Colorado north to south through the mountains

After getting up and enjoying the sun rising over the ski slopes at Steamboat Springs we went on a drive to Falls Creek falls. Such a beautiful falls. 160’ high with 40’ of free fall.

And then we were off to south Colorado. The drive was mainly through high valleys (8000’+) between non-rugged mountains. The tree line here is very strange – it has both a bottom and a top. So you have scrub running across and up the sides of the valley then mixed evergreens and aspen and then barren rock. The colors are great. We crossed 3 major rivers: the Colorado, the Arkansas and the Rio Grande, and 4 major economic zones: ranching north of I-70, separating skiers from their money along I-70, mining and then ranching again south of I-70.

After crossing I-70 the mountains became more rugged and we crossed the continental divide again (west to east) at Tennessee Pass. On our way up to Tennessee Pass we went by a large mine that appeared to be deserted followed almost immediately by an abandoned town hanging on the edge of nowhere. We went over the Eagle River bridge which, except for the surrounding mountains, the road and railroad running under it, could have been anywhere along the Oregon coast. It was built in 1933. Then down (if you can call 9200’ down) into the Eagle River Valley where we found Camp Hale. Camp Hale was built over the summer of 1942 to house and train the 10th Mountain Division in skiing, snowshoeing and sleeping out in the snow without cover. For those interested in such things, the 10th Mountain started as the 87th Mountain Infantry at Ft. Lewis and trained on Mt. Rainier.

Our next stop was Leadville. I am not sure what to say about Leadville. The architecture was very interesting. It is like a place frozen in time. Main street and most of the houses in town date from the late 1800’s and have been refurbished to look really good. But all the tourist kitsch along the main street and, to my Western Washington tuned eye, barrenness of both the surroundings and lots around the houses (a lawnmower salesman would go broke overnight) left me with a totally empty feeling. Perhaps you should come see for yourself.

As we came down (again, a relative term) out of the mountains we came across what I can only describe as trailer trash city. The landscape was studded with trailers which, except for the obvious signs of life, you would swear had been abandoned for at least a decade. They were surrounded by . . . . .what to call it . . . .TRASH. Broken things large and small. I have never seen anything like it and I have seen some truly bad stuff. Dave thought it looked like where they had the big fight with the aliens in Independence Day, I thought the movie didn’t even hold a candle to this place.

We didn’t have any new live animals to add to our list but there were lots and lots of antelope in the late afternoon in the cattle pastures.

Park mammal count: 11 – deer, chipmunk, big horn sheep, mountain goat, red squirrel, prairie dog, rabbit, buffalo, elk, red squirrel aka chickaree, pika, golden-mantled ground squirrel, least chipmunk
Trip mammal count: 17 - deer, moose, chipmunk, big horn sheep, mountain goat, antelope, rabbit, mule deer, red squirrel aka chickaree, prairie dog, buffalo, ground squirrel, Abert’s squirrel, elk, pika, golden-mantled ground squirrel, least chipmunk, deer mouse
Dollars saved on this trip with Park Pass: $87.00