Sunday Jun 30, Creede Mining tour

It was misty this morning after a light rain last night. This RV park is very dark at night and very quiet. Mostly Texas folks here. The couple next to us are from Texas and they have been coming here for a month in the summer for many many years. They live in their RV (5th wheel job) year round, don’t own a house and love it that way. They go back to Texas for winters and travel around, but always come here for the month of July.

Very few bugs, maybe it’s too early, but that is welcome.

We went to MJ’s Cafe in Creede for breakfast. Good little busy diner. The town of Creede is one of those silver mining towns that grew to 10,000 people in three years and then collapsed in the mid-1890’s when the price of silver dropped out. Same as Tombstone. The population is only a few hundred people and relies on tourism in the summer. They built an underground mine museum which kind of blows my mind. In 1992 three guys started drilling and blasting a hole in the side of the mountain for the fire department and decided it was going so well they kept blasting until they had enough room for the museum and a community room. The museum is very well run and the exhibits are sequential and numbered. You’re given an audio headset that talks you through the whole place and back to the gift shop. It looked like a single woman ran the whole place. That must be a good money-maker for the town.

Next we climbed up a well maintained dirt road called the Bachelor Loop to get a tour of the Last Chance mine. It was abandoned in the mid-1980’s and a man named Jack Morris  bought it for a song in 1998 with the understanding that it would be used as a museum. Our tour guide was Bobby, and he did a great job on our 45 minute tour. The tour was just long enough to get the gist of silver mining, a different deal than copper mining. Bobby claimed that there was as much silver left in the place as they took out, but they were committed to the museum thing. The silver just sits there patiently.

We climbed a little further on the Bachelor Loop than the Last Chance Mine and then the road ended because of a rock slide.

Deb here for the rest! The woman working at the museum had  told us about Freemon’s Ranch and General Store, saying we had to stop there if heading to the falls, so we did. Delicious burgers and waffle fries, which we enjoyed sitting at a picnic table on their porch. By this time the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. Freemon’s is only a stone’s throw from North Clear Creek Falls (supposedly the second most photographed falls in the U.S.?), so we traveled there and made the short walk to the falls. Really spectacular and different, with the water coming out of the meadows and dropping deep into a chasm. Hard to explain but stunning. 

Since we visited North Clear Creek Falls our next destination was South Clear Creek Falls. Access to these falls involved a bit of a hike in, and I'm happy to report that Milo’s new knee is doing great! Smaller falls and a more traditional setting, but also beautiful. And I have to note that the wildflowers here are amazing. I probably took pictures of 15-20 different varieties, and I have yet to see a columbine (the Colorado state flower). Maybe tomorrow…

After the two falls, two different mining museum venues and lots of spectacular scenery we made our way back to our campground near South Fork. We stopped briefly at Marshall Park Campground, our USFS campground for the next 2 nights to get a preview.

Finally arriving back at the campground at 5:30 pm we realized we’d eaten such a late lunch that neither of us were hungry for much dinner. We each had yogurt and fruit, read our books, talked with the neighbors and called it a night.

Saturday June 29, 2024 Albuquerque NM to South Fork CO

 

We were up around 7am and Steve had the coffee ready. We did more catching up with Steve and their dog Juice and their cat Chaco. Sharon is visiting back east so we didn’t see her this trip.

We picked up coffee and breakfast sandwiches at McDonald’s and then headed north on I-25. Cutoff at Rt 550 where we topped off the gas (cheap gas).Rt 550 is a beautiful 4 lane road that went as far as we went today. We turned east after Cuba, NM on Rt 537 which turned out to be a desolate but well paved two laner through the Jacarilla Apache Indian Reservation. It was devoid of traffic or towns so it was a nice peaceful road. Although I definitely wouldn't want to break down there!

We intersected Rt 64 and went through Dulce then continued toward Chama where we picked up Rt 84 to Pagosa Springs. We’d been told to check out Pagosa Springs so we went through the town. It was crawling with tourists and super busy. We stopped at Two Chicks and a Hippie for an all-day breakfast (Milo) and a chicken salad wrap (Deb). Then north up and over Wolf Creek Pass which is 10,850 ft. We pulled into the South Fork, CO visitor center where we loaded up on brochures. They have a very active tourism business around here with kayaking, hiking, skiing in the winter, raft trips down the Rio Grande river and guides for fishing and hunting, etc. There is a mining museum and tour we will go check out tomorrow. 

There is lots of water here so everything is green with waterfalls everywhere. We saw the transition from desert to mountains as soon as we crossed into Colorado.

Deb reserved a spot at the Silver Thread Base Camp, a nice RV place with lots of shade and right on the Rio Grande.

Friday Jun 28, 2024 - Bisbee to Albuquerque NM

 Milo had done a clean sweep of the van after the last trip with his brother Dave so it was a chance to put everything back in. We still forgot a few things (spare batteries?)

Deb had her exercise class and ladies’ coffee at Kafka after and Milo had a men’s coffee with Brian, Nick, Tom and Dave at the Warren Peace Cafe. So we didn’t leave until 11:00. It’s about 6-7 hours to Albuquerque where we planned to stay in Steve and Sharon’s driveway tonight. Good weather with just a few welcome sprinkles to cool us down. It was in the 90’s but cloudy. Road trip day so we just hit the AC and did not need to pay attention to the heat. On top of hot, we are entering the monsoon season and the humidity is higher so less comfy.

We forgot about the time change when we crossed the New Mexico state line, so we texted Steve to tell him we wouldn’t arrive before about 7pm. He was going to take us to a place open until 10 so all was good.

Gas was a lot cheaper in New Mexico. We saw $3.99 in Douglas, AZ and $2.99 -$3.19 in New Mexico. I-10 to Deming to cut the corner to get to Hatch which dumps us on the  I-25. Milo drove a little but Deb is doing most of the driving because of Milo’s new knee.

We arrived at Steve’s around 7pm and went to a great pizza and wine place called Farina's not far from the University on Central Ave. Really good pizza and good hazy IPA. By the time we got back to Steve’s we were beat, so off to bed in the van. It was 80 when we went to bed so we ran the fans until the middle of the night when the temperature dropped into the lower 70’s. Still have some organizing to do in the van.