Silverton Co, July 4 2008

[Cody]

For this 4th ofJuly, I decided to get out of the heat and head up into some big mountains. I have heard the fireworks show in Silverton is a good time, so I figured why not. Our tour guides were Chris and Tara Bolos from Pagosa, and we met with a couple friends from Grand Junction and SLC down there. I ran into Todd at the market on Saturday, which was a bit unexpected.

All in all a great time. I'm not sure the exact roads we were on but from what I remember, these are the places we explored....

Arrastra Gulch (little giant mine)
Hurricane Pass
Red Mountain (other mines)
Ironton (ghost town)
Alpine loop--Engineer Mountain/Mineral Point?
Animas Forks (ghost town)
Picayne Gulch

I knew there was a lot of mining history there, but I had no idea how extensive it was. Every bowl, every face, every canyon has old mining roads zig zagging up it. It must have been unbelievably difficult work and I would give anything to be able to see some of those old stamp mills in operation.

here are some pics.

Arrastra


Silverton FD vs. Durango FD water fight


Lake below the little giant mine


Only a little snow left up Hurricane


Hurricane Pass


Ghost town of Ironton


old stamps from the Mineral Point mine


I decided I couldn't pass up a chance to go sledding in July, so out came the garbage bags




This is what you will look like before I kill you


Animas Forks Ghost town "biggest city in the world at this altitude (11,600)"


This stamp mill still had the stamps in place after 105 years.


Inside the mill


one of the stamps



We didn't do anything difficult, but it was hard to pay attention to the road with all of the incredible scenery. next year I'm bringing some snowboards....there were tons of road-gap opportunties all over the place and it would be fun to spend a few hours on the snow again.

A great time. Great enough that if I could find a good job in Durango I would seriously consider making a move since that is the gateway to bitchin mountains and bitchin deserts.

Let me know if you want more pictures.

[OverkillZJ]

I'm jelous.

[Schwarttzy]

damn, snowboarding too, I should move to Colorado

[jsteves]

Awesome trip! Makes me jealous that I didn't do something similar.

[BigDaveZJ]

A great time. Great enough that if I could find a good job in Durango I would seriously consider making a move since that is the gateway to bitchin mountains and bitchin deserts.

I know that feeling in a major way. I think we talked about this at GSW, but we were down in Gunnison over the 4th and I always feel the same way about that area. My sister went to school at Western State and is REALLY wanting to get back down there. Junction or Montrose is probably your best bet to find a place to live down there where you can make a decent income. It's been a LONG time since I've made it that far into SW Colorado, but Pam and I are talking about trying to do a trip next summer where we do some of the trails from GSW 01, and get down into the Silverton & Ouray areas as well. There's also some kickass ghost towns in between Buena Vista and Gunnison/Crested Butte too. We spent Saturday afternoon out on Blue Mesa Reservoir, reminded me of how much I love being on the water too, found some amazing camping spots out there too that are really only accessible by foot or boat.

[Ken L]

Let me know if you want more pictures.

Hell yeah! That is spectacular!

[Matt]

Awesome Cody!!!

Me and a buddy are heading down there in a week to wheel the passes and hike 14ers. And I hear you about moving down there, I'm about a year or so out (about did it this summer).

Keep the pics coming!

Oh, and did you watch the Silverton fireworks? That's a damn good show (the way it echo's off the mountains is great).

[Cody]

ya, the fireworks were great. They had about 5 of them that were probably the biggest, loudest fireworks i have ever seen. They were easily 2x's higher than any of the others when they went off, and the size of them was rediculous. The very last one of the finally was one of the giant ones, and it exploded on the ground. oops. I hope nobody was killed.

[PassRunnerZJ]

Yea, Silverton is the place to be over the Fourth, we try and go down every year when the Fourth ties in a weekend. Seconded on the biggest fireworks ever seen, they out did all the previous years' that we've been there. Someone was saying that Silverton has the third best fireworks show in the States. The parade on the Fourths is great as well with some coolness supplied by the fire depts before the water fight. The fly over by the F16's capped off the downtown events for us. They also fly over Ouray after Silverton. Colorado Spring Air Gaurd I think does it. Cool job to have if you can get it.

Cody if you have a board next year I would recommend heading up to the lake just South of Gladstone as it is in a bowl that had some really long snow runs that would be a kick. The only lift is your boots, but then what is a few thousand feet of elevation. There were some ski tracks down an avalanche shoot there that was pretty impressive. http://www.narrowgauge.org/ncmap/excur2_gladstone.html

This year was almost atypical with the amount of snow left, I almost slid my ZJ down the side of a mountain trying to go around/over one slide behind Kendall Mountain. Had to winch to a boulder to get to a safe position and area to turn around, then had to dig a slot in the snow to get back without going on the side of the road that slid.

It was hard to miss Cody's ZJ in town on Saturday as I waited for the hardware store to open to get a replacement pin for my swaybar disconnects that I lost on the way up. I told Cody that I would be open for a trip down again to do Poughkeepsie Gultch later this summer if his schedule works out and I'm not on call. Probably do Black Bear and Imogene too since they were still closed too this year because of snow. That way Cody gets the full San Juan Mountain experiance.

[Pitch]

We did a trip over the Alpine Loop: Engineer and Cinammon Passes 2 years ago. One of the most memorable trips ever in a Jeep for me. Scenery>Technical rocks. We saw a huge herd of goats at the top of Engineer Pass, and being able to walk around those old mine relics is better than any museum.

[Matt]

I heard the amount of snowfall kinda took a beating on the mines up there, which is kinda sad. It's amazing to go up there, kinda like walking back in time 100 years.

[Matt]

I just got back yesterday and here's my report.

I made it up two 14ers (San Louis Peak -14014ft and Uncompahgre -14309ft). We (Nate -FJ40, Me -Cherokee) wheeled Engineer Pass, Yankee Boy Basin, Imogene Pass, and Ophir Pass.

The snow has defiantly taken its toll this year. Some of the structures were tore up pretty good and LOTS of avalanche tracks on the passes. It rained on us everyday from about 2pm to 8pm which made camping soggy, but the wild flowers this year were simply amazing!

Leaving Silverton heading to Durango my fan started hitting my crank and then puked the belt up molas pass. The bearing that the fan/fan clutch mounts to wore out and the fan had so much slop it was hitting everything (lucky it didn't get the radiator). Got a tow from there to the glider port in Durango and then had to go to Farmington to get parts from the dealer on Sat (252.00 for the stupid mount/bearing - ouch).

All-in-all an amazing trip and the San Juans never disappoint me and always leave wanting more.

Route Map:


San Louis Peak:




Uncompahgre Peak:












Engineer Pass:






Animas Forks:




Yankee Boy Basin:

[Matt]

Imogene Pass:


















Sweet Pinz in Ophir (anyone know who?)


Ophir Pass:




Molas Pass:




D&S RR:


Val Air Glider Port:


The rest of the pics here:
http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...02008/?start=0

[dp96zj]

Wow that is some freakin sweet terrain. Definitely need to make it out there one of these days.

[Cody]

Nice!