,700' with a southern exposure.  I have now completely given up on trying to predict where and when the wildflowers are in bloom.  An arbitrary and capricious god is controlling it, and his actions are unknowable to us.

Here's a few more scenes from the day's driving:

Our dogs had a great time on today's trip, playing in the snow and in the water:

At one point on the way to Mineral Spirit, we stopped and poked around in some old mining machinery. I figured out the rock crusher, but the purpose of the giant wooden tanks escapes me. We also saw an impressivly large steam boiler (for power) there. The wood is rotting away, and as you can see the building has mostly fallen down:

We also saw a bit of wildlife today, though not as much as yesterday – a few deer and marmots.  But for whatever reason, today I was able to get close enough to get a photo.  The deer acted extremely hungry, and was not at all cautious about our presence.  The marmot just seemed a little bit braver than most, perhaps because he had a hidey-hole right nearby:

And here are the plants and flowers that I took pictures of today:

Vacation: Day 5 - Maggie and Minnie Gulches...

Wildflowers – today we found lots of wildflowers, hitting the jackpot (at least, so far on this trip) in Maggie Gulch.  I have completely given up on trying to figure out why one place has flowers and another does not.  I guess we just have to go everywhere to see!

The weather so far on our trip has been spectacularly good, but that may be about to change.  There's a chance of rain in the forecast for the next few days...

Both of the gulches we visited today are east of Silverton, and just further east that Cunningham Gulch that we visited yesterday.  I saw enough wildflowers to sate my wildflower craving, including several nice long walks along streams or through meadows alive with blossoms.  I've still not seen anything like the carpets of wildflowers we saw on our last visit in several places, but it was more than enough to make me happy.  Lots of photos below.

We also had a good day for wildlife viewing, seeing lots of marmots (probably 40 or 50 individuals), several pikas, zillions of chipmunks (mostly Least Chipmunks), a yellow warbler, deer, and even an elk outside our cabin last night.  While I was out wandering amongst the flowers, Debbie was busy spotting wildlife and trying her hardest to find some more Rocky Mountain goats (no luck on that, dang it!).  At one spot in Maggie Gulch, on a little side road, we drove into a flat circle in front of an abandoned adit (mine entrance).  As we drove in, a dozen or so marmots and a pika started running in all directions.  One of the marmots scrabbled up a muddy slope and fell off into the ramshackle building surrounding the adit.  We both greatly enjoyed watching the marmots, especially when they ran – they twirl their tails in a very distinctive way as they dash about.  My favorite wildlife was the pikas – very cute, challenging to spot, and full of interesting behaviors.  Race liked to poke his head out the window and watch the animals as we did...

Everywhere we went today, we saw the detritus of abandoned mines.  Sometimes this was just a small, fallen down building, but more often it was massive mine works of some kind, full of large iron and steel machinery and rail from narrow-gauge railroads.  Many of these old mining ruins have been designated as national historic sites, some effort is being made to preserve them.  I find them occasionally interesting, but usually quite ugly and jarring in this beautiful area.  Fortunately there aren't enough of these to ruin things even for someone like me.  But my vote wouldn't be to preserve them – rather, I'd like to see them all ripped out and the areas around them restored to wilderness conditions.  I'm sure I'm in the minority on that one.  Also, there are still a few operating mines scattered here and there – this is National Forest land, and available for exploitation of natural resources...

Today was also a great day for waterfalls.  Both Maggie and Minnie Gulches contain particularly beautiful and large waterfalls that are easily reached via a short walk from the road.  Here are some we saw today (the first one has odd coloring because it's a time exposure I took before the sun rose):

And now for a few flower photos. I'm sure you can guess which wildflower I really liked!