The Alpine Loop
Words can't really describe the beauty of nature that we saw this weekend and pictures can hardly do it justice either. The Alpine Loop: a labyrinth of trails connecting Ourey, Telluride, Lake City and several other mountain towns of Colorado. We had driven the highway through this area before and been taken back by how green and impressive these mountains are, but being able to take the dirt trails in, around and among them, climbing multiple times up to well above 12,000 feet and still feeling small compared to the surrounding mountains, was truly a humbling and exhilarating experience! Anyone who wants to get a view of heaven, climb on up!
All in all we counted 84 Marmots!! They were our entertainment! Jadeyn got a special treat when a "dumb" one walked right up to the RZR and Jadeyn got to squirt him with a spray bottle!!
We did 300 miles of trail in 4 days and certainly saw the country!! Five peaks well over 12,000 feet!
Rain, hail, sunshine, slick rock, loose shale,wildflowers, mud, marmots...who could ask for a better time!?!
Jadeyn was our little trooper as always in the back of the RZR. Almost every truck, 4-wheeler and fellow RZR we passed got a chuckle out of him in his car seat and helmet! One time he was completely asleep going over the bumps for over an hour and the first words out of his mouth when he woke up was "These sure are beautiful mountains mom!" The first words after his next nap were "Mom, I think we're gunna have some rain!" And sure enough, that was the day it hailed on us!!
Being above 12,000 feet, the weather can change in an instant. Light drizzle, heavy rain, hail (yes...hail!) saturated us a few times, but we didn't let it bother us! We donned our rain gear, kept driving and marveled that in the rain, this place can get even more beautiful!!
In the video he is doing his best to describe what happened to all the broken down houses!
Translation: So many dead ends. Dig them shovel in underneath and drop them in. See that house? That's a boat, might be boat, not a house. Ah, this a nice building. Oh my cow! This is a mess!! Mess, mess, mess. All tore up. Whoa, whoa, boom, boom, boom. That house fall all apart."
The history being all the mining towns we went through was fascinating! We began at Animas Forks established in 1873, followed by Eureka, which came into play around 1896, then finally Howardsville and Silverton. Each town had its mining boom and then was dissembled and moved further down the river and each time the technology improved. It was interesting to see the progression. We happened to be there on the one day of the year when they were doing mining historical tours and got to listen to historians describe each town in detail including Lake Emma draining. A rich gold vein was being dug near the Sunnyside Mine and was halted when the engineers announced that they were too close to the bottom of the lake. That very weekend the lake broke through and flooded the entire valley. The lake never recovered.
Jadeyn is contemplating an outhouse in this picture.
Poughkeepsie Gulch challenged us with an amazing tough stretch of rock! We arrived at "The Wall" and joined six Jeeps all surveying the line of the rock to chose the best way up. It was steep with rock shelves a few feet high! There was even a winch point to help you get your vehicle up if necessary!! I'd never seen that before on a trail! It was quite fun though talking with the other off-roaders and pretty much joining them for lunch at the base of the Wall.
Then it was our turn! Jadeyn and I got out and watched Kevin brave the rocks! I don't mean to downplay the difficulty of it, but the RZR made it up easy: piece of cake!! The Jeeps that followed had to gun it a bit and do a "Moab Bounce." At the top of this trail was the amazing turquoise Lake Como.
Here is our little ham playing it up with a giant trout! And here he is "shooting fish in a barrel!" He actually dropped berries in the water and was doing target practice!
This has to be my favorite picture!!!! The poor grasshopper!!!! Sadly our little friend only lived for about 20 more minutes before being buried, legless, under a pile of rocks!!
Jadeyn also decided that he was going to have a lot of cousins come visit and cooked them all "steak-rocks." He cooked them well-done!
No comments:
Post a Comment