North Clear Creek Falls (plus South) and More Moose!

Tuesday we decided to go visit some falls that were advertised in the brochures, these falls were located up and over the Slumgullion Pass, over the Continental Divide (also Colorado Trail) and further south along Route 149.  Had no problem finding the first falls, North Clear Creek Falls, was well marked.

Very short walk from parking lot to view area of the falls

Looking down canyon from the falls

Lots of people visiting.  This fall is supposed to be the most photographed in all of Colorado.  We happened to see it late summer when drought is going on, so the falls were not shooting out like the brochure showed, but still quite impressive.  Once we gawked at the falls and took some photos, we decided to go OFTing (off foot trailing ) and follow a path around the edge of the canyon.  That’s when we saw the falls at it’s most impressive from a distance.

Riders across canyon

I heard "Riders in the Sky (storm)"

Back side of canyon - mine workings (we think)

Hello, deerie!

OFTing again

I started singing, Riders in the Storm (Jim Morrison song) but changed the words to Riders in the Sky.  Saw 6 horseback folks across the canyon sillougheted , and saw their flashes of their cameras going off - we think they were taking pictures of us (ha!).  Followed the trail behind the ridge and saw a huge mining operation (we think) with sluice water and debris.

Got in the car, reviewed the instructions to the next waterfall which said to continue through the campground (we were at the entrance to a campground) and we would see the South Clear Creek Falls.  Boy, whoever wrote those instructions probably never visited it.  We were on a dirt road for about 6 miles, then had to make a decision to go left or right, went right, then came out by another campground.  Still did not see the falls, so found Route 149 (we are on it in Lake City) and started northward, still unsure where we were.

Low and behold, about 1/2 mile further along, found the campground we should have been at.
Pulled in, went to the back of the campground and found the signs for the falls.  Sweet.

Finally found the entrance/parking to South Clear Creek Falls 

There it is 

Decided to walk trail down to falls to get closer

First hiked to overlook and took some photos, then decided to walk the trail right to the falls.
Pretty, again the water is very low, must be very dramatic in the spring.

Stopped to read these signs which were right along Route 149 near the Continental Divide, supposed to see a lot of moose in this area.

These signs were along Route 149, moose typically seen here

By this time it was 2pm, we had packed a lunch, so we drove back to Deer Lakes Campgound that we were at a few days ago where we saw the momma and baby moose, found the day-use area where there are picnic tables and an overlook of one of the lakes, had a lunch - had to be diligent watching the chipmunks - they climbed up on the table and were begging us to feed them.

I like the last statement - RUN

The view out over one of the Deer Lakes, very pleasant 

No moose (a man who approached us as we were walking to the picnic tables said that if we hiked about 1/2 mile up to the next lake, we would see a momma and baby moose).  We opted not to because the threat of rain, started back the dirt road we came and bang - again - we saw a momma moose and baby.  These 2 were different than the previous day, Momma was very skinny, lighter color, could really see her hip bones, and baby looked like a newborn.  Very fuzzy, very small.  Cute.

This Momma Moose was really skinny

Her baby looked newborn, very fuzzy