Oct 08 trip continued

On Oct 7, we traveled the million dollar highway with gorgeous scenery. These beautiful mountainsides are covered with mining operations primarily from Idorado mines. Sadly, some pollution exists in these beautiful once pristine rivers.

few more pics from 10/6/08

Rockies 08 continued

Because of a large storm system, we spent 3 days in a campground in Montrose CO. We rode our bikes around the town and went to the fairgrounds for a miniature train show that was interesting. On 10/6, we checked road conditions and took off again for high country. Going through ridgway and taking the loop to Telluride CO, with the freshly dusted snow peaks was amazing. Today we are at 9K feet in Ouray and will do some exploring tomorrow. The weather is sunny now but cool - below freezing at night.

another little Rockies blip

more Rockies 2008

On 10/01 we continued north on 82 through Basalt and Carbondale, then headed south on 133. Stopped at Red Rock Camp and the next morning drove into little town of Marble CO. There we rented a jeep tour and drove into a lost mining town known as Crystal CO. The road was definitely a very tense, steep jeep road only, and it took us almost 3 hours to go about 10 miles. There were old jeeps and trucks that had fallen off the cliff edge, and they were still sitting there, in the riverbed way down at the bottom on our right. Sadly a few had lost their lives on that very road(trail) that we traversed. The town of Marble itself, is famous for the marble produced there at their mine. And again the miners everyday traverse a similar road just like the one we were on. Whew!

little clip of rockies

Continuing through the Rockies 10/08

Heading north on hwy 24, we spotted a beautiful canyon off to the left on a dirt road. We intended to go just a little way, but it was so scenic we ended up about 5 miles in and found a free state campground. Biked further up the road about 2 miles or so one way, then hiked another 1 or 2 miles up the hillside. Do not know what the elevation was but temp dropped to below freezing that night 09/28. The next morning, we took a 4 mile hike up the opposite hillside over some incredible country. At noon, we continued up hwy 24 north and took hwy 82 to Aspen Co. We went over Independence pass at 12,098 feet elevation. Trees are at full peak and scenery is incredible! We ended up at Maroon Lake just outside of Aspen in a National campground just steps from the lake and stayed two nights so we could hike the area. This is the most amazing scenery yet. The lake is cupped by the famous 'Three Maroon Bells' - 14K foot mountains that each look like the materhorn in Switzerland. The surrounding jagged peaks on the other side are red rock and the entire area is ablaze in full fall beauty. We took a bazillion pics, but only a few are here on this blog. We hiked the area behind the lake up to a crater lake - at 10k feet, we both seem to be pretty acclimated to the elevation. After coming back down from the 7 1/2 mile hike to Crater Lake, we hiked up the river to find the headwaters because we had noticed that the river seemed to stop about a mile or so up the canyon. We found the headwaters of the river itself, coming right out of the rocks gushing from the hillside in a very large amount - had never before seen such a massive amount of water coming straight out of mountain just below a glacier.