The Hunt for Golden Aspens

Yesterday we took a drive along the north side of the Alpine Loop, only to Capital City where the road was still semi-okay for our car.  After Capital City it gets really rocky and we did not want to risk damaging the car, so we decided to go look for the fall colors, specifically the aspens turning gold.  We were not disappointed although another couple of days would be the height of them changing.  All in all, very pretty.

The view of mountains above our campground

Marveled at this guy, he has really decked out his Jeep

Henson Creek, about 3 miles from Lake City heading up into the mountains

Not Aspens but Cottonwoods

Handies Mountain (14teener) in distance

So we drove along the north side of the loop, not very many ATVs out, but once in a awhile one would zoom by and we would have to roll the windows up because of the dirt.  How they ride those things in all the dirt and dust, yuck.  At one point we remarked how the trees along the roadway were not aspens, duh, they were cottonwoods and therefore more rust, orange color.  Beautiful.  Henson Creek is quite low, normal for this time of year, still flowing.  Made for some pretty scenery.

My record is unbroken!  Spotted deer in woods 

That's a lot of sheep!

Once they passed us here, they stopped moving and started grazing

Got to Capital City and was surprised, have never seen so many sheep on the move.  We thought maybe they were being herded but never saw anyone.  Definitely on the move from higher ground.  We turned around at Capital City and headed back to Lake City, about 9 miles to go.

Lake San Cristobal, about a mile from campground 

Heading up Slumgullion Pass, notice the cliff beside us

At Windy Point Lookout, Wetterhorne, Uncompaghre, and Sunshine Mountains all 14teeners

Can see the broken side of mountain and slide from 800 years ago

Then we headed up to Slumgullion Pass to take a look over the city and surrounding area.  Lots of people doing the same.  We first stopped at the overlook to Lake San Cristobal, ogled and then stopped at Windy Point Scenic Overlook.  From there we moved on further up and detoured to Deer Lakes again, looking for moose.  Very disappointed we did not see any where we have spotted them in the past.  Stopped at the campground where there is a picnic area overlooking 3 of the lakes, had a lunch snack, packed up and headed back.

Our lunch spot at Deer Lakes, no moose, darn

Pulled out of parking lot, and these guys were chewing on leaves

The baby

Mom poked out and thought it was okay to cross road

She yelled at him to hurry up

We could hear them slurping the water from up where we stood

No sooner did we leave the parking lot when we spotted moose.  A baby and it’s mom.  The two walked right in front of our car, we followed it across the road, parked the car and followed them down to one of the lakes to take a drink.  They are really noisy!  We could hear them slurping up the water from where we stood on the bank of the lake.

At the top by Deer Lakes, heading back down to Lake City

The road is 10% grade in spots, poor Buddy will be so sick

This pic really shows the slide of the mountain side 800 years ago

Today, we do our routine of laundry, putting things away, and enjoying the last day in Lake City.  We loved our time here but have decided that we will not come back, would need an off-road Jeep or ATV to do more sightseeing.  And we don't want to purchase those, so, no.  We head out tomorrow for Dolores, Colorado, staying at a campground we were at last year.  Dreading the drive because we have to go over Slumgullion Pass, then Spring Creek Pass and Continental Divide and eventually Wolf Creek Pass, all of them we have driven before but not with Buddy.  He'll be drugged up and we anticipate he will be sick due to the switchbacks of moving up and over the passes and the grades of roadway.  Oh well, just have to baby him when we get settled in Dolores, and I will have to do laundry to clean up his messes.

This is second pass we have to go through tomorrow morning

We need to get to warmer weather, the temperature at sunrise this morning was 28, a little too chilly for us.  Will be about 12 degrees warmer where we are headed which is near Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest corner of the state, bordering on Arizona.  We are dragging our feet because yesterday it was 107 in Picacho and that's ugly!