On The Road Again 2016: 2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016: GRAY COPPER GULCH

One of my favorite photog sites. Just a quick run up Gladstone, turn on Corkscrew and a right on the first side trail. The trail runs alongside Gray Copper Creek. It begins at 10,200 feet elevation and climbs, ending at the Vernon Mine in the Uncompahgre National Forest. Not far and a great place for a picnic serenaded by the birds! Today, we ran into a professional photographer who was with the group that was blocking our path to Silver Lake last Friday. Small World!

Monday, July 18, 2016: DENVER GULCH, MINERAL POINT, LOWER ENGINEER

The Denver Gulch can be reached from an unmarked side trail off California Trail. I cannot find any info about it, but there is an amazing amount of old mining equipment to be found here. Once again, we only encountered one Jeep all day and they were lost.

And summer would not be complete without the sheep herder!

Those white dots are sheep, thousands and thousands of sheep:

Next stop, Mineral Point off of the Lower Engineer Trail. There is a two story structure that now has boarded up windows. We used to be able to go up there (guessing it is no longer safe).

Lots of mining went on here.

There is an ore crusher and some wooden tanks.

Our trail leader for the day, who shall remain unamed, Charles, decided it would be a good idea if we took Lower Engineer (known to be extremely rough & difficult) only as far as the turn off to Poughkeepsie (extreme to the max) and come back. Well, we were thankful to be in the back of this caravan. Hearing on the radios, that the Jeeps were getting into some difficult situations and there was no room to turn around, we were able to turn and backtrack. The rest of the group had to take Lower Engineer all the way to the highway. Lots of scrapes on the skid plates, but everyone made it back to camp safely. Did see some nice flowers along the way!

Sunday, July 17, 2016: PROSPECT GULCH, HIPPIE TOWN

The trail to Prospect Gulch is actually a county road, but not recommended unless you have a 4-wheel. For some reason, it seems to be less traveled than the other trails. We rarely encounter others which is a good thing on some of the narrow, steep parts of the trail where passing would be impossible and I don't want to be the one to have to back-up. There are some old mines in this area built in the early 1900s: The Lark Mine, the Henrietta Mine, & Galena Queen Mine. We are frequently blocked by snowdrifts or washouts on this trail, but were able to get thru today.

Good views of Red Mountain #3

The tramway was built in the early 1900s and ran from the Henrietta Mine to the base of the gulch 5300 feet below and parts are still standing. Once again, there is evidence of the old mining operations.

After this trail, we traveled on to Minnehaha Basin to Hippie Town We actually get to over 13,000 feet elevation on this ride. Got it's name because the legend is that hippies moved into the shacks to live off the land for free, but didn't last thru the first winter. Today, there were several cars & men out pounding stakes at Hippie Town, so we didn't stop and take pictures there of the old Lincoln, old buildings & mattress nailed to the top of a tree. They said they were moving in, so I am guessing they are building a house there. Here are a couple of old pictures:

The old Lincoln is now a Marmot Condo:

You can see the mattress on the old tree just left of the structure:

We went on around the base of Bonita Peak and looked down on the Upper Gold King Mine (where the Feds caused the mine blowout last year that contaminated the rivers all the way to Lake Powell). I have some interesting pictures of the blow-out in last year's blog if you are interested.

View of Velocity Basin; Hippie Town just above the trees:

The wildflowers were abundant in this area.

Friday, July 15,2016: SILVER LAKE

Silver Lake is a fun trail off Imogene Trail. It's got a different look to it than a lot of the other trails. Started out today with Sig, Denny & the Hankster, Brett & Alexis, Don & Linda, another couple whose names escape me, & us.

Why cross a bridge if you don't have to?

And if the trail becomes a creek, that's okay too:

Sometimes on these narrow trails, meeting oncoming traffic can be tough. You always want to be on the side that's not on the downhill ledge!

Smaller lake before you get to Silver Lake.

And, it's always a disappointment when you get almost to your destination and find the path blocked by a Jeep with his front tire hanging off the edge in loose rocks; back tire also hanging, but not as much. No way to get around him and since it was a rental Jeep, none of us wanted to risk pulling him back onto the trail and possibly damaging the Jeep. So, it was great fun turning everyone around to head back down -- NOT!