Arizona's White Mountains

Colorado Adventure, Day 9

Friday, September 18, 2015

I wonder where the AZ/NM state line is? :)

Let's say you're in Gallup, NM and driving to Tucson, AZ. How are you going to get there? Google Maps says the fastest route is 6 hours, taking I-40, then highways 77 and 60 through cities like Holbrook, Show Low, and Globe. This route will take you through some beautiful Arizona back highways, through mountain ranges, and through the Salt River Canyon, giving you great views and a relatively quick drive back. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Not for us! Our problem is we've already driven on these roads, and thus when we go to highlight roads on our atlas, we wouldn't have any new roads to drive in Arizona! Forget that we just spent a week driving through places we'd never been, our adventure could not stop here. Instead of taking any of Google Map's 3 suggested routes, we took the road less traveled. :)

From Gallup, we headed South on 602, driving through the beautiful Zuni reservation. Then we went West on 53, which turns into 61 in Arizona, until it tees with 191 on which we started heading South. For the first part of the drive, from here to Eagar, there's not a whole lot to see. In the distance, we could see the White Mountains, but for the most part it was red dirt and dry desert plants all around. However, as we were driving through, we saw a "for sale" sign for a piece of land that was dirt cheap out there, and I have to admit we seriously considered it...and maybe still are. ;)

After Eagar,we began the more exciting part of the drive, through the White Mountains and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Four years ago, this area was affected by the Wallow Fire, the biggest wildfire ever in Arizona, and burned 841 square miles. We only drove through a part of that area, and were amazed by how long we were seeing the damage.

When we came to a pull out, we got out and enjoyed the wide, expansive views of this area. The Rockies were cool, but Arizona mountains will always hold a special place in our hearts. We like that we've become more familiar with all the mountain ranges in Arizona, so we can point out and name the different ranges and peaks. Of course we hadn't ever been to this area, so it was fun to see the mountains we knew from a different point of view.

Okay, so to be honest, while we were happy to draw this new line on our map, I think it's safe to say we won't plan on driving this road again. 90% of the time it was going up, down, and around the mountains, and we rarely were able to drive over 30 miles and hour. It was painful. We were pretty relieved when we made it past the Morenci mines and were done with this area.

We were now less than 3 hours from home, but we decided to enjoy one last night of vacation together. After grabbing a few letterboxes between Clifton and Safford, we drove up Mt. Graham to camp for the night. We stayed in the Arcadia Campground, which wins the prize for being the cheapest campground we stayed at this trip, having the least amount of people, and also being the loudest campground. However, I rather enjoyed how much warmer the weather was compared to the other nights. Let's just say it was still very much summer in Arizona! And so after a week of autumn in Colorado, we were now back to enjoying the summer sun. :)

The next morning, 9/19, we finished our drive to Tucson and had a happy reunion with our friends. We're settled here now for a little while longer, and ready to make the most of our time, while still enjoying the down time we have together. :)

San Juan National Forest

Colorado Adventure, Day 7

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Up until this point in our journey, we had a pretty set plan of which roads we'd take to work our way Southwest through Colorado. With the Rockies, there really isn't any straight shot, so we embraced the adventure that came with driving around these mountain ranges. After Montrose, we saw we had 2 options for getting down to Mesa Verde - we could either take highway 550 through Ouray and down to Durango, or we could go East on 62 then South on 145, past Telluride and down to Cortez. We did a little research the night before and looked into letterboxes and attractions, and ultimately decided to take 550 to Durango, and spend some time in the wilderness outside of Ouray.

However, once we passed the turn for highway 62, we saw some construction signs for 550. Apparently just South of Ouray there was a mountain pass undergoing construction during the weekdays and was impassable during that time. We pulled over, checked the map, and talked it over, finally deciding that we didn't want to deal with working around that complication. And so we set off in the opposite direction, without much idea of what we could do on our new route. But we had gone this far just winging it, there was no reason why we couldn't be flexible and find something new!

Curtis had happened to save a few letterbox clues for Telluride, so we decided to go for one that was a short hike to a waterfall. This took us through the ski town of Telluride (which was quite busy due to a festival going on in town) all the way to the end of the main drive. Here, you can either park or drive up the 4 wheel drive road to see Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest free falling falls in Colorado. The 4WD road continues on for quite a ways after, going over the mountains to Ouray. For today, we opted to just park and hike up to the falls. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the colors of the Telluride area were stunning.

It was a 1.5 mile hike up the rocky road to the falls, switchbacking and climbing in elevation the whole way. 

Charlotte was very brave crossing the small stream that flowed over the road. :)

There's Telluride in the valley - I loved the red rocks peaking out of the cliffs.

There are the falls up ahead!

And the falls up close. They were pretty tame today compared to some of the pictures we'd seen. Still, we enjoyed getting out of the car and getting some exercise while enjoying the beauty of Telluride!

We found the box and stayed a bit longer to enjoy the falls before heading back to our car. We decided to skip the town and whatever the festival was that was going on, and continued heading South. We stopped at a pullout to enjoy the views, then decided to take another detour and follow one of the National Forest access signs, leading us up into the San Juan Mountain range. All the sign said was "Alta Lakes," and we decided whatever that was sounded like another good stopping point!

The dirt road to the lakes was pretty well maintained, going through the forest and quickly climbing the mountain side. As we neared the end of the road, we came across an abandoned gold boom town. There were several structures scattered around, some in pretty decent shape. We parked near a trailhead sign here and decided to follow the trail wherever it went.

It ended up not being that long of a trail, and it took us to a campsite and where the road we had been driving up ended. But we decided it was worth it - there were giant puddles and flowing water on the road after the point where we pulled off, and the hike was very pleasant. And we just loved the views at the Alta Lakes! Finding hidden lakes on hikes is probably my favorite part of hiking in Colorado.

After that, it was getting later in the afternoon so we decided to finish the drive to Mesa Verde, where we planned to camp for the night. But first...Sonic!

These pictures of Curtis and Charlotte ordering are some of my favorites. Sonic is Charlotte's new favorite restaurant - she just knows that whenever we pull up in those parking spots, she's going to get a hotdog! She jumps up to sit on Curtis' lap and then eagerly waits for the friendly Sonic employee to bring her her dinner.

Of course, it takes her all of 20 seconds to devour both hotdog and bun, then she's back up front begging for our tots. 

After that, we finished the rest of the drive to Mesa Verde National Park. The campground was really something - it was huge, had an area with several services such as a General Store, restaurant, gas station, and more, the campground bathrooms had running water, and there was wifi! Of course this made it a more expensive camping experience than any of the other places, but we managed. ;) Being at a lower elevation than we had been before, temperatures for camping were really becoming more comfortable. We turned in for the night, planning to explore Mesa Verde the next morning.

The West Elk Loop

Colorado Adventure, Day 5

Monday, September 14, 2015

Up to this point in the trip, things had been going really well on our adventure, but we felt like we were going through too fast. Having not done a lot of research on places to go, we felt like we were missing lots of places as we drove through the Rockies. So today, we decided to go off track a bit so that we could see more of colorful Colorado. We didn't have any commitments until the following Monday, so why rush this trip?

To start off our Tuesday, we drove West on highway 50, over Monarch Pass. (Our 4th and final crossing of the Continental Divide!) The skies were overcast, but the views were lovely all the same. We drove to Gunnison, then instead of continuing West, we drove North on highway 135 to Crested Butte.

This road is called the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway. The road goes between a 2 lane highway and dirt mountain roads as it circles the West Elk Mountains and drives through Gunnison National Forest. We learned about this road thanks to a letterbox series, and this decision turned out to be one of the best we'd made yet. 

We first stopped for a letterbox near the Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery and enjoyed the colors around the East River. We took a short walk around the fish hatchery, then went on our way. Not that it wasn't interesting to us or anything...but we were ready to move on. :)

Next, we drove through Crested Butte. (Go ahead, laugh...) We passed through, grabbed a few letterboxes, then continued on the scenic highway. After a bit, the road went from paved to a well-maintained gravel, and we were off into the wilderness!

We went off the highway for a bit to enjoy Lake Irwin, and walked around a little there. A huge dog, unleashed and without its owner, followed us around for a bit, making Charlotte very uneasy, but she handled it like a champ and finally it left us alone.

We stopped another time at a gravesite for a mining town which was once here. We decided to wander around a bit here on an unmarked trail, just because we could!

The trail led us through a beautiful hidden meadow. Quiet, beautiful, and no one else anywhere in sight. Perfect! :)

Our first good view of the West Elk Mountains had us stunned and amazed. They stand out from any view, reaching up into the heavens. The cloud cover today made them seem even more glorious!

One of our favorite things about this whole drive were the gorgeous aspens. It was the perfect season to drive through and enjoy their golden leaves, contrasting the green white colors which also brightly covered the roads. 

We stopped at several more scenic overlooks throughout the afternoon. We just couldn't get enough of the views! Neither could Charlotte, and she was pretty ticked when we wouldn't let her out at every stop. :)

After leaving the Gunnison National Forest, we drove through the coal mining town of Paonia, and then Hotchkiss. We stopped for another letterbox and looked for a place for dinner, but found nothing. Our plan was to camp on the North rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, even with the threatening dark clouds looming over the area. We decided we had enough food on us to survive the night, and so we finished our drive to the canyon.

We set up our tent in the park campground, and were very glad to find that Charlotte was allowed on select trails here! I think she was pretty happy about that as well. :)

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was breathtaking. It is so vast, so deep, and so hard to capture in a picture. Trust me on this, you're going to need to go there yourself to see what I'm talking about.

Oh, and we were there right at sunset, as the sun finally made its way out of the clouds that had been hiding it all day! While there were others at the campground, we were the only ones here enjoying the views. (And after visiting the Grand Canyon, we know it's really a big deal to be by yourself at a gorgeous national park like this!)

Looking ahead at the South rim.

Then we turned around and saw...a rainbow! It only lasted for a minute, but it made our short hike perfect. What if we had just settled in and decided to hike the next morning?? We would have missed this beauty!

And there's the other end of the rainbow, somewhere on the other rim. :)

The hike was short, just along the rim, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It's hard to take your eyes away from something so amazing.

Well, with those lovely clouds came more rain and a thunderstorm that night. I don't know what I was more afraid of while we camped - being struck by lightning, blown by the heavy winds into the canyon, or being eaten by a bear. But somehow, we lived to tell about this anything-but silent night. :) (However, Curtis told me he slept better this night than any other night camping. I have no idea how?!)