Weminuche...both sides now!

Wednesday morning (August 15th) dawned without a cloud in the sky…a perfect day to travel from Montrose through Ouray and Silverton to Vallecito Reservoir via Red Mountain Pass (11,018’)—the Million Dollar Highway.  Not!  The sky, although cloudless, was milky white with smoke from fires upwind in Washington state.  We have made the trip often, but were still disappointed that the spectacular views would be obscured by smoke.



San Juan Mtns from just north of Ouray













San Juan Mtns closer to Ouray

Many RVers refuse to drive Red Mountain Pass because of its narrowness, tight curves, and steep drop-offs…oh, yeah, the lack of guardrails really spooks them.This has never bothered our driver as he remembers riding over the pass many times in the winter during the late 1940s when the byway was a very nasty gravel road.The original part of the highway was a toll road built in 1883 by Otto Mears and used to haul ore and supplies before the railroads were constructed.In 1926, it became part of the federal highway system.

North side of Red Mountain Pass

That sucker looks pretty deep!

Avalanch Shed

South side of Red Mountain Pass

Red Mountain on left

Taking a break on Coal Bank Pass

We had a largely uneventful ride over the passes (we also traversed Molas--10,666’--and Coal Bank Hill--10,910’ Passes).  We had two pretty scary deer events; the first near Ridgeway and the second on the Durango side of Coal Bank Hill.  On both occasions, we had mule deer does within very few feet of becoming road-kill under our motorhome.  Quick thinking brought the air horns on the rig to bear and in both cases the does skittered away in the opposite direction.  Needless to say we were both experiencing serious adrenalin rushes afterward.

Our location for the next two weeks is at Vallecito Reservoir some 22 miles northeast of Durango.  Our RV park is one mile from the Weminuche Wilderness boundary…many miles south of where we were hiking near Creede, but a hardy soul, with time on his or her hands, could make the several day trek north and come out at 30 Mile Campground where we began our Squaw Creek Trail hike.  If you have a faulty memory, or perhaps it has all run together for you, refer to our earlier blogs from Creede.

Since the Weminuche is so close and because we could hear it whispering our names, our first outing here was on the Vallecito Creek Trail.  This seven-mile round trip was delightful.  Generally a fairly gradual climb, it follows the creek into the wilderness for more miles than we would care to hike, but every step is beautiful.  The creek, fed by many streams and drainages, is still running quite full for this time of year.  It certainly deserves a name conveying something larger than a creek.  But there it is.  It’s a popular trail and even on a Thursday there was lots of traffic…not as bad as the Alpine Loop thankfully, but we didn’t have it to ourselves either.  The upper parts of the trail show the damage from the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire that burned 137,760 acres, displaced 5,340 people and destroyed 133 homes…a nasty bit of work.

On Vallecito Creek Trail

Vallecito Creek

Hi, sweetheart!

Vallecito Creek