Picayune and Placer Gulches, and Waterfalls...

Picayune and Placer Gulches, and Waterfalls...  We got ourselves on the road by 6:30 am this morning, in the hope of seeing more wildlife and of avoiding the July 4th revelers. The former didn't work out so well (we didn't see any wildlife at all until later in the day), but the latter worked great!

Last night we had a steady light rain for about an hour and a half. This morning the ground outside was all wet – not muddy, really, but certainly not the dry-as-a-bone that it was before. This will be very nice for keeping the dust down on the trails...

We set off up the road to Animas Forks, stopping first at the waterfall just below the turnoff to the road up Picayune Gulch. The waterfall was still in shadow with the sun so low, and there was no traffic to raise dust – both perfect conditions for what I wanted to do: to take long exposure (20 or 30 seconds) shots of the falls. I set up my tripod and happily played photographer for a half hour or so. I also practically froze my hands and feet (the temperature was in the mid '30s). The photos came out very nicely, which greatly pleased me.

Then we turned up the road up Picayune Gulch. We're very familiar with this road, having been on it a half dozen or so times before. So far as either of us can remember, we've always come down Picayune Gulch before, so going up it was a first. The lower parts of this road are through a mature fir forest with streams, ponds, and the occasional meadow – all very pleasant. There were also some spectacular mountain views along the way; there was much oohing and ahhing as we drove.

About a mile into this road, we came across a junction with Ouray County 99, a road that headed south of the road we're familiar with. It doesn't appear on our topo map, so we really had no idea where it went – but after our great experiences yesterday with off-map roads, we decided to try it. We are so glad we did! This is now one of the top four or five roads in all the San Juan Mountains, in our book. It's got everything: scenery, forest, meadows, streams, ponds, interesting mine works, waterfalls, and wildlife. The altitude varies from 10,000' to over 13,000', so there are lots of different wildflowers along the route. We explored every side route, including one that we had to cut our drive short because of snow on the road – that one looks like it might go most of the way to the peak of Eureka Mountain. There were two parts of this road that we particularly liked: a meadow we called “Five Corners” (because five roads join there) and a basin on the northeast flank of Eureka Mountain. The former is full of lush grass, lots of wildflowers, a meandering brook, marshy areas full of marigolds and Parry's Primrose, and views to beat the band. The two dogs had a wonderful time there chasing the ball up and down the knolls in the meadow. The latter is home to two substantial streams, both of which tumble down rocky waterfalls that are about as picturesque as a waterfall can be.

We spent about three hours on the short couple of miles long that Ouray County 99 is. The entire time, we had the road and all the surrounding scenery all to ourselves. We saw deer at well over 13,000 feet in two places, we saw quite a few birds (including a ptarmigan just ahead of us on the road, and a flicker flying right by our window). One of the deer (all spotted by Debbie, of course) was an awesome buck with a gigantic rack, browsing away in the willow. It was just wonderful. Much to our regret, Ouray County 99 ended all too quickly, rejoining the road up Picayune Gulch that we're familiar with from previous trips. There's nothing wrong with that road, either – we were going up it because we liked it – but it just wasn't up to the same standard as Ouray County 99.

And not more than 5 minutes after we got back on the familiar road, we started meeting ATVs, motorcycles, and jeeps – dozens and dozens of them over the next couple of hours. We continued up to the pass between Picayune and Placer Gulch, where we stopped for an hour or so to let the dogs play in a small pond up there (video), and to eat our lunch. The meadows around that area were particularly full of some of our favorite wildflowers, and I did some walking around to see them.

Then we headed down Placer Gulch, pausing briefly in several places to collect rocks for our neighbor Gracie, and to poke around old mine ruins. By the time we got to the bottom of Placer Gulch, it was 2 pm and both Debbie and I were ready to call it a day – so we turned right, whooshed through Animas Forks, and headed for our little cabin on Blair Mountain...

The start of County 99

Falls on the Animas River

A mine partway up 99

Spotting deer at the top

The basin of waterfalls

Purple fringe on mine tailings

Colorado columbine in bud

Marsh marigold

Not identified

Not identified

Not identified

Seedum and not identified

Not identified

Not identified

At the pass between Placer and Picayune Gulches

The "Sound Democrat" mine

The "Sound Democrat" mine

The "Sound Democrat" mine

A field spaniel and his human

All over Red Mountain...

All over Red Mountain...  This morning we set out to find some interesting trails that were obscure enough that we'd avoid the hordes of July 4th weekend riders. We succeeded beyond our expectations, in particular by locating a system of trails that starts on US 550, just northeast of Guston, at the 10,320 foot level. The road there took us into a dozen or more roads – some on the map, some not – that had us traversing all sorts of different environments, visiting a dozen or so mine remnants, and taking us as high as 11,900' up the western flanks of Red Mountain No. 3. On the lower stretches of these trails we ran into a number of campers, and just a few ATVs and jeeps, but the rest of the day we had the trails all to ourselves. Compared with the chaos the more well-known trails are having on this holiday weekend, this was pure bliss for us.

Not only did we have the trails to ourselves, but these were particularly pretty trails that were full of interesting stuff – spectacular mountain scenery, tons of gorgeous wildflowers, some wildlife (though not as much as we'd have liked), mine wrecks galore, and healthy, vibrant forests and meadows. It was as pleasant a day as we could have imagined.

We sat for a while in an especially pretty place, with the FJ parked on a little knoll overlooking a meadow with a stream burbling through it. This was our lunch spot, where we had some great beef jerky, dried mangoes, pistachios, chocolate, and cold drinks. Yum! We also let the dogs out there to run and play in the grass, chasing the ball all over the place.

At one point we spotted a bird we didn't know, perched in the top of a small fir, munching on the new growth that was just emerging. Turns out that it was a bird we did know, albeit in a color variation new to us: the “gray headed” variation of the dark-eyed junco. That's a bird we know well from Jamul, but the one here looked like a completely different species – with a slate blue/grey body and head, a slight darkening around the eyes, and a big rusty red patch on its back.

We did see a bit of other wildlife – one deer, lots of chipmunks and squirrels – but no marmots or pikas today (mainly because we spent the whole day below timberline).

After finishing with the trails above, we headed for the “Amphitheater” trail just south of Ouray. We didn't like it nearly as well as any of the other trails we've been on, and it was relatively full of people. We'll just add that one to the list of trails to avoid in the future :)

We ended the day by dropping down into Ouray for a milkshake from Mouse's Chocolate and Candies – we each had a “Double Fudge Chocolate Wow” milkshake, lightly malted. Delicious!

A pretty stretch of road
through the aspens

An abandoned mine

Parked below a tailings pile

Geranium, unidentified

Hooked violet

Surprisingly close to the peak

Moss and more, in a seep

Sickletop lousewort

Porcupine damage on cabin

Little Giant Basin...

Little Giant Basin...  After our long day yesterday, we slept in ('till 6 am!) and took it easy in the morning. Debbie made us a lovely bacon and egg breakfast, and we didn't even leave the cabin until around 8 am. It was very nice to have a slow, easy day after yesterday.

On our way down the cabin road, we saw a pair of gray jays – had great viewing of them for several minutes. I stopped to walk around in the orange columbine that grows in profusion along the cabin road, at about the 10,800' level. I now have better photos of orange columbine than any I've taken before – it's easy when there are hundreds of times as many of them as you've ever seen before!

We drove nice and slow up to Little Giant Basin, but had to stop a few hundred feet short of the actual basin because of snow in the road. We had the place to ourselves for a half hour or so, which was lovely. We saw the giant pikas again (as we first spotted last year), and the marmots teased our dogs. We collected some rocks for Gracie, including some particularly nice crystals similar to what you'd find in a geode.

Our peace was disturbed all too soon, though, when three ATVs and a jeep all roared up and disgorged 10 or so people. The pikas and marmots all hid as noise and chaos filled the air. We left shortly thereafter.

After we left Little Giant Basin, we headed back down the road to Big Giant Basin, just a mile or so. We stopped there to have our lunch and watch the pikas collecting food. We saw the expected things: marmots, pikas, and chipmunks – but we also saw something most unexpected: a short-tailed weasel (Mustela ermina)! We got to watch the weasel for five minutes or so as it was apparently hunting. We don't know what it was hunting, but it didn't look like the pikas were worried. We're guessing the weasel was after smaller prey.

Just before we left, I got out to find a tree to water (in other words, I needed to take a pee). I flushed a doe and a fawn (the first fawn we've seen!), and I got up close and personal with one of the teensy little chipmunks that are so common here. He stood up on a log and just looked at me disdainfully. Debbie missed out on these sightings, much to her chagrin. My future pee outings may be accompanied :)

After an hour or so, we headed lazily down toward town. We were immediately sorry we did – it was horribly crowded, traffic was terrible (in Silverton!), and there were touristy types everywhere you looked. We got outta Dodge and headed back for a lazy evening at the cabin.

The town was sopping wet from a rainstorm they'd had earlier in the day. We got sprinkled on, but nothing more. We definitely could use a lot more rain. Ten inches wouldn't hurt a darned thing!

Orange columbine

Typical orange columbine group

Orange columbine

Spotted saxifrage

Purple fringe and
unidentified common flower

Near Little Giant Basin

More of the unidentified common flower

Pond in Little Giant Basin

Unidentified, uncommon flower

Moss campion

Buttercups and pearly everlasting

Scarlet paintbrush

Near-zero blogging alert...

Near-zero blogging alert...  Things in Silverton, Colorado have changed – we basically have no Internet connection at all.  At the moment we're sitting in a restaurant in Lake City which just happens to have free WiFi, so I can post this.  I don't know when (or even if) we'll have a connection again while we're on vacation.

Speaking of which, it's been grand so far!  Lots of flowers, beautiful weather, happy dogs, and a gorgeous cabin to stay in.  More when we can...

Stony Pass to Lake City, Cinnamon Pass to Silverton...

Stony Pass to Lake City, Cinnamon Pass to Silverton...  Today's trip was a reprise of our favorite trip of last year – up and over Stony Pass, and thence to Lake City. There are two ways back to Silverton from Lake City (one via Cinnamon Pass, the other via Engineer Pass), and today we chose Cinnamon Pass. We chose to take this trip today partly because we hoped to avoid the heavy holiday trail traffic, and for the Stony Pass segment of the trip that worked very well – we only met a few people until we got to the Rio Grande Reservoir around noon. The segment from Lake City over Cinnamon Pass and back to Silverton was another story altogether – all sorts of people and vehicles there! We left at the crack of dawn and returned just before dark – a long day, but awfully nice.

The flower situation was … glorious. We're definitely a little earlier in the flower season, by a week or two, compared with last year. One of my goals was to see the irises on the south side of Stony Pass, and we did – but a week earlier yet would have been even better. We saw orange columbine in the forests just north of the Rio Grande reservoir, which we'd never seen there before. On the trip up and over Cinnamon Pass, we saw more Parry's Primrose than we'd ever seen before – basically every wet place over 10,500' was chock full of it. We apparently hit the season for them absolutely perfectly. We were too early to see sheep and shepherds, though – we're hoping we'll see them toward the end of our visit here.

A few miles south of the Stony Pass summit, the trail crosses Pole Creek on a ford across some gravel. We've made this traverse quite a few times before, and once (several visits back) we were turned around here by high water – something we were afraid might happen today, as the streams are running high compared with most of our experience. The creek was indeed running high, about 18” or 20” deep in the fast center channel – but the FJ took it just fine, with no water leaking inside the cab and the engine never sputtering at all. We haven't modified our FJ to handle deep water, but the manual says anything up to about 40” should be fine – so long as you don't mind water flowing in the cab :) We didn't come anywhere near that depth, and had no problem at all.

The dogs had a wonderful time playing in the snow near Stony Pass. We took several minutes of video with the two of them madly chasing a ball across the snow fields. By the time we put them back in the truck, we had two very tired puppies :)

After we crossed Pole Creek, we headed through the beautiful scenery of the Rio Grande valley, past the Rio Grande Reservoir (and several others), through some fire-damaged areas (from last year's fires that we saw the immediate aftermath of), and thence up through Slugmullion Pass (on paved roads) up to Lake City. There's a favorite destination of ours there: the Sportsman's Club. We like the people there (the owner's are Texans who come up to run the place in season), and most of all we like the food – most especially the pull-pork sandwiches. If your memory is particularly good, you may remember the tragedy of last year, wherein we ordered pulled-pork sandwiches and they only had enough meat for one (I took it). The same damned thing happened again this year – but this time, Debbie got the pulled-pork sandwich, and I opted for a sliced brisket sandwich – also delicious. The owner/cook came out to apologize for both the horrible pulled-pork shortage and the long delay (the place was very busy) – and insisted on giving us the sliced brisket sandwich for free. We actually hadn't minded the delay at all, because there was free WiFi there, and we had the first real connectivity of our trip. We both spent some time catching up on email and what was happening in the world. Afterwards we stopped by at Debbie's favorite Lake City coffee joint (she has one in every city, trust me): Jean's Beans. We both had some coffee, to perk ourselves up for the trip up and over Cinnamon Pass to get back to our cabin in Silverton.

There was very little snow, even at altitudes over 12,000' – the least snow we've ever seen up here at this time of year. This jibes with our host's assertions of very light snowfall this past winter. That's bad for everything and everybody depending on the water from the snow melt making it into the streams...

The wildlife wasn't as abundant in the morning as in our past experiences here. Possibly we're too early in the season. We saw a dozen or so deer, but no fawns. Lots of pikas and (especially) marmots, along with innumerable chipmunks and squirrels. We saw quite a few flickers (especially north of the Rio Grande Reservoir), as well as a few woodpeckers.

We had a bit of rain, just enough to wet down the dust, as we passed the Rio Grande Reservoir. There was no sign of any rain around our cabin when we got home, dang it.

At the top of Cinnamon Pass, we met a couple in a Jeep with their dog. They said they'd seen us earlier in the day, going the opposite way from us at Stony Pass. They recognized the orange FJ with the “Slightly Loony” sign on the front. Turns out they were camping at the Rio Grande Reservoir, and were making the exact same trip we were, but in the opposite direction. By a strange coincidence, the two times we passed them were at the tops of the two passes on the trip. Weird!

Just below Cinnamon Pass, on the Silverton side, we stopped near a stream and marsh that was chock-a-block full of allysium and Parry's Primrose. We let the dogs out to play and chase the ball there, and they had a great time as usual – and I got some nice video of them. Race had a great time biting at the fast-flowing stream. We don't know why he does this, but he seems to think it's great fun. At one point Debbie threw the ball over the stream to the opposite bank, and that made for some unexpected fun. First Race (easily) traversed the stream and went looking for the ball – but failed. Then Miki (less easily) waded across the stream and went looking – and succeeded, after following Debbie's verbal command to turn right. Then Miki wanted to come back to our side of the stream, but for some reason he didn't want to wade over this time. Instead, he wiggled around on the other side and then suddenly made a heroic leap – which didn't quite make it to the other side. He made an awful-looking full-belly-flop landing, half in the water and half out. We were afraid that he'd hurt himself, but nope, he was just fine.

After coming down off Cinnamon Pass, we just headed for home, our little cabin on Blair Mountain. It was very attractive after such a long day :)

Tundra Hymenoxys

Rosy and sulfur paintbrushes

Parry's Primrose

Alpine Avens

Unidentified, uncommon

Parry's Primrose

Unidentified, common early season

Colorado Columbine (bud)

Parry's Primrose

Big patch of Parry's Primrose

Purple Fringe

Western Iris

Unknown flower bud

Seep Monkeyflower

Spearleaf stonecrop

Some sort of beardtongue?