Observation Point

The little path threading through this mountainside proved to be an excellent vantage point for the San Luis Peak. This is the little pass/saddle/highpoint that we drove up to on the first day out. Later, everyone went up to this point and watched Steve and I make the final trek up the summit. A passing Texan in a red Jeep stopped and joined the crew and lent them his 45x spotting scope in order to watch us. Even at that, they said we were just little dots, some 4 miles away.

When Steve and I reached the final stage, a straight north run from 12,800 to the summit along a narrow ridge, we pulled out the Motorola radios. A radio check brought an immediate response, which was totally unexpected. For the next hour, they watched us silhouetted against the skyline as we made our way to the top, danced around for a while, and returned.

Old Miner’s Store

The proprietor of the General Store on the south end of Creede’s main street was a leftover from the last time Creede had active mining. He last worked in a mine in 1987. He had huge pieces of rock with zinc crystals and lead deposits all over them. One was the size of a coffee table, and he was asking $8,000 for it. The bins of crystals and ore in the store had a raw and unpolished look.

The mines may open again soon, as the price of silver has risen to a level enough to possibly justify the expense of mining. The price was as high as $50 an ounce when the mines were still open, but the price dropped to around $6 per ounce, forcing the mines closed.

The Old Miner told us that they used to crush the ore and make a slurry out of it and concentrate the lead and zinc before shipping it off to a smelter in Texas. But the silver was processed in Creede.

When asked what silver ore looked like, he pulled a sample out that was pure white with gray and silver streaks in it. I think he said that the white part was barite, and the gray streaks were a silver mix. I asked him if silver ever came out pure, and he pointed out two nodules in the sample he had handed to us, and told us that pure silver was called native silver. You could see the perfect silver color, and he pointed out some little hairlike pieces that he called wires. He also explained what the various mines in the area were like.

He was looking forward to the mines opening up again and was hopeful that the core drilling efforts taking place right now would result in the start of a new mine sometime in the next year. He said that if silver reaches $16 per ounce, they could be back in business.

Photo by Steve

San Luis 14er Hike

Here’s Steve and I getting ready to hike up San Luis Peak, a 14,014 foot mountain just north of Creede. We were told that this peak was one of the least hiked 14ers in Colorado. We were also told it was one of the easiest.

The starting point was up the Bachelor Loop north of Creede, past the Equity mine up to the end of the road. An old Jeep trail cut up the side of the valley and supposedly cut a mile off the distance. It was still a 10 mile hike from 11,500 feet over two 12,500 feet saddles and back down to 12,000 feet. In other words, instead of an up and down hike, it was an up/down, up/down, up/down hike. This proved to be an uncomfortable situation on the way back.

That little knob behind us was only at 12,600. We started at 7:45 and it was below freezing, as the puddles in the parking area were frozen. It was sunny and 65 degrees later, then it rained for about 45 minutes, and it ended up dark and cool at 7:30 when we got back to the car.

Lake City Shopping

Some guys see no point in shopping and would rather linger on benches in the sunshine than take a chance at finding something pleasing for their families back home.

Ute & Ulay mines

We drove from Lake City up Henson Creek toward Capitol City (a ghost town we did not visit) and stopped for lunch. This breached but not destroyed dam provided the scenery as we ate lunch on the cliff above the dam.

Ox Yoke

The old Ox Yoke cabins, which the family rented for years, are being sold off as individual dwellings. Whether the new owners will rent the cabins or live in them, the Ox Yoke as a group of rental cabins is no longer available. We had to drop in and take a trip down memory lane.

Ski Lift to Nowhere

Larry waited for a while for the ski lift to take him to the top of the peak outside of Lake City, but it took too long and he gave up. The lift was in the Texan, and Larry wrote it off to a siesta.

Al Packer

No Lake City visit is complete without considering the odd fate of the survey party that accompanied Al Packer in 1874 in the mountains outside of town. Apparently, Al got a bit hungry when stuck in a snowstorm with some companions, and considered the companions as part of a balanced diet. He was arrested and later convicted of manslaughter, but not forgotten.

San Cristobal Lake

Here is the view of Lake San Cristobal from an overlook near the Slumgullion Earthflow above. The lake was formed by a big earthflow 850 years ago. It is the second largest lake in Colorado. The ground is still shifting down the hill, probably still adding to the dam of the lake.

San Juan 14ers

Here are the peaks of the 14ers in the San Juan range from near the Slumgullion Pass.

Sleep Reading

Warren has perfected the art of absorbing a book through osmosis while asleep.

Bristol Head

Here is the view of Bristol Head, the peak west of Creede, from 149 up to Spring Creek and Slumgullion Passes up the Rio Grande River valley. Seen from all angles and at all times of the day, this is one of my favorite views of the peak.

Pearl Lake Lava Tubes

I recognized the rock formation over Pearl Lakes. If you look at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, you will see a massive bundle of lava tubes. There is also a wall of these tubes above the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone Park. The tubes here make little points at the top of the formation and parallel lines between the tubes.

Posing with the Catch

Here John, Dale, Warren, & Dale pose with their catch for the day. Only those that did not sit in warm cars and only those that helped with the cleaning were eligible for the picture.

Destined for the smoker and frying pan.

Dale's Big Fish

Jerry needed to help Dale get the hook out of this 22" Rainbow up in the Clear Creek stream. It was a good day fishing in the stream.

Cutbow

Jerry caught this 16" long Cutbow while teaching me to fly fish at Clear Creek.

For a tiny little mountain stream, it was full of great fish.

This was an area downstream of the Pearl Lake club, which you needed to have a membership or an invite to fish in. Our thanks to Chris Knox for letting us visit and fish in this beautiful valley.

Big Horn

The Eagle's Nest mountain is famous for having a herd of Bighorns nearby. We got to see them twice.

Geocaching

About a quarter of a mile away from our fishing spot.

The geocache was called Kid Cache at Rito Hondo and had this travel bug in it. It came from Skagway Alaska. Jerry is going to take it back to Chicago. Unfortunately, the first person to take the cache held on to it for over a year before dropping it 1935 miles away. It's too bad that the school class in Des Plaines Illinois didn't get to enjoy tracking it through multiple points.

North Clear Creek Fishing

Here's the next place we went fishing, a little meandering stream in a valley full of willow bushes and cattle.

North Clear Creek Falls

Here's the view of the falls from downstream from the scenic overlook.

Jerry, combining two of his favorite activities, breaking the rules and making friends, talked his way through the construction zone and hopped the fence to the falls.

Here's Warren and Jerry getting up close and personal to the falls.

Marmot Visit

While enjoying the view of Spring Creek Falls and looking down at the teetering fractured rocks, this little guy came out about 5 feet away from us to see if we had any food for him. After figuring out that we were without crackers, he disappeared back into his fracture den.

North Clear Creek Falls Overlook

The official tourist's overlook was fenced in by construction barriers and not accessible to the general public. We went over to look at the falls from these fractured rock formations. Looking down, you can see quite clearly how rocks erode, split, fracture, and calve off of their formations and fall hundreds of feet into the valley below.

But not today, while we were standing on them.

Rio Grande Pyramid Scenic Overlook

This view prompted stories from Jerry about camping trips up around the distinctive pyramid, the point in the middle of the picture.

Ask him about Russell, Cabin Boy, Cookie, and Swifey.

Colorado Countryside plants

I noticed that the valley was full of dandelions and clover. Fortunately, no one was reaching for the Round-Up weed killer. That's about all there was around there, clover and dandelions.

Mountain Bumblebees

Here is an alpine version of the bumblebee, not much bigger than the honeybee.

Eagle's Nest

Here is the distinctive cliff with the eagle's nest in it. This was right across the river from where we fished.

Fishing, Day 2, Dale & Larry's version

They went north, I went south, so this downstream of their efforts.

Fishing, Day 2, Steve's Version

The trick here is being able to balance your photography gear with your fly fishing gear. Note the handy vest with all the gear hanging off of it.

The valley behind is the Rio Grande curving back toward Creede to the northeast. A few minutes after this, a small plane flew past on a landing course for the airfield south of town.

Fishing, Day 2, Warren's version

No proper fishing trip is undertaken without the right outfit. Especially, the extra pockets.

Right before I took this picture, I must have flushed a red fox out of the brush along the river. Warren and Jerry saw him running up into the timber, they said he was big as a coyote.

Fishing, Day 2, Jerry's version

Here's Jerry on the 2nd day, posing for Fly Fisherman's Stream Dreams magazine.

Fishing, Day 2, John's version

John likes to show a little leg while crossing the river.

Bachelor City Visit

There is a ghost town northwest of Creede that was called Bachelor City. There is only one broken down remnant of a cabin left, but it was a bustling city 112 years ago.

Here is Jerry demonstrating to the rest of us what happens when you stir up an ant hill. This is the Animal Tales Blog, after all.

The result was completely surprising, maybe because it was a ghost town and the ants had some remnant of the spirit of the old time miners that lived and died here.

Just kidding, they ran around trying to hide their eggs like ants everywhere do.

Moose Sighting

Fortunately, Jerry's sharp eye awarded us with a genuine moose sighting. This cow moose was grazing on water plants in a beaver pond. After she sighted us, she warned her calf and she herded it to safety.

They were about 60 yards away, so we didn't have to retreat from a protective moose attack. She could have stayed around and posed for the photo shoot, but she had to disappear in the woods.

Scary Mountain Hunting Mans

These are the guys that are going to come up to the area to kill the Mule Deer we just saw.

Mule Deer

Here were the mule deer we saw just below the continental divide during the return trip.

Return from the Edge of the World

Here we are coming back down the mountain, coming across the area where we bottomed out our rental trucks (sorry Budget!) and spotted 4 huge mule deers.

Official Photographer of the 2008 JDL Mancation

Here's Steve documenting our first mountain peak, next to the cairn on top of the 13er.

Larry's on top of the World

Here's a Larry version of the last picture.

Heaven's Skyline

Here's a picture of Warren at the top. Behind him is Uncompahgre peak, a 14er in the Alpine Loop West of Lake City.

13er

We saw from the end of the Jeep trail that the peak of a 13,000 foot peak was just "a walk in the park" away.

Here is my self portrait moments after reaching the top. I was still out of breath. The blue spot to the right of me is Larry, coming up behind me.

Beyond Bachelor

We went up past the end of the Bachelor Loop to find the trailhead for the San Luis Peak. To the west was a really steep 4WD trail, and so we decided to see where it went.

It went right up to the continental divide, an unexpected bonus trip.

OLD Graffiti

We did not write this on the walls, it was already there.

Ghost Cabins

This is a cabin that was surrounded by wild raspberries. Here John & Dale are sampling the goods.

Jerry heard that the cabin was full of elk last winter when the temperature here got to -30°F for over a week. There was much evidence of their winter visit. I knew they were not M&Ms.

Bachelor Loop

The Bachelor Loop is where all the mining took place in the mountains above Creede.

The Right Stuff

You probably remember those scenes in movies where the studly men come out, suited up for their missions, with steam or fog or some other special effect?

This is our version.

John, Warren, & Steve prove that they have the right stuff.

Shopping in Creede

Before leaving from Kansas City, Cole asked me what I got him for his birthday.

I considered going to someplace in Kansas City for something, but it just didn't seem like a good idea with Colorado coming up.

So presents for the folks back home mostly come from San Juan Sports in downtown Creede Colorado.

You don't get to see what they are until we get back, so be patient.