Alamosa revisited

The Woman’s brother, Kevin, was still working this summer on his major project in Alamosa Colorado near the southern border. This summer his two sons Will and Jake have alternated assisting him with the project, and at the time we are visiting, it is Jake’s turn to be in Alamosa. Last year we toured around Alamosa last year when here, seeing the Great Sand Dunes National Park and some of the other sites that were relatively nearby. This time we ventured out a bit further.

Creede Colorado is about 70 miles northwest of Alamosa. It is the county seat of Mineral County, as well as being the only incorporated municipality in the entire county. Creede was the last of the silver boom towns in Colorado. In 1889 its population was just 600 when rich veins of silver were discovered. By 1891, its population was well over 10,000. Because of the variety in the rich ores present in the hills surrounding Creede, mines were continuously run here from 1890’s until 1985. While many times in its lifetime certain ore became no longer profitable to mine, it never became a ghost town because there was something always profitable to mine here.

Because it was actively mined up until 20 years ago or so the massive mining structures are still in place climbing the steep mountain walls. The old ore wagon road still winds its way up the ravine between the mines. While only suitable for four wheel drive vehicles, the Saturn was more than up to the challenge.

We drove the 17 mile Bachelor Loop, so named for the boomtown of Bachelor City which exploded not long after Creede. Citizens attempted to incorporate Bachelor City in the mid-1990’s, but the US Postal Service refused its name because there already was a Bachelor City in California. To appease the US Post Office town leaders filed the official name as Teller. However, although residents received their mail addressed to Teller, they never abandoned the use of the name Bachelor City, the name which showed up on all maps made in the time.

A name from the past popped up in Bachelor City. During its peak in the mid-1890’s, the gangster that dominated Bachelor City was Jefferson Randolph Smith, alias Soapy Smith. We actually learned about Soapy Smith when we were plying the Klondike Gold Rush. Apparently when Bachelor City played out, Soapy headed up to Dyea and Skagway Alaska in 1897 to pray on the gold rush miners. We had seen his old saloon outside of which he was gunned down in a shootout caused by his nefarious activities. We just love when we stumble into events or people that tie things together!

We enjoyed basically driving through time and history on this loop, noting that many of these historic mining buildings are still being used today, just for other purposes. For example, the Creede Fire Department is located in an old mining shaft just on the edge of town. If you are ever in the area, Creede is worth a bit of a detour.

Our trip to Creede provided us with several surprises we hadn’t expected. First we found wonderful hiking in the Rio Grande National Forest, which surrounds Alamosa and Creede and much of the area. On an old Forest Service road we found the Dead Man’s Gulch Trail, at least we thought we did. While signage and trail markings were apparently at a premium, we managed to find a 5 mile loop trail that did wind through a gulch. Luckily the Woman asked me to mark our car with our handheld GPS, which I did. After nearly 5 miles on the trail we seemed to be heading back to the Saturn, but we could not see it despite believing it to be there. It wasn’t until our GPS told us we were 700 feet away from the Saturn that we finally saw her – good call on the Woman’s part!

Signage on the road pointed to “La Ventana Natural Arch” so we went that way. When we arrived we found a lava curtain maybe 80 feet high and several football fields long. A lava curtain is formed when cooling lava is pushed up between a crack in the earth’s surface, and forms a long, narrow curtain of cooled basalt. Since its formation, water would seep into the curtain, freeze in the winter time and break off pieces of the curtain wall. Overtime this impressive formation grew – well worth the search to find.

Our next surprise was nearly as cool. Our last visit to Alamosa alerted us to the fact that the Rio Grande River, the famous dividing line between the US and Mexico, starts as far north as Colorado – it actually passes through downtown Alamosa. Not far from Creede is the Big Meadow Reservoir. While there is debate among those in Colorado, it is clear to us that the Big Meadow Reservoir is source of the Rio Grande. In this part of Colorado there are many bodies of water feeding into both the Rio Grande and the San Juan rivers, but you can back trace the Rio Grande right to this spot where a footbridge crosses the source.

Because of our luck, we have now been at both ends of the famous Rio Grande – and several spots along the way as well. While we were wintering in Port Aransas one year we headed down to drive the southern border of Texas on our way home. On the far southern tip of the Padre Islands off Brownsville we ventured down to the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area, where the Rio Grande spills out into the Gulf of Mexico. It took some work to make our way out there and driving down the beach, but we are now glad we did – seeing both ends!

Our last discoveries made the Woman’s day! While not as well known or storied nearly as much as either the Pacific Crest Trail (about 2,700 miles long) or the Appalachian Trail (about 2,200 miles long), the Continental Divide Trail at over 3,100 miles is truly the Granddaddy of them all. Starting from the Crazy Cook Monument east of the Big Hatchet Mountains in New Mexico, it ends in Glacier National Park in Montana. Well, we found that there the Continental Divide Trail crossed US Highway 160 not all that far from Creede. US 160 is the main east/west highway that runs through Alamosa as well.

We headed to Wolf Creek Pass. It turns out that many moons ago when I was a young CPA manager auditing a ski resort near Purgatory ski slope, the early snows at Wolf Creek Pass provided enough snow that the ski slope there opened in early November, the earliest it had opened in its history. Well, I jumped on that, and it ended up to be the only time I ever did some Colorado mountain skiing. So the fact that we would now return there to hike some of the Continental Divide Trail seemed like destiny.

We found the trail markings that we needed to verify we were in the right place. The trail was far less heavily traveled than any of the AT that we hiked – it was very narrow, just enough room to plant your feet, and the brush growing along the trail actually grew across it for lack of many feet knocking it back. Like the AT it was steep and in some places rocky and wet. But all In all, it was a good trail and certainly fun to explore. We thought we would attempt to hike up to Lobo Overlook, but it turned out that was about 5 miles straight up from the parking area at Wolf Creek Pass. So we just hiked up a couple miles, got a good feel for the trail, and then headed back.

One of the most fun discoveries for the Woman was evidence that Trail Angels really exist. In all her readings about the AT and the PCT she had read about Trail Angels and found the idea really romantic. The AT and PCT, and CDT for that matter, are trails in the wilderness with no services of any kind for those who set out to hike them. Apparently there are good Samaritans who try to keep an eye on the hikers by leaving stashes of goodies for them out on the trail, perhaps when they would least expect the surprise. We stumbled over a large Coleman plastic cooler that had written on its cover “CDT thru-hikers”, and inside was a couple dozen chilled sodas.  On our way back to the car the Woman looked inside the cooler again, and now there was a huge multi-pack of snack chips as well. So now the Woman knows first-hand that Trail Angels do exist, and she knows that they also periodically visit their stashes to resupply them, just like it suggested in all the books she read!

The Woman found an unpaved road on her map that appeared to go from US 160 up to Lobo Overlook, so we gave it a shot. Sure enough, about 5 miles up that road we came to one of the most gorgeous overlooks we have ever seen. It was beautiful, but on a bald jutting out from the surrounding trees. As a result, it also may have been the windiest place we have ever been – well except maybe for Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Several other adventures with brother Kevin and nephew Jake managed to happen. Golf at Cattails Golf Club, a day long Jeep ride with the top down (we managed to find another section of the Continental Divide Trail to hike at the Cumbres Pass), lots of hiking, and we even got a chance to have a little family geocache outing where brother Kevin and nephew Jake got to learn just the basics. A little curious from the experience, Jake has already gone online to see the huge number of caches hidden very near where he and his brother Will live in LA.

The only disappointment in our overall visit to Alamosa is that I had hoped to accomplish something on my bucket list for some time. I had wanted to ride the Cumbres and Toltec Historic Narrow Gauge Railroad for some time. Last time we had come through Alamosa the line had already closed for the season. This time it would still be open. Unfortunately the Woman asked me not to book reservations early when I wanted to in case her brother and nephew might want to come along with us. By the time she let me take a shot at booking reservations, all seats for the rest of the season were already sold out – dang! I guess it will have to keep its place on my bucket list for a while longer.

Talk to you soon!