Hey all- I'll try to post a few pic's after we get'm developed-

The fall colors are gonna be real early- if you wanna see'um in the San Juans, you better plan for this weekend or the next.............

We left Tuesday morning, 07 Sept, and decided to go thru Zuni, NM on the way to stay in Farmington, NM. The Zuni Pueblo area is beautiful- we compared it to Sedona, AZ., and some of the canyon country in Utah. Tami picked out a beautiful Zuni Turtle Fetish at the shop of an artist we'd met at the Indian art show held at the Sharolt Hall Museum in Prescott, AZ. Their shop, the DY and Siver Rain Gallery is on the east end of Zuni. Neat stuff- pottery, stonework, silver work, all done by the family.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon at Wagon Wheel Gap- it took 3 hours to get over Wolf Creek Pass from Pagosa Springs, the longest road construction delays were over an hour, and we were stopped twice. The east side of Wolf Creek pass looks terrible- they have piled huge mounds of rock and debris to the south side of the highway...........

Spent Thursday fishing at the Rio Grand Reservoir, part of the Stony Pass trail. We hooked up some nice Rainbows- catch and release only. The biggest one I landed was a 16"r.

We went over Engineer Pass on Friday, the second day it was open after the Labor Day storm passed thru. We left Lake City at 9:00 AM after topping off and airing down. It was a great trail, and the Aspens were at about 1/2 to 3/4 peak color, but we didn't get to see much over 11,500' elevation due to SNOW. At the top of Engineer the wind was howlin', the snow/fog so thick I almost missed the sign at the top! We had spoken w/ a couple in a F/S Ford 3/4T 4x4 that had not been able to make it thru- that made Tami a bit nervous. We only needed the hubs locked in for a 100 yards or so tho-

On the way down to Animas Forks, we passed a CAR, the guy asks if he can make it over Engineer.............

From Animas City, we headed back up into the snow again and over Cinnamon Pass. Again, the scenery was great once we got below 11,500'. We were back at Lake City by 1:00 PM, and drove back to the cabin at Wagon Wheel Gap. Both of us had noticed we had a sore throat after spending hours at high elevation, figured it was part of the deal....

Saturday, we headed out to the Wheeler Geologic Area. Left the cabin about 2:00 PM, hoping we would be returning at dusk and see some elk and deer. The trail starts at Hanson’s Mill, and the 14 mile road took us 2-1/2 hours to traverse. No 4x4 required, but it's slow going. We hiked into the awesome formations of volcanic ash. The hiking trail is only a mile, but hoofin' it uphill at 11,100' is hard on the lungs, it took us an hour or so to explore part of the area. Beautiful area w/ lots of Aspens in color. As we headed out, I figured we'd see some critter's. Tami spotted a pair of Blue Grouse just a few yard off the road. We watched them for a few minutes- they showed no fear at all. About half way back we watched a 3 point buck and his harem feeding along a creek. No elk were seen; I think the hunters had already spooked the herds. We had passed and been passed by several groups of hunters on quads earlier in the day. After our hike, our sore throats were worse.

Woke up Sunday feeling really crappy- packed our trash, settled our bill a day early, and headed to Gallup. Came home Monday and went to the Doc to get the "cure".

The GMC 7.4L tow rig ran great, we stayed at the speed limit all the way over the top of Wolf Creek Pass- averaged 9.6 MPG for the 1164 mile drive. We put 318 miles on the Toy in three days, it ran well, had to use 2x4 low 2nd gear for anything above 11,000 or so. The fuel economy at altitude was astounding- I get 14 to 15 here; it got over 20 at elevation. Guess it runs really lean up there.

Anyway, we had a great time!

Later

EDIT:

I incorrectly called Animas Forks, Animas City.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/animasforks.html

 

Nice report, Mark. Glad you had a great time! Wolf Creek construction will apparently never end. It has been going on for years. Sorry to hear about the bad about the delays, and sickness at the end. Hope you're feeling better now.

Interesting to hear about the Engineer aspens. I received some pictures yesterday from my buddy in Ridgway and everything is still very much green around there and Telluride. How were they doing at Lake City?

 

Hey Darren!

At elevations from 9 to 10K, I'd guestimate south facing slopes were 20 to 40%, north facing were 60% or more. We saw more color coming down Cinnamon to Lake City, but then again the weather was clearing some, so we had better visibility. There were patches at the highest elevation where the Aspens were already past prime...

The sheepherders were still out tending flocks on the Engineer road, but the live stock trucks were parked in several of the camps we saw, so I figure they were getting ready to load'm up. Very picturesque scenery!

We noticed a definite change in colors in the Creede/South Fork the 5 days we were there. The colors around Wheeler were spotty vs. the Lake City area, but there were already large patches visible through out the region.

 

Ooh, real nice details in there! Thank you, sir! I know a bunch of my photo buddies will really appreciate this information as well. A number of us will be getting together there next weekend, though further north out of Ridgway, but will no doubt venture into some of those areas.

 

Darren, as usual, I'll be looking forward to seeing you're photo's!

I didn't even consider attempting Poughkeepsie in the rain and snow- we'll do it next time.

later

 

 

Cabin & Rig at Wagon Wheel Gap, CO.

 

Heading west from Lake City on Engineer Pass

 

Sheep in the high country!

 

Since it was close to a white out on top of Engineer, I didn't attempt any pic's..........so this is on the way down from the top.

Light snow falling on Animas Forks-

 

Cinnimon Pass- my GPS was dead on for elevation here, but read almost 40' low on top of Engineer. My Garmin Vista has a built in altimeter, so it isn't dependent on GPS signals.

 

Looking east towards Lake City/Slumgulion Pass from Cinnamon Pass road.

 

I'll post more of Wheeler Geologic Area later this week.....