Animas Forks is a Snow Globe

 We lead the way towards Animas Forks, following a set of tracks for a little ways.

We hit a turn and noticed whomever was here before turned around.  We contemplated the journey with our new adventure pals in the Ram, when a local in a Toyota pickup showed up.  They were hellbent on making it to their cabin to fix some plumbing issues and had snow chains.  Throwing caution to the wind, we followed them.

The locals turned up a switch back and we forged through the snow to Animas Forks.  At this point, we could see the shale road peaking through the snow, so we were confident to continue on. And boy were we glad we did.  This will probably be the only time we can say we had Animas Forks to ourselves.

A family in a 4Runner followed us all in and the Ram left with them to continue up to more mining ruins.  We stayed around, let the dogs get some energy out and had a picnic lunch from the Jeep.  It was just so amazing to have unfettered access without the noise of side by sides.  

After a while, we packed up and headed towards Silverton to tourist and get pizza and beer from the Golden Block brewery (best pizza) to take back to the cabin.  The 

Colorado Without Camping

 2021 has been extremely busy for us.  At times heartbreaking, stressful and exhausting.  It was time for a break from "life" for a week.  But we sold the teardrop trailer earlier this summer to squirrel funds away for when we get back into working on the Revcon.  Yep, that project is still waiting for us to finish it.  

We booked an AirBnB in Ouray, packed up the pups and slogged north.  We knew we were on the tail end of fall for the Colorado mountains, but at least there were some fall colors to greet us.

We got in late and settled into our little A Frame for the evening.  Tomorrow we'd start exploring our favorite haunts.

Snow already dusted the San Juans, and we knew we were in for more this week.  We started up Red Mountain -

The sun was high and bright, but the wind was kicking.  It was a no drone day.  

But we got to explore some of Mike's favorite mine structures.

This is our new boy, JB.  

We headed towards Silverton, to run up to our favorite little lake.  

This Isn't Iceland: "Lazy Day"

 We both we're feeling the ill effects of high altitude.  We're desert basin dwellers, and sometimes, the altitude just gets to us.  We did a short jaunt to a mining camp before heading up 550 to Ouray.  Walked a bit through Ouray, before we just headed back to camp to relax.  

Sometimes its just about taking a breather and enjoying the fall colors along easy routes.