New Years Weekend | Saturday & Sunday, December 30-31, 2023
For the final weekend of 2023 Diane and I headed over to the northern end of the San Juan Mountains near the edge of the Uncompahgre Wilderness so we could snowshoe the road along the Cimarron River and spend a night at the Jackson Guard Station, which is located near the popular Silver Jack Reservoir. This historic cabin was originally used as a Forest Service Guard Station and housed Forest Service work crews. We left home on Saturday morning, drove south to Montrose then east over the Cerro Summit and soon arrived at the trailhead where we started hiking up the snow-covered road. Although we were planning for this to be a snowshoe trip, there really wasn’t very much snow on the ground yet and there were snowmobile tracks on the road to follow, so we ended up not needing to use our snowshoes for the hike.
Following the snowmobile tracks up the road on our way to the Silver Jack Reservoir.
Even though we didn’t need snowshoes for this trek, I did drag our pulk along to help carry some of our winter gear.
The spires of High Mesa dominated our views to the east- when we weren’t in the trees.
Hiking along the Cimarron River and Silver Jack Reservoir.
After about four miles of hiking we arrived at the cabin.
Welcome to the Jackson Guard Station- our home for the night.
After getting a fire going in the cast iron stove and getting settled into the cabin, it was already starting to get get close to sunset, so I headed out with my camera to take a few photos of the last light on the surrounding ridges.
Sheep Mountain
Following the road back to the cabin.
Winter Cabin
Jackson Guard Station at Dusk
We spent the rest of the evening reading and relaxing in the cabin which stayed surprisingly warm as long as we kept on top of the fire. We went to bed early and got a lot of sleep overnight.
On Sunday morning I headed out before sunrise for a short walk at dawn near the cabin.
When I returned from my morning hike Diane was hard at work replenishing the firewood we had used overnight.
Chopping Firewood
After we were done restocking the firewood, we cleaned the cabin, packed up our gear and then started our hike back out.
Cimarron Ridge
Hiking out with the pulk.
Overlooking the upper end of the Silver Jack Reservoir.
Following the road back to the trailhead…
Very nice! The terrain is quite reminiscent of the Alberta foothills, and- to my skiers eye-well suited to touring around on cross country skis. Just sayin’. Happy New Year!