Jeeping trip to Silverton via Engineer Pass

 

We made a jeeping trip to Alpine Loop, half of it - Engineer Pass. Love, love this area. Hadn't been in two years so overdue for sure. Truly one of the most beautiful mountainous regions in Colorado. 

Massive avalanches recently and long ago along this route

This is an area of old mining towns and claims from the late 1800's. It's astonishing that people could live and work in these dangerous conditions and the severe weather aka winter.

New construction since we've been. It's for sale but we couldn't figure out what it was besides a tented structure.

Beautiful waterfalls are everywhere on this route

This is one way only - happily we didn't meet anyone where we had to back down.

This is no easy jeep trail. It was a bit harrowing and all the rain this summer made the roads even trickier in places. Thank goodness we had the "Rock" and a very good jeep driver. You'll see from the photos above, someone was not so lucky. That is a mangled jeep that went off the road. I fear there were probably no survivors.

Gorgeous point as always with massive wind and cold. The cover photo for my first book was taken here.

We finished in the cute town of Silverton. Had lunch at our favorite: Handlebars which has been around for over 30 years. Bouncing around in the jeep promotes a healthy appetite.

Hummingbirds, haying, fishing, baby animals, and fun hiking with friends

 

I've left out our hummingbirds for many posts now mainly because for weeks they were gone. When we left for 12 days in June it was clearly over the line for the hummers. No one to feed them... They are back in full force which means 4 feeders having to be filled everyday. That's a lot of sugar folks. 

Lots of fun had with friends Steve and Kim hiking Judd Falls.

The fun continued on with Emerald Lake and Paradise Divide.

We are in prime haying season. So much rain this summer means a very good crop. 

The deer have been inside our fence almost everyday. This mom and twins have been multi times but this day was special. We also had half grown grouse visiting as well. The babies were quite curious about each other. And of course eventually those twin fawns needed nourishment after all the excitement.

Upper Spring Creek fishing for Mark and for me: painting. This is a cutthroat trout which is hard to find these days. It was not harmed in this exercise and back into the stream it went. Summer is going fast here - in a matter of weeks all will be golden and temps dropping in the 30's at night.

Nancy and Rodney visit plus Flap and mountain lion

This was an amazing happening right after Nancy and Rodney left. We had deer in the yard and suddenly I realized this one looked familiar. Could it possibly be? Yes, our sort of pet doe Flap who I thought had passed on to the great kingdom in the sky a year ago. She is at least 14. My daylilies had been eaten to the ground the week before which was only a Flap hankering, but I thought it was possibly one of her many children. Ha! The original one and only.

Had fun at the CB farmer's market after breakfast at the Paradise Cafe. We enjoy it all so much.

We took Nancy and Rodney out mushroom hunting. It was a lot of fun, we saw probably 50 kinds but alas no chanterelle, which is what we were really searching for. Did find some others as you see. Um yeah, they all ended up in the trash after looking them up - ranging from possible digestive issues to DO NOT EAT. It's a little more complicated then it appears to pick mushrooms.

After dinner activities. The bug zappers were a hit as well as the wine and chocolates. Fabulous dinner Nancy cooked one night for us - duck with cherry sauce. Yum!

Had to throw in a photo of our newly redone dining table. Mark refinished it after 30 years! Beautiful job which took days and a lot of work to finish. 

And lastly, I saw my first mountain lion last week while walking in the morning. Quite a shock I'll tell you. It ended up running away from me to hide in some tall bushes. I only got a poor photo with the back end of the mountain lion as it disappeared in the bushes. Big regret I didn't already have my camera out of my pack- wasted precious seconds. Beautiful animal but wow - I walked back to the house a different way. Can't be too careful... It's wildlife central out here folks!