Month: September 2024

Monday morning we left Lake City and headed south on hwy 149. Our plan was a shorter drive with hopes of dropping the trailer and then heading out for a scenic drive. We ended up finding a National Forest campgrounds called Pallisade. We found a nice site by the Rio Grande River and dropped the trailer off.

After making a lunch, we headed back north to the town of Creede where we began the historic Bachelor Loop.

The 17 mile route took us through the historic mining area of Creede. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, silver ore was found in the area and mines were built. Various methods of haulage were used, from mules and burros with wagons to carts on tracks and even some by rail for processing. Some mines had up to 1000 men working at their peak. There are still remnants of some of the mines but they are privately owned and we weren’t allowed in.

Near the end of the loop was the site of the town of Bachelor. At an elevation of 10,500’, this area was home to 1200 people with 100 homes and commercial buildings on site by 1892. With the silver crash of 1893, followed soon after by the depression, this community only had about 150 people remaining by 1910.

We left our campsite the next morning and headed down hwy 149 and across 160 to Durango. Our next post will give some of the highlights.

We arrived at Castle Lakes RV Park Friday afternoon. The road from Elk Creek was easy and then when we got to Lake City we had 8 miles of gravel road to get into our campground. It turned out nice though; they had had a couple of cancellations and moved us to a lake view site amongst the pine trees.

We checked in and since the weather forecast for Saturday was good, we reserved a jeep for the day.

Saturday morning we were up early and started out at 9 am – it was clear but chilly with a forecast for mostly clear skies. The first part of the Alpine Loop was basically a gravel road that any 4×4 vehicle could travel, but it soon became rockier.

Our first significant point was Cinnamon Pass. As we climbed, the road was rougher and we had lots of bouncing around in the jeep. The pass gets its name from the colour of the mountains in the pass.

Shortly after the pass we reached the side road down to Silverton. Our trip so far had taken about 2 1/2 hrs. Given the time estimates, we should have skipped Silverton, but we hadn’t brought a lot of food with us, having planned a side trip for lunch.

As soon as we got cell signal, I called the restaurant that had been recommended to us and ordered their wood-fired pizza to go. The pizza from Golden Block Brewery was excellent but we were sorry to have to eat on the run! Back on the trail, we didn’t have time to stock at Animas Forks, a ghost town that still has visible remnants of the town.

Originally prospectors were after gold around 1873, but soon discovered the area was rich in silver. By 1910, one of the Mines, Sunnyside Mine had 10 miles of tunnels and employed 300 miners. The last mine in the area closed in 1948.

Our final pass of the day was Engineer Pass. We had been to this peak more than 10 years ago when we had rented a Jeep and started from Ouray. Just before arriving at the pass we stopped at Odom Point for a photo op.

Engineer Pass at 12,800’

Once we reached the pass, we had 20 miles van of rough, rocky road before we arrived at Lake City and on our final 8 miles of gravel road back to our campsite. We were 1/2 hr late returning the jeep and I had had enough!

Sunday was a quiet day and a time to do some laundry. When the campground has laundry facilities it’s good to take advantage of it – saves looking around in a town and wasting time!

Monday we’re back on the road to our next stop.