First Light at Lake Como

Looking West from Hurricane Pass at 12,400 ft

 

Lake Como at First light

It's about an hour a jeep trail to Lake Como. To get there for first light means starting up the trail in the dark. It had rained hard that night and the rain started again as I started up from Gladstone, fortuity while there were some partially washed out places I was able to get through and if it got worse could have gone back on another trail that goes to Anaimas Forks. Was hoping for blue sky as the sun came up as the lake is really blue when it is not cloudy. At over 12,000 ft the sky can be a deep blue and these mountain lakes can be a great blue-green. Will try again later.

Anaimas Forks

Bagley Mill through the window

This truck was abandoned years ago at an long closed mine near Anaimas Forks. Years ago there was a lot of mining in these mountains but there is very little being done now. There are still some old timers around and the other day saw a truck with a bumper sticker that said "Earth First, We will mine other planets later".

Steam Engine, Silverton Colorado

A historical society in Silverton has restored this locomotive.

Photo note: It would be impossible to take a photograph that has a proper exposure of the shiny front end of this engine and still shows detail in the very dark space in the back of the building. This photo was made from five separate exposures that show all the detail when combined. The human eye can see all this detail but when we see it in a photo it looks somewhat surreal.  

First Light, Red Mountain

Railfest

Railfest brings several steam locomotives to the tracks from Durango to Silverton. One of the steam locomotives is a restored 1875 model that uses wood to fire the boiler instead of coal. These photos are of 481 in downtown Silverton. One of the kids asked the engineer what the "happy face" was on the front of the train. He had to take the engineer, who never realized the train had a "happy face", to the front of the train to show him.

Red Mountain Reflections

Reflection of Red Mountain in a small lake on Corkscrew Pass.

Animals

Last year we saw several bear here. Had some friends here for a couple week last month and there were always looking for bears. At one point he spotted a fat Marmot across the valley and was convinced it was a bear so after that any time someone spotted a Marmot we called it a Marmabear. So am posting some animal photos for them. 

OK these are not animals from the area, they were taken at an animal safari in Oregon a couple weeks ago. Just don't tell them, let them be jealous. I did see a mama deer with two fawns on the trail the other day but so far no bears or moose. In a couple weeks we will see large herds of elk moving down from the high country. Saw several large herds last year.

Friends cars in Washington

Stayed at a friends place in Auburn, Washington. Tom and Linda have been part of our 4WD group that have bean coming to the mountains of Colorado for forty years, actually they started coming up here even before that. Tom has a great 54 pickup that has a Camero front and rear suspension and a hot Chevy engine. He got help building it from a friend Gordy  that had worked 27 years restoring cars for a car collector whose cars that have won at the Pebble Beach Concurs and have sold for millions of dollars.  Gordy's Hollywood Graham has a Corvette rear suspension and Camero front suspension and is powered by a Chevy V8. Both cars look great so we had to do a photo shoot.

On the street

Photos from an early morning walk. The basket ball had been there for months and the soda can has been stuck to the asphalt for years and has been a subject several times.

Zion and Brice in May

Zion National Park

Brice National Park

Zion in the rain, May 2011

Krak des Chevaliers, Syria

Crusader Fort

Moat in Fort

 More photos from trips this Spring including this Crusader Fort in Syria near the border with Lebanon.

On the road to Palmyra Syria

Near Intersection of Road to Bagdad Iraq

Deserted Steam Shovels

Photos from earlier trip this Spring

Syria

Citadel at Aleppo Syria

Ruins in a Dead City in Syria

Will be traveling for a few days so will post some photos from this spring that weren't put on blog earlier.

Happy Birth Day

Samia
Happy Birth Day

Street Musician, Seattle

Mirror Man, Seattle

Taxis, Friday Harbor

Dana operates this 1950 Mercury taxis at Friday Harbor. It is completely restored and has the original drive train including the original flathead engine.

First Encounter

Yeah, I'll be in trouble with Sam but her first encounter with a starfish* was quite humorous and she is a very good photographer and I'm sure she will get even with me.

*no starfish was harmed during this encounter and it undoubtedly will be telling it's side of the story for years to come.

San Juans, The Islands , not the Mountains

The San Juan Islands are around 1200 miles north of the San Juan Mountains. I'm up here for acouple week visiting the Granddaughters and some friends before heading back to Colorado. It was a clear day, the only clear day I have seen here, when we took the ferry to visit the islands.

Lake Como

Lake Como sits at the convergence of three trails: Hurricane Pass, California Pass, and Poughkeepsie Pass in one of the most scenic areas of the San Juan Mountains. Its been years since I have been on Poughkeepsie Pass Trail it is reported to still be closed by snow. The guide book says that a winch is necessary to make it now. Even worse, it says to "expect severe vehicle damage". Not having a winch may be a good excuse to avoid it this year.

Mine on Treasure Mountain

The walkway between buildings at the mine on Treasure Mountain had suffered from last years snow almost turning the passage into a spiral.
The bright sunlight made this difficult to photograph so this photo was made from five shots taken with the camera locked down on the tripod and then later combined in Photoshops HDR program.

Foggy Morning

There were low clouds at as we left camp but the view on the trail was great as we headed for California Gulch.

Treasure Mountain

View from top of trail to Treasure Mountain

Velocity Basin

While on the top of Corkscrew Pass we saw this north facing basin which still had a lot of snow. The next day I found a jeep trail that went there but at the time it was too windy to get any reflections in the small lake. The next morning just before sunrise the lake was calm and made an interesting reflection. In the snow at the top of the upper photo you could see tracks in the snow. Later we found out that the basin is called Velocity Basin and in the spring was used as an extreme ski area. It would be extreme to me to hike up to the peak carrying your skis then to ski the almost vertical slope. Just hiking through the snow to the top when you are starting at well over 10,000 feet would be a challenge.    

Foggy Morning

If it rains during the night there will likely be fog in the morning making some good photo opportunity's. On this morning I went up to the mill just outside of town and the Animas River canyon across the road. The mill with all its equipment  has been under restoration for several years and is now open for tours.