Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Yankee Boy & Last Dollar


The San Juan Mountains near Ouray, Colorado, are often referred to as the “American Alps.”  The peaks here are absolutely soaring.  One of the best places to see them is in Yankee Boy Basin.  The four-wheel drive road starts out easy (one of the reasons there is a lot of tourista traffic), but gradually gets more difficult as it approaches 12,000’.  In the same general area, and accessible from the same road, are Governor and Sydney Basins.  Imogene Pass, a 13,000’+ pass that goes from Yankee Boy Basin to Telluride, is also a popular trip from this same road.  In addition to driving Yankee Boy Basin, we drove up Governor Basin to its end, but time and the threat of storms again forced us down before we could access the other side trips.

The start up Yankee Boy Basin
An interesting stretch of the road in YYB
An abandoned mine in YYB
Near the top of YYB
Governor Basin Road
Near the top of Governor Basin

Among the more interesting things about this region is the fact that many of the mines are operating again. Remember that most of these mines date from the mid-1870s and 1880s. The road had lots of mine traffic, including a large load of pipe and a tractor dragging a large container that we had to follow up part of the trip.  We didn’t catch up to the container until we got on the Governor Basin road and had to follow it all the way to the mine at the end of the very narrow road—above 12,000 feet.  Mines have reopened because the price of commodities is such that they can once again make a profit, even with the high costs of extraction.  We were surprised to learn that platinum has been found in many of these defunct gold and silver mines in addition to the other precious metals.

A load of pipe (front vehicle) makes its way up YYB
A container being drug up Governor Basin road
Modern day mine tailings in YYB

We are always drawn back to Telluride any time we are in this area and this trip was no exception.  Many of our favorite hikes are in the Dallas Divide area near Ouray, Ridgeway, and Telluride…now many of our favorite four-wheel drive trails/roads are also in this region.  Our most recent adventure was taking Last Dollar Road from the Dallas Divide to Telluride.  As far as four-wheel drive roads go, this one is a bit of a drive in the park, but the beauty one encounters is well worth the low difficulty rating of the track.  Often, we spend most of our time above timberline when we go off roading, but Last Dollar Road was mostly in aspen and pine forests in addition to traversing beautiful high-country ranches.
 Aspen forest on Last Dollar Road
A mixed pine forest on Last Dollar Road
Scenic view from Last Dollar Road
Mount Wilson 14,252' 

 Beautiful downtown Telluride
On the Telluride side of the pass the road passes through a vast hillside of upper 1% holiday homes, whether used for skiing or summer respites.  It is clearly and eye-opener…the rich truly do live different lives than the rest of us.  There will be no photos of these palaces as you all know what they look like.

The elusive elk finally showed up a mile or two outside of Telluride in a rancher’s pasture.  It was a sizeable herd containing young bulls, cows, and calves.  There was one slightly older bull in the herd, but it was difficult to determine if he was the herd’s leader.  In any event, we captured their images for you.
The big guy in tghe center may be herd's leader

More Elk



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