scenic colorado weekend

[buddy the dog]

******lots of pics. dial-up beware********

Dad and I drove out to Idaho Springs last Friday for a weekend in the mountains and we were not disappointed. We met up with Jim (Otisdog) in Idaho Springs, and ran Oh-My-God Road out of Idaho Springs and then up to the north end of Kingston Peak.

The rigs:


The climb up:

[buddy the dog]

Out of the trees:



Neat view:


View of Loch Lomond (I think):


misc from Kingston:

[buddy the dog]

Then we went to Yankee Hill. It's real easy to get lost on Yankee Hill, so we didn't spend much time there. No pictures, but Jim got us on a real fun, rocky downhill that got us to Fall River Road. Then over to Chinns Lake. Not real tough, but pretty at the lakes:





Jim had to get back home, so we did about half of Bill Moore Lake up to the "worst spot" and we headed back to town. No pictures from there.

[buddy the dog]

Sunday, Dad and I went to the Montezuma area and started on Deer Creek:

Out of the trees:


On the climb, you can see St. Johns in the distance:

We took the trip over to the top of Radical Hill (sissy route):

[buddy the dog]

From the top of Radical Hill:

Red Cone and Webster:


We met some bikers. More on them later:


Then, it was down the Middle Fork of Swan River. Pretty tame, but there was a pretty rough steep section:




Then over to the North Fork of Swan River:





Shelter at top of Wise Mountain:

The climb after the cabin towards St. John was steep and loose, but of course I forgot to get pictures.

[buddy the dog]

When we got near the intersection of the North Fork and St. Johns, a helicopter was landing. Apparently, one of the bikers we met earlier had crashed and couldn't get out on his own and taking him out on the trails was not an option:



I did get some more scenry while waiting:


Breckenridge (?) :

[buddy the dog]

Back under way. The climb up Glacier Mountain on St. Johns was real steep and loose. Pictures never do it justice:



More mountain goats:




The ride down towards St. Johns townsite was easy with a few switchbacks:



Misc pictures
nasty mountain plant:

bag of chips at altitude:


We got on I-70 about 4:00 Colorado time on Sunday. By the time I dropped Dad off in Des Moines and got home, it was 6:00 this morning. I can't wait to get back out there

All of my pictures can be found at:
http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z179/buddythedog2/colorado%20august%202007/
I loaded the pictures in reverse order, however.

[tcourdin]

WOW! Thats just beautiful country, I would love to take my Jeep there sometime.

[otisdog]

Ok here's what pics I got. I had a great time Saturday and I wish I could have gone Sunday because where you were is one of my favorite areas. I'm going to try to get up there next Sunday.
Jim

[otisdog]

[otisdog]

[otisdog]

[otisdog]

[otisdog]

[mudcreeker]

man those are some great pics, I sure wished I lived closer to those mountains , again GREAT PICS