We spent five great nights in Tellruide at the city owned campground. Can’t beat $29/ night in Telluride. We were in Telluride 13 months ago and Bebop wrote a blog, so I’ll just refer you to that - Bebop’s Blog. I’ve added a few more Telluride photos from this year.
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Telluride Hikes - Bridal Veil and Black Bear Creek
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| Telluride Falls - Bridal Veil Falls and Black Bear Creek |
We departed Telluride and returned to Ridgway Lake for one night, where we played on the paddle board. The next morning we headed into Ouray for a planned 4 hour jeep tour of Corkscrew Pass near Red Mountain - with a guide doing the driving. We started driving that way, but ran into road construction on the main highway. After sitting for 20 minutes, the driver suggested we turn around and go to Imogene Pass instead. It was a very busy Saturday with Jeeps, motorcycles, and rental OHV, but we navigated up to near the top of the pass, which is over 13,000 feet. The wildflowers were stunning. Our guide said he was a microbiologist, but he looked like a regular size biologist to me. He knew all the flower names and pointed out many interesting species, including a rare elephant head plant. The paintbrush plants slowly changed color with elevation. He brought us to the largest field of Colorado Columbines I’ve ever seen. |
Imogene Pass Jeep Ride - up over 13,000 feet
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Rare Elephant wildflower - look at the little elephants
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After the jeep tour, we drove down the Million Dollar Highway and made a few stops at places such as Red Mountain (there are actually five red mountains numbered 1-5). The Uncompahgre River is an ugly yellow color as it cascades down toward Ouray. Some of the yellow is natural, The name came from the native tribe in the area. Our guide said Uncompahgre translates to “ ,” but I think it was an old native phrase for “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” Much of the current color is due to minerals leaching from the many historical mining  |
Three pics near red mountain, and one at Molas Lake
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Our Molas Lake campground - I thought the colorful parasols made a nice photo.
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Our campground that night was Molas Lake just south of Silverton. Molas lake is at 10,500 feet in elevation and the morning low was 42ºF. The following day we headed to Durango and made several stops along the way.
We camped the night at Junction Creek Campground north of Durango. Tomorrow we raft the Animas River, then head to Pagosa Springs.
- Paul
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