A Colorado Sampler

Ice Lake and Pilot Knob

After finishing our backpacking trip in Wyoming, we headed south for what turned out to be a combo driving/hiking/biking tour of Colorado.  We did fun activities most days, and drove, too.  But the continuously changing mountain scenery made the driving a treat, not a chore.



Our first destination was Steamboat Springs ... a pretty nice (but not too over-the-top) ski town.  On the way, we stopped at Dinosaur National Monument, which had a big exhibit of dinosaur bones still in a wall of rock/dirt.  Pretty interesting, but not worth too much time or effort.  We spent a couple of nights in Steamboat, resting a bit and planning the next portion of the trip.  We also went on a great mountain bike ride from our hotel.  The altitude really had us sucking wind on the climbs.  And biking through groves of aspens was incredible!

Riding through Aspens above Steamboat Springs

We then headed south to Breckenridge (another ski town) ... to hike to Mohawk Lakes.  Big country!!  Again, the altitude slowed us down, but once we got up above treeline, the views of lakes and peaks were awesome!  Afterwards, we headed a ways further to Leadville, and camping by Turquoise Lake.  Some nice views of big mountains across the lake.

Lower Mohawk Lake

Mt Elbert and Turquoise Lake

The next day we did a morning mountain bike ride around Twin Lakes ... a very low-key area with vacation cabins dotting the hillside.  The info we read made it seem like the ride might not be worthwhile, but we had a great time and it was beautiful.  Afterwards, we headed up to Independence Pass on the continental divide.  The drive up and views from the top were breathtaking.  And the narrow winding road down from the pass to Aspen was a bit hair raising.  Aspen is another ski town ... but certainly one of the most posh and expensive of the bunch.  So we pressed on and spent the night in Montrose.

Peaks behind Twin Lakes

Colors near Independence Pass

Our next objective was Silverton ... an old mining town deep in the San Juan mountains.  It also seemed like a mecca for off-highway-vehicles (think 4WD dune buggies), but that may be partly due to it being Labor Day weekend.  The town sits along "The Million Dollar Highway" (because it was so expensive to build, I think, but it also describes the views!).  We camped a couple of nights in the town-owned Molas Lake Campground a ways past the town itself ... and what a spectacular setting!  Big peaks in every direction!  We did 2 hikes in the Silverton area ... Ice Lakes (with an airy extension to Island Lake) and Highland Mary Lakes.  Ice Lakes in particular was absolutely stunning.  Light blue water with big rocky cliffs and peaks above, and the alpine meadows covered with fall colors!  Wow!  We headed to Highland Mary Lakes despite threatening weather ... and we were treated to some nice sunshine ... for a while.  As we got to the lakes, dark clouds were brewing, and we opted to head back down instead of up to the ridge.  While there was some thunder, we got only a bit of rain, and then things cleared up again.  The lakes were quite beautiful, set in gently rolling terrain covered with tundra.

Colorful Peaks along Million Dollar Highway

Valley below Ice Lakes

Ice Lake

Ice Lake and Peaks (Fuller Pk, Vermillion Pk, Golden Horn and Pilot Knob (l to r)) from trail to Island Lake

Island Lake

Blue Gentians

Fall Colors

Trinity Peaks beyond Molas Lake

Evening Light from Molas Lake

Highland Mary Lakes, Continental Divide in the far distance

Highland Mary Lakes

With the weather remaining iffy, we continued on the Million Dollar Highway to Durango ... just in time for a motorcycle convention ... complete with parade!  We didn't have much planned to do there, so we had some breakfast and headed to Mesa Verde National Park to see some cliff dwellings.  We were fortunate enough to get tickets for a tour of Cliff Palace for the following day, so we snagged a campsite and explored the park a bit.  It's kind of an amazing place ... the Ancestral Puebloan people lived here for about 700 years, over which time their housing migrated from pit houses to cliff dwellings.  Then around 1300 AD, they just left during a relatively short period of time, and settled in areas of Arizona and New Mexico several hundred miles to the south.  So the archeologists and historians get to search for clues to answer all the "why's".  The tour of Cliff Palace (the largest cliff dwelling, with more than 150 rooms) was very interesting, and actually being in it gave a sense of reality to it all.

Kodak House, Mesa Verde

The Knife Edge and Storm Clouds from Park Point, Mesa Verde

Spruce House, Mesa Verde

Cliff Palace (note tour gathered in a circle), Mesa Verde

Close-up of Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde

With a long trip home in the cards, we opted to break it up a bit with activities.  We had a nice mountain bike ride outside of Salt Lake City (to Dog Lake).  Quite a grind, and at altitude!  The lake was less than inspirational.  But the ride down was great!  Pretty bad smoke limited our stay in this area ... so on to Boise, where we had a great ride along the Boise River on their well developed path system.

So, we had a 2 week trip where we covered some 3300 miles.  Kinda crazy, but we were able to get away from the smoke for some of the time, and be distracted from it for the rest.  We got a bunch of exercise, covered some new territory, and saw some amazing scenery.  A definite success! 

More Photos

Activities

• Wandering/Sightseeing
• Dinosaur National Monument
• Very scenic driving ... from Steamboat Springs to Durango
• Mesa Verde, CO:  Cliff Palace tour 
• Hiking
• Breckenridge, CO:  Mohawk Lakes
• Silverton, CO:  Ice Lakes, Highland Mary Lakes
• Mountain Biking
• Steamboat Springs, CO - Emerald Mountain:  Bluffs Loop > Lupine > Morning Gloria > Quarry Mountain > NPR
• Leadville, CO:  Twin Lakes
• Salt Lake City, UT:  Big Water > Dog Lake > Big Water
• Road/Trail Biking
• Mesa Verda, CO:  Longhouse Loop
• Boise, ID:  riverside trail

"Oh Wow!" Moments

• Riding through the aspens above Steamboat!
• The spectacular colors and terrain at Ice and Island Lakes!!
• Coming over a rise and being eye level with Upper Mohawk Lake!
• Numerous views along our scenic drive, particularly at Independence Pass and along the Million Dollar Highway.
• Big peaks surrounding Molas Lake Resort!

Random Scenes

• Driving through Moab, and NOT doing any bike riding.  We planned to, but arrived in the heat of the day (90F) and, since there was no shade, opted out. 
• Seeing a huge open pit mine eating into a 13000' peak on the continental divide!  Climax Mine, a bit north of Leadville, is a big source of molybdenum, which is primarily used in hardened steel.
• Seeing a badger on one of the lonely county roads as we left Big Sandy trailhead.  Maybe not a big deal to some people, perhaps, but we had never seen one!

Tom's Daily Stress Points

• Not too many, besides possible afternoon thunderstorms!

Sleeps

• Rock Springs, WY
• Best Western - fine, but funky layout.
• Steamboat Springs, CO 
• Nordic Lodge - nice, very friendly staff, good healthier motel breakfast
• Leadville, CO
• Belle of Colorado Campground - walk-in only, but empty and nice on a weekday.
• Montrose, CO
• Stay-Wise Inn - good room and breakfast
• Silverton, CO
• Molas Lake Campground - nice, and a drop-dead setting
• Mesa Verde, CO
• Morefield Campground - totally fine.
• Provo, UT
• Hampton Inn Provo - decent room and breakfast
• Boise, ID
• Holiday Inn Express - fine room and breakfast

Noteable Eats

• Rock Springs, WY
• Best Western Restaurant - serviceable late dinner.  Breakfast wasn't any different than typical motel, despite being served by waitress.
• Steamboat Springs, CO 
• Mambo's - good pizza and salad.
• Backcountry Deli - very good sandwiches
• Salt and Lime - good tacos
• Montrose, CO
• Trattoria Di Sofia - reasonably good Italian
• Durango, CO
• Dean Pierre Bakery - good (but expensive) breakfast
• Provo, UT
• King Kabob (in Provo Town Center Food Court) - ok Shawarma
• Boise, ID
• Holiday Inn Express - fine room and breakfast

Future Ideas

• Hike along the ridges from Independence Pass
• Hike to Lizard Head Peak (near Telluride)
• Backpack to Highland Mary Lakes, extending to Verde Lakes and the Continental Divide Trail
• Hike from the Durango-to-Silverton train