Healthy forest

This was a beautiful location, but notice the lack of dead trees from beetle kill. This was taken at the Lizard Head Pass area near Telluride and the elevation where we were camped was 10,330. The area had the required  weeks of super cold weather to kill off the beetles during the winter.

Chocolate run

Oh, what do these kids have to do with chocolate? My craving for chocolate drove me to get on my bike and ride 4 miles to the gas station to buy some and found these rolling balls in the park. Someone was having a 16th birthday party and they had several of these balls. They would bump into each other and they would go rolling, sometime head over feet. The one with the black pants was able to wipe out several.

Rifle Falls

These were taken at Rifle Falls which is north of  I 70. It was late in the day, but the sun was still an issue. John Fielder recommended before or after sunset. Also, there was a photographer taking senior photos and stopped to allow others to get the above shot, but they were in photos from other views.

Two side views of the 3 falls. The 3 falls did not naturally fall in 3 separate cascades, but was manipulated by a resort owner that owned the property years ago.

Jeep ride to Imogene Pass again

Here is the road that was near the top of the Pass. Mr. marmot was around this area.

And here is the marmot that we passed by just off the road.

Way off in the distance was an old mine. The little dark triangle in the center was the opening.

Old cabin

This log cabin was in Tin Cup, CO. I enjoy photographing old wood stuff and old rusty stuff like one of my WIN friends.

Mineral Creek, Kendall campground

This dispersed camping is about 5 miles from Silverton and is where I stayed for a couple of nights. I was parked facing the creek and about 20 feet from it. This is Kendal campground, and no fees, no services. Lots of flat parking and a large area, and I had cell and wifi. And yes, I got there on the Million Dollar highway from Ouray, but maybe the highway is less challenging from Durango.

 This marmot was hanging around by the jeep trail close to the top of Imogene Pass.

Molas Lake

This is from one one night stay at Molas Lake which is a campground that is owned by the town of Silverton. I had a spot overlooking the lake towards the mountains.

Lizard Head Pass

This was our beautiful camping spot about 12 miles from Telluride near the Lizard Head Pass trail. We again had overcast weather for a few days and the day before leaving it finally cleared up. I road my bike down the steep, bumpy road to the area across the highway for this photo. Had to push the bike up the hill to get back to the rig.

Old Mine buildings

  Here are two different mine buildings. Both were taken on the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton. I have shown both the cropped and distant views to show the environment.  The Million Dollar highway was beautiful, but challenging to drive in a 23 foot long and 8 feet wide motorhome.

I am back from my 6 week trip through the Colorado Rockies. We stayed  some beautiful locations and saw some awesome scenery. Colorado has 53 or 54 "14teeners"/ mountains that are awesome. In our last location outside of Telluride we had 3 in the area.  And with dry camping in free dispersed locations, the cell and wifi was MIA a lot of time. One of our mountain benefits is that we camped at 9 to 10 thousand feet 80% of the time and we did  not have the heat wave that the rest of you dealt with.  It is nice to be back where life is easy, but miss the mountains and the group that I traveled with, (WINs).

Silverton Durango train

 While at the visitors center, I mentioned that I was interested in the train. The lady said if I hurried I could catch the train leaving. Once it passed a man moved the cart below and lifted the wheels so it would face down the tract.

After Crested Butte and Ouray, Silverton as a disappointment. The streets were dirt, the buildings were not as interesting and it was small. I didn't make an effort to go back for more train photos.

d

Top of Imogene Pass

 These are 3 panoramas from the top of the Pass. The middle photo on the right is where Telluride is.

Jeep ride to Imogene Pass

 Last week I did a jeep ride with Colorado West to Imogene Pass at 13,114 feet. Fun and a beautiful ride. Lots of vistas, some marmonts and no bears. The jeep could hold 12 but only 8 of us went which was great. Amazing the boulders our driver was able to navigate up the pass. Once at the top we could look down of one end of Telluride. I was in Ouray which is a beautiful little mountain town and they have several company's that furnish jeep tours to several different locations. The one I was on was a class 4 and loved it. Steve was a great driver and even had to back up at one point to let someone driving up hill pass. That was a little scary since one side of the road was a big drop off.

The above image is from what a glacier did to the landscape before it melted away.

 Near the top.

An authentic wild Colorado columbine.  Taken in the hot sun and no macro. Our driver stopped at several places for photos.

 One of several falls and we crossed the creek 2 or 3 times.

This was our jeep with some of the riders. This is where he stopped for flower photos.

Below is an old mine building that I zoomed in on.

Flowers from Grand Lake

These are from the Grand Lake week that I have not posted before. Need to do some serious computer file and sd card clean up.  I have a couple of kick back days at a beautiful spot looking and listening to Mineral Creek. I am about 5 files from Silverton at about 9 thousand feet.

And WOW, I actually have internet but radio is bad.

This one is from the rose garden in Cheyenne.

Crested Butte weather

This was the weather about 10 days ago in Crested Butte. Even with bad weather it was beautiful.

Bear country since this is where he thought he could get some people food.

Flowers

 These are random flowers pulled from my ready to post file. I need to find time between playing to down load photos that are still in the camera.

Leadville

What seems like a long time ago we were in Leadville. We have since moved from there to Taylor Res. to Crested Butte to Blue Mesa. What these locations have in common is that they are very high, and nice temperatures. I hear a lot of the country is having a heat wave.  Most have been about 9 thousand to 10 thousand feet and the one I am at now is 7500.  Internet is usually MIA and cell service?  Hm drove 17 miles into Gunnison to talk on the phone. No phone or text drives me crazy. These pictures are from Leadville and the front porch was across the street from a good pizza place.

Flowers from Emerald Lake

This is an Indian Paint brush that I climb a short hill at the lake.

 Had to take this one. A WIN had walked away and was photographing a bunch of yellow flowers. I got all excited but when I got there I saw that they were past their prime. She liked all the color. Guess I like this one because it is so far gone.

 The last two were also on the hill side. Was not happy with the blue one when I noticed on the computer that I missed the top half of the 2nd flower. On a steep hill bent over, camera on a monopod and just trying to not fall down the hill. This is a Blue Flax.

And this one...couldn't find it in the book.