Colorado 2020 – 08

We walked through Ouray in the morning, and spent some time in the library. We also drove up the campground that is in the cliffs above the town (no motorhomes). We then headed up Yankee Boy Basin to get a feeling for a future Mt. Sneffels climb. Yankee Boy Basin turns into a class 5, 4×4 road as it approached the trailhead. A lot of hikers trek the extra couple of miles from the signage.

We parked at the base of these mountains to enjoy the scenery. There were abandoned mines, snowfields and plenty of flowers. Just down the road from the Sneffels trailhead. Another time . . . maybe.

We stopped at a small creek, just a little overflowing from a large snowfield upstream.

The wildflowers were coming into full bloom as the snow melted.

The dirt road heading up to the saddle is the trailhead for climbing Mt. Snefffels, a Class 3 climb. I climbed up to this abandoned mine to get a view and watch an off road motorcyclist struggle to get up the road to the parking area. There were three cars parked there, but you can barely make them out.

Our truck, patiently waiting while we explore the abandoned mines.

Cathy is resting creekside. All hail was about to break loose.

I climbed up the slippery rocks to get a better photo of the waterfall. It was fairly easy going up, but a little slippery coming down.

I climbed down into the canyon a bit to get this photo. I noticed a headstone on the way up. It was hailing pretty good now.

Cathy was braving the hail to get back to the truck.

This is the weekend market in Telluride.

This is the view across the meadow of Telluride. I was going to ride my motorcycle on the Imogene Pass, which is above the tree-line in the photo, the grayish mountains. ’nuff said on that!

There was an elk herd just outside of Telluride.

We had to go up the highway and leave the motorhome and come back to Silverton. Parking is very limited in town.

This was a neat formation on the hillside near Silverton.

This is where we parked our motorhome before returning to Silverton. There was an old, collapsed log cabin in the trees here.

On the way back to the motorhome, we stopped at this trailhead and I talked with a couple of hikers who were heading up the creek. They were going fishing but they did tell me that people hike to mountain at the end of the canyon to spot elk. Silverton is similar to Telluride but is far more budget friendly.