Lake City and Continental Divide

The owners of this house near Lake City are obviously both 'loners' and brave souls. The big gulch is right in front of the house and does not allow much in the way of a front lawn (or room to sleep walk!!!).














In this area every road west takes you over the Continental Divide. We took photos of a couple of them and these two shots from Wolf Creek Pass capture the route of the Divide (left photo) and the brass bar showing the exact location of the Divide (bottom). Clicking on the photos will allow you to get a better look and read the 'fine print'. Sorry about not getting all of the words about water flow!!

Mountain Views Above 8000 Feet

North Clear Creek Falls is the most photographed falls in the area. I had taken some photos earlier from across the river (creek?) due to the visitor's area being closed and was not happy with them so we went back and walked below the closed area for these photos (left and below).







































This is another much photographed falls (this one due to its being on the road from Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs). A short walk off the road gives you this view of the falls and a longer walk allows you to walk right up to the falls.
















The lure of mountain flowers made us make a trip over to Lake City and the Visitor's Center to find out if our truck would make it up to American Basin to see what is advertised as the most beautiful flowers in the Colorado Mountains. They assured us we would be ok as long as we did not attempt to cross on over Cinammon Pass so we headed out. The views were magnificent but Becky has no kind words for the man advising us!! She covered the windows to avoid seeing the dropoff until I could find a place to turn around and get back down. Maybe next time in a jeep!













This is the widest portion of the road and also the smoothest. Large rocks (boulders?) did not make the road a comfortable choice for our truck.



















Back down off the mountain road and out into a valley. Some of the views are 'bigger' than others due to either there being a large valley or your being right up on 'top of the world'. Here a large valley gives you views of the mountains in the distance.

Views Around the Lodge (River and Cabins)

A last walk around the Lodge as we spent our last week in Colorado for this trip reminded us of how much we liked the setting of this stop in our travels. The front of the lodge and restaurant show off in this photo. The cooking of Stefan, the chef from Switzerland, will be missed.














We had only seen the Rio Grande as part of the US/Mexican border and were not prepared for the beauty of it when viewed as a mountain stream. It was very attractive when we arrived in May but nothing compared to what it became as the summer progressed as these two photos illustrate.





























The Riverfront Cabins were favorites with all our guests with some coming back year after year (after year)! Some of them date back 40 years and are made of logs cut and prepared locally - none of the 'manufactured' log homes for the lodge.














There are 3 cabins across the river. This is the most remote with all three being reached via the bridge shown below.





























Those staying in the Riverfront Cabins can sit on their front porch and watch the Rio Grand flow by as they enjoy their morning coffee. All the cabins have a large picture window so you have the same view from inside only a few feet farther away.


















The same cabins seen from the river. Those rocks were all two feet underwater in July and early August - the snow finally all melted and the river dropped to its summer level.

Wedding at Antlers Lodge

The Antlers Lodge is a favorite setting for weddings. This one took over all the facilities as the families were from states from Arizona to New Jersey!

The hills in the background had snow showing until about the first of September.












The cliff is just the other side of the Rio Grande River. As the snows melted and the water level went down, it became more and more beautiful.










The couple exchange their vows.

The surrounding area provides a great backdrop for photos!









The couple stayed for their honeymoon and went for a 'float trip' for their post wedding trip!! Their 'wedding coach' is the boat shown in the photo below.













Two of the wedding guests were more interested in the Lodge's farm animals than in the wedding proceedings. The goat looks pretty intimidating with those horns but is quite gentle.

Bachelor's Loop

After being in Creede for over 3 months, we finally took the time to drive the 15 mile loop above the town. The drive is called Bachelor's Loop and takes about an hour allowing time to stop and take photos and read about the different features along the way.



Although the miner's life was obviously a hard one, they did not want for a view (if they ever noticed!). The streams and the trees make a great setting and the old mining buildings are very picturesque. There were several mining shafts up this little valley - some of them quite high up the hill.
















Up on top of the mountain you finally come to the source of the name 'Bachelor's Loop'. There was a small settlement where all the 'bachelors' working the mine made their home. Nothing remains of the original buildings but you can see outlines of some of the foundations and old paths.













This is the information on Bachelor City. If you click on the photo it will 'enlarge' so you will be able to read about it.

The scenery going up the valley is marvelous. The rock formations are particularly awesome and the brilliant blue sky for a backdrop doesn't hurt either.













Driving out of town up into the hills you look like you are going to have to drive right into the mountain but there is a small cut in the mountain made by a stream and they made a road running right along the stream. Here you can see the road and stream heading up.












There are markers along the way to identify landmarks with an explanation given in a free handout available from the tourist information center in Creede. They help you understand where the old mining shafts and buildings were so you can visualize what it must have looked like in the 1800's. Any way you look at it, it was not an easy life for those miners!!

This is one of the old mining shafts right above the town.
The old buildings are in quite good shape considering their age and the old rusting condition makes for good photos. Most of the trees in the area were cut for buildings and mining timbers but planting over the years has given many trees a second chance.





Driving the loop gives you a look at how the area must have looked in the 1800's. Here a 'rail' fence runs along the road marking the property line of one of the present day miners.




This is the view of Creede from above. It lies right at the head of the valley