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Tag: mineral creek

Beating the Heat in the San Juan Mountains

Saturday & Sunday, June 23-24, 2012

After spending a few hours in the morning at the Shavano Valley Petroglyph Park near Montrose, we continued driving into the San Juan Mountains to get out of the heat for the weekend. Shortly after crossing over Red Mountain Pass we turned down the road along the South Fork of Mineral Creek and found a campsite for the weekend. After setting up our camp we drove through Silverton and made our way up Cunningham Gulch to the trailhead for the Highland Mary Lakes. As soon as we passed through Silverton the valley started filling up with smoke, and by the time we reached the Cunningham Trailhead the smoke had become pretty thick and there was even a little ash falling from the sky. We would later learn this smoke was from a wildfire that had started near Mancos.

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Alpine Loop, Ophir Pass & Last Dollar Road

Saturday & Sunday, July 2-3, 2011

Amanda had to work on the Fourth of July Weekend so I was on my own to find something to do. It was getting pretty hot in the desert, so I decided to take a break from searching for rock art and head up into the mountains. There weren’t too many roads open yet because of the snow still up in the high country, but there were enough to keep me occupied for the weekend. I decided to head south to the San Juan Mountains and take my time exploring the Alpine Loop. After passing through Ouray I followed the Uncompahgre River and Mineral Creek up to Engineer Pass.

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