Twilight on Clear Lake Road
Clear Lake Road, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

After our tour of the Old Hundred Mine, we headed back to Ouray to rent a Jeep. At $200/day, this wasn’t an inexpensive proposition but it was certainly worth it as we would spend the next two days winding through some spectacular scenery.

For our test run, we decided to head back down to Silverton for a short drive up to Clear Lake, a small lake high in the mountains that was supposed to be surrounded by wildflowers. We’re about halfway up to the lake at this point.

Clear Lake Road, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Darla saw this waterfall alongside the road and wanted to stop for a photo. I was happy to stop; the drive was making me tense. This old mining road was basically an unmaintained track, barely one lane wide in most places, with a steep drop off on one side and a steep incline on the other. In fact, the road itself was nothing if not steep. One of the hairpin curves on the way up elicited an panicked, “No! No! No!” from Lewis in the backseat followed by a surprised “I didn’t know a car could do that!” I had briefly considered bringing the camper up this road. Needless to say, I was glad I didn’t try.

It was not actually the prospect of driving up these roads that was making me anxious; it was the prospect of meeting someone coming in the opposite direction. I wasn’t quite sure how that would work. It turned out that we were headed up Clear Lake Road late enough in the day that we didn’t meet anyone else coming from the opposite direction. In fact, by the time we made it to the lake there was not really enough light to take pictures. There was, however, enough light to appreciate the beauty of this high altitude cirque surrounded, as promised, by vast quantities of wildflowers.

On the way back down, in near darkness, we did encounter a vehicle heading up the road toward us. To our astonishment it was a Toyota Corolla with four teenage girls inside. They were beating the tar out of this car. I was laughing so hard that it didn’t occur to me to worry about how they would get past us, which they were able to do. I still wonder if the car belonged to someone’s father, who woke up the next morning to discover an empty oil pan and a missing exhaust system.

Morning in Corkscrew Gulch
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

The next morning was the start of our primary day of exploring the San Juans. Darla decided it would be less stressful to drive than to listen to me while I drove so I was put in charge of shooting video from the passenger seat.

Hair Twisting Time
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Depending on how you look at it, The Boy either had the best view or the worst view. He could definitely see what was going on from his perch atop the car seat. There’s nothing quite like that nothing-between-me-and-the-thousand-foot-drop-off-to-the-right view.

Who Needs the Door?
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

It took Lewis one stop to realize that the most entertaining way to climb back into the Jeep did not involve using the door.

Red Landscape
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

How ‘bout that for a view! It was turning out to be a gorgeous day.

Vapor Lock
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Ouray, Colorado bills itself as the Jeep Capitol of the World. I assumed that this was due to the sheer number of places that rented Jeeps in this area, all of which were fully booked. It turned out that rented Jeeps made up only a small percentage of the traffic we encountered. Many of the vehicles were old school 4x4’s, surviving from the 70’s and 80’s, maintained solely for the purpose of navigating these back country mining roads. The drivers of these beaters traveled in groups so that when one broke down there was plenty of help around.

In this image, it is the old white Ford Bronco that experienced vapor lock forcing a group of nine or so vehicles to stop. After a while, Darla and I started to notice that broken down vehicles might be Fords or GMC’s but they were rarely Jeeps.

Climbing Red Mountain
Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

It wasn’t just four-wheel drive vehicles on the road either. There were a number of motorcycles, many four wheelers, and even a dune buggy.

Hurricane Pass
Hurricane Pass, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

A Fork in the Road
Hurricane Pass, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

I knew that once we got out into the back country we would encounter a maze of unmarked roads and tracks. That is why I brought a GPS – a good one with dual processors and the ability to upload custom maps to its 32GB of memory – just to make sure we wouldn’t get lost. This would have been a good plan had the GPS not inexplicably quit working less than a week into the trip. Thanks, DeLorme PN-40. We still had printed maps but, without a blinking arrow to tell us where we were, we were never fully confident that we were headed in the right direction.

We’re well above the tree line now, as we have been for a while. California Gulch, with its massive display of wildflowers, is stretched out below us.

Elevation 12930 Feet
California Pass, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Carpet of Wildflowers
California Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Flower Boy
California Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Stream of Diamonds
California Gulch, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

The thing that struck me most about this scene really doesn’t translate well in these images of California Gulch. The stream that runs through it had the clearest water I’ve ever seen. It looked like a stream of diamonds flowing down the middle of the gulch.

Old Mining Scene
San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Remnants
San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Ghost Town
Animas Forks, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Animas Forks is one of the best preserved ghost towns in this area of Colorado. Having said that, we’d seen better in other parts of the country. We didn’t spend much time exploring it.

Not Mineral Point
Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Just to confirm to ourselves that we really had no real sense of where we were, I had us set off on a side road that I was convinced would take us to Mineral Point. It didn’t. But it did take us to this nice view.

Turned Around
Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

The Road to Engineer Pass
Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

At one point I had envisioned us making the entire Alpine Loop in a day. It’s only 60 miles. It now looked like our total mileage for the day would be about half that – most of it spent getting to the Loop. This was OK with me. It was a gorgeous day and I was in no hurry. The most spectacular view along the Loop was said to be near Engineer Pass. That was the day's ultimate destination.

Little Man in the Mirror
Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Perfect Afternoon at Oh! Point
Oh! Point, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

There were a lot of great views along the way but the view from Oh! Point, just short of Engineer Pass, was my favorite. We arrived here at the same time as a middle aged man and his elderly father. The man told his father that this was the prettiest day he’d ever seen up here.

Faker
Oh! Point, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Oh! Point, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Oh! Point, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Darla at the Helm
Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

At this point I’m still thinking that we’ve got to negotiate the steep set of switchbacks up the side of the mountain in the distance. I didn’t realize Engineer Pass was less than a mile ahead of us.

Darla and Lewis at Engineer Pass
Engineer Pass, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Ninja!
Engineer Pass, Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Love this shot of the The Boy captured in mid-air.

Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Does This Look Familiar to You?
Somewhere Near the Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Once we reached Engineer Pass, returning home was a simple matter of reversing course. It didn’t seem like this should be that hard but I managed to get us lost. Darla did not appreciate this.

Somewhere Near the Alpine Loop, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Return to Animas Forks
Animas Forks, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

The little ghost town was much more scenic at this time of day.

Ouray, Colorado - July 2009

Morning in Yankee Boy Basin
Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

After a good night’s rest, we woke up to the next day having to decide how we were going to spend our last day with the Jeep. We decided to explore Yankee Boy Basin, one of the closer basins to Ouray. Yankee Boy is known for its wildflowers.

Searching for the Perfect Specimen
Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Having already decided early on that Indian Paintbrush was his favorite wildflower, The Boy set about looking for the perfect specimen.

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

As I took this photograph, we could hear the high-pitched whine of a four-cylinder engine accompanied by the sound of rocks hitting the undercarriage of a vehicle. The vehicle turned out to be a black Volkswagen Jetta, struggling to make it up the road. It eventually became high centered. This is exactly what I pictured happening to the Toyota Corolla we met along Clear Lake Road a couple days ago.

After a few minutes, the driver managed to dislodge his vehicle and began to back down the road, around a curve, and out of sight. Expensive lesson learned, I figured. But not so. A few minutes later we again heard the familiar whine of the Jetta’s struggling engine. The VW careened around the corner, its momentum carrying it over the rocks that had previously proved impassible, and continued up the road past us. Unbelievable.

Darla Picks Her Favorite
Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Camp Bird Road, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Camp Bird Road, San Juan Mountains, Colorado - July 2009

Ouray, Colorado - July 2009

Ouray is a great little community. We found it much more appealing than Silverton, which is smaller, older, and lacking some of the visitor services available in nearly Ouray. But having said that, the next time we are back in the area we will stay closer to Silverton, just south of Animas Forks near Old Hundred Mine. This location, which is free, is much more centrally located to the best part of the Alpine Loop.

previous image set: Silverton, Colorado
next image set: Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado