Sunday, December 14, 2014

Lake City Colorado July 8 thru July 15th 2011

Our first destination was Lake City, CO. We have never been to this area of the state. Very small towns, no major brand stores, all Mom and Pop Shops. Takes about 5 minutes to drive through the town.  Friday we dis small 2 mile hike along the Henson River. Interesting rock formations.
July 9th, we rented a jeep and drove the Alpine Loop.  There is a 50+ mile drive over some very rough  and narrow roads. Very scenic. You are above tree line the majority of the drive. We did a hike up to Sloan Lake, 1.3 miles one way. They say it is one of the most popular hikes in Colorado. Very scenic area. We ran into quite a bit of snow near the lake area. No signs or directions. 90% of the people on the trail were going to Mt. Andres 14er.  Had a difficult time maneuvering thru the snow to get to the Lake.  Finally arrived at the lake but was disappointed because it was still frozen.  Nice view of the mountain ranges. Wild flowers were all over the place. Back in the jeep we continued on the Alpine Loop up to Cinnamon Pass. Nothing remarkable. We then dropped down to Alamosa Junction, old ghost town.  We drove up to Engineer Pass, very scenic.
Great view of 14 and 13er mountains all around Clouds started to move in and very dark to the west.  We made our way back into Lake City.  It was a one and done, scenic but boring.
Once back in Lake City we drove over to Creede, which is a very small town not much to see.  We tried the Bachelor loop but had trouble with the jeep and did not want to get stranded so we headed back.  The roads were so narrow with only enough room for one car, could not imagine getting around any oncoming cars, we glad it was not busy.  The jeep kept on shutting down as we were going down hill. Not fun!58
Sunday - we drove up to the Cataract Trail.  Plan was to go to Cataract Lake we never made it 1/2 mile out we had to cross a stream that was running very fast and was unsafe to cross.  The hike up to this point was very beautiful and full of wild Columbine.  It was  tough trail almost straight up.
Monday we drove to Telluride. We took a shortcut on road 58P. We drove by the area were they shot scenes for the movie "True Grit".  Wild flowers were everywhere, so beautiful. We dropped down into the small town of Saw Pit towards Telluride. Very beautiful area.  We hiked up the very popular Bridal falls. It was a beautiful hike but lots of people and storm started coming in.
It rained a good part of the following day.
Tuesday we drove down to Lizard Head Pass to hike to get a good view of Lizard Head Peak. The trail climbed very quickly for about a mile. We ran into some snow but nothing major.  Finally found an overlook off the trail to see Lizard Head, Mt Wilson, Wilson Peak and Wilson Meadow.  Clouds started moving in so we headed back down.
Wednesday we drove to Grand Junction by taking the back way thru Norwood and Gateway  We drove up to Grand Mesa. Very disappointing, very few trails. Lots of lakes, great for fishing.
Thursday we drove to Debeque to the Bookcliffs looking for Wild Horses.
We were so fortunate to see 5 different bands all in the same area.  We sat and watched them for about 2 hours.  It was so incredible to see how the Mustangs kept their band together. It was a great experience.  We had a Great Time!

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