2023: Respite in the Woods

After leaving Utah, we motored hard towards Silverton.  Stopping only briefly off 550 at Lime Creek to water the dogs and stretch our legs.  In Downton Silverton, we stopped at our favorite - Golden Block Brewery for pizza and beer.  Afterwards we jetted to our “secret” camping spot along a creek and settled in for the night.  And got rained on.  Hard.  The night was cold and damp.  We spent lots of time in camp that morning, allowing the tent and awning to dry out.

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 

Mountains and Lakes, Oh My!

After leaving Red Mountain, we made our way to this little nameless lake (I'm sure it has a name, but no map we have lists one).  Silverton is very quiet this time of year.  And we didn't mind one bit.  

  

The altitude was really kicking my butt the last two days so we left the lake and headed back to the lower altitude of Ouray.  

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: Why Go Home?

Today marked the last day of our vacation.  We woke to heavy frost, zoomed into town for chai and breakfast and hoped the rising sun would dry off our awning.  Thankfully it did.  But sadly, that meant we were starting our journey back south.  

It's always bittersweet to end a vacation.  We desperately needed this vacation.  Not only were our bucket list international plans dashed, but we worked our tails off to finish two Ford F100 projects this year, on top of our day jobs.  

Not wanting it to end, we stopped for the night back along the river in Mexican Hat.  This time we were early enough to enjoy a soak in the river in the full sun.  And were greeted by a mountain goat dining along the shore.  

We stayed up late into the evening, enjoying the solitude and watching the moon set and stars rise.  

One last sunrise along the river - then home.

Obligatory Monument Valley shot:

This Isn't Iceland: Rainy Red Mountain

We woke to frost, again.  And gloomy skies all around us.  Not looking to put ourselves in a complicated situation, we stayed low and close to town and played around Red Mountain again.

On our way back down 550, we stopped off and climbed 821.  The waterfall is much more impressive in the summer, but for some reason, this is the first time we've ever decided to run this trail.  We started up the switchbacks past the waterfall, but the rain started coming harder and the trail was really steep.  Back down and into Silverton.

By the time we made it through town, the sun was emerging.  We meandered down Cunningham Gulch and scouted campsites for future visits with our Revcon.  (We will hopefully get back into that project shortly). 

Tonight, pizza was on the agenda.  So a stop to the Gold Blok Brewery for pizza and a growler was on order.