A Hike Through Penitente Canyon

September 22, 2019

I have had a busy summer and have spent many of my weekends hunting bees, and recently, entertaining company, so haven't had my usual adventures. I decided I needed to make some short forays into recreational lands belonging to the Rio Grand Forest Service or the San Luis Valley Bureau of Land Management. I have a book of local birding hot spots, some of which are also scenic spots, which I used to find the sites.

One of two places I set my sight on Sunday was  Penitente Canyon. This site is supposed to be a premiere climbing area and is also known for hiking and birding. I found this site and the other site I visited, Natural Arch, are both part of the one of the largest explosive eruptions on earth, estimated at 1,2000 cubic miles.  This formed the La Garita Caldera. The scenic areas I saw were the result of this eruption.

I got to Penitente Canyon a little after noon.  It has a camping area with about ten campsites, some squeezed between the large boulders. The canyon itself is narrow to very narrow, but the trail is mostly very flat and easy to walk on.In less than two miles, the the trail forms a circle that runs through the canyon, climbs out to a mesa, and then returns back down into the canyon as it reaches the beginning point. 

View from the parking lot

How did this hole get there?

The very easy path

I think the climbers can only use these points to attach their climbing ropes to and not add any attachments of their own

The easy, flat trail

So many boulders

One of a few mountain climbers

Was this area carved by giants?

Intriguing composition 

This seemed to be a worn area on the rock.

 At about this point, the trail turned to the NW and climbed up through shady vegetation in a few easy switchbacks to finally reach a rock face where I lost the trail for a few minutes.  I had very different vegetation and views.

Looking east across the canyon

Long views to the south and west

Found the trail 

Had to stop repeatedly to capture views

I could have taken a detour here to see wagon tracks made by Mexicans who
 drove tiny carts through this area to harvest wood

Bug love - think these are a kind of assassin fly

I enjoyed the backlit spines on these cacti

Another "carved" rock

I was almost back to the kiosk when I found this scene

Trying to get everything captured

More scenic views

It was amazing to see so much vegetation growing in the high rocky crevasses

This was a sacred site to several Indian tripes. There are a few rock paintings. Also people of the Penitente Religion also used this canyon.  Three men painted the Virgin of Guadalupe high on the canyon wall, but I didn't know to look for it until after I got back, so never noticed it.

But I did get to see one rock painting right on the parking lot. It has a sign describing it so it was hard to miss.

The only rock painting I found. 

Exploring the Alluvial Fan and Old Fall River Road

The first time I headed up to Alpine Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park, I let my GPS guide me up the highway.  There I learned about the Old Fall River Road. It was opened in 1920 and was the first auto route to allow access to the Alpine area of Rocky Mountain National Park. The road is very narrow, with LOTS of switchbacks -  in one place three levels are stacked on top of each other, steep slopes - up to 16% and tight curves. I watched one pickup have to back up to make the tight curve.

You can only access the road from Hwy 34 and can only travel it in a northwest direction, going from a valley up to the Alpine Visitor Center. I found the road itself, extremely peaceful and scenic. I took advantage of most of the pull outs  to get out and see details not visible from the car. And of course, I took pictures at those stops.

My first stop on the way to the one-way dirt road, was the East Alluvial Fan Parking lot.  From there I followed the 0.15 mile trail through various sizes of rocks, along with some trees and shrubs before I reached the Alluvial Fan left from the huge flood of July  15, 1982, when Lawn Lake broke through the terminal moraine, which had held the lake since the last ice age, 10000 years ago, broke lose,  releasing 29 million gallons of water which carried huge rocks, some the size of autos, to the valley below.

I climbed the easy trail and then did a little rock hopping as I moved around to find the best pictures. I also did it again with Jerry and Julie and added in a few from that trip.

The Park is in the process of making this trail accessible

Looking across the rocks to the far view

Waterfall on Roaring River

A panoramic showing the bridge on the left end and the falls in the upper right

My favorite closeup of the falls

I loved this little flower against the tan rocks - even though it is near the end of blooming

There were at least two different 4-wheel tours going on

My f

My first pullover gave me a change to look back over a spectacular valley

I stopped several times to take pictures of this little creek.  Here I could not back up enough
 to get all of this house-sized boulder

We hiked up the little creek to another lovely waterfalls on the second visit. 

I took this picture from a long ways back to get in the beautiful waterfall

This is the area where several switch backs are stacked on top of each other - I could only get the bo

I was in the pullout at the edge of the switchback when this truck came up.  It had to back up to make the turn. 

The higher I got, the more kinds of wildflowers there were. At the top, the plants
 have 6-12 weeks to sprout, grow, blossom, and make seeds. 

This looked like water erosion, probably from the up to thirty feet of snow

Another wonderful view, near the top of this world

In the alpine fields below the Alpine Visitor Center - at top right

I had to take this panoramic from the back deck of the visitor center.  

This altitude is not livable in winter. Guess they have HUGE winds if they need all this to keep the roof attached

I took the Trail Ridge Road back to camp.  It is the highest paved road in the United States. Clouds were adding to the already specular scenery.

The colors of the hills and clouds blew me away - this back on the Trail Ridge Road,
considered on of the top scenic drives in Colorado

I did this again with friends, Jerry and Julie. We got to see several elk just below the visitor center.

Three bull elk just before the rut 

Bull elk by Julie -  he crossed the road in front of us and she was able to jump out of the car
and run up a little hill to catch him

If you are in the Rocky Mountains National Park and can't hike, or even if you can, this is a wonderful hike in a car.  And there are several trails off it.  I did it on a Sunday and found lots of traffic but still felt alone with nature, at least until I reached the last bit of alpine fields that were full of visitors.

Touring the Bachelor Loop with Natalie

August 16, 2019

Natalie and daughter, Ellen decided to take a short break from triple digit heat in Houston, Texas  and come visit me a few days. Natalie has an injured foot and Ellen is not much for hiking, so we mostly did auto tours.

I had been wanting to go on the Bachelor Loop tour of historical mines in Creede. We decided that would be fun and that we would pay to go underground at the Last Chance Mine. Natalie was tired from the long drive, so we made a leisurely start.

Creede has lots of mines, most of them for silver. In fact, we found that amethyst was a byproduct in some of the mines.  The mining boom was between 1889 to 1893, although some mines stayed open until 1985.

Upon the advice of the Creede Visitor Center, we ran the tour backwards to make it easier to traverse the sometimes steep and rough dirt road in our car. This made our first stop the cemetery. There we learned good people were buried facing east, while the criminal types were buried north-south.  We looked for north oriented graves but didn't find any before a few cold sprinkles drove us back to our cars.

Natalie and I both enjoy taking pictures

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I enjoyed the wildflowers as much as the historical aspect of the grave yard. 

A beautiful site with interesting tombstones. 

The little church by the graveyard. 

As soon as we left the church and made the turn up the hill, we were into a steep climb with switchbacks. We got to the rim of mountains above the town of Creede with a huge view of the valley.

The Valley and the town of Creede

We wound through woods and meadows, with long views long and short,  before getting to the Last Chance Mine, where we planned to go on the underground tour. However, the man who owned it and led the tours was called away on an emergency. His daughter was the only one around, so tours had been canceled. We enjoyed wandering around and talking to the lady.

There was a little gift shop, of mostly rocks, in the top floor of this building

View downhill to another mine

Artifacts from the mine

Displays of artifacts used in the mine and living quarters

This little ground squirrel came begging then gave up and got a drink

Ellen by the hard hats we would have had to wear had we gone underground

Not far after the Last Chance Mine, the road took a sharp turn to come down the other side of the valley. There we saw ruins of several other mines.

This was the next place we stopped after we made our sharp turn.  None of this can be seen from the road.
 It always amazes me that so many people seldom stop on these drives. 

A view across the valley of the Last Chance Mine

We had to stop to see lots of stuff, including this little white water stream

The road wound through the sometimes very narrow valley

Derelict mine

The dark brown "fences" are part of another mine

Closer view of a mine

Can you find the mine building clinging vertically to the rock face?

I guess this helped hold something - maybe a bridge

I had to take these lovely little flowers - please comment if you know them

Ellen took our pictures in front of a HUGE bear - she didn't quite get all the bear

Our other tour was to Great Sand Dunes National Park where we walked in the creek - now at least a quarter of an inch deep, hiked the short nature trail, and drove up to Zapata falls to enjoy the views and eat lunch in the day use area. Natalie  also helped me clear more weeds from my yard.

I wrote this blog August 24 while I also edited pictures from my first adventures in Rocky Mountain National ParkStay tuned for several adventures with my friends who I'll pick up in Denver Sunday evening.