Colorado-Montana

From Redstone, Colorado we went over to Aspen to meet up with some fellow RV travelers from our past. We spent 4 days in a campground just outside of Aspen .. did some hiking, some eating and (of course) over served ourselves with wine. We then hoped to spend some time over in the Steamboat Springs area but the heat and the smoke from fires west of us made us give that up. We decided to head on up to Montana but still had to put up with heat and smoke (but not as bad). Wise River was a great stop (thanks for the tip Steve & Terri). Now we are at Lake Alva which is about 15 miles north of Seeley Lake, Montana. Details follow below.

Maroon Bells (about 15 miles south of Aspen), one of favorite places and definitely on the top 10 list. The Aspen area is just getting crazy with tourists .. it's crowded and expensive but interesting with all the variety of people around. Driving into Aspen one passes by the airport where there are so many private jets that they now have to divert many of them up to Vail and make them drive down from that airport (about 90 miles or so). Our limo driver must have missed our arrival?? Anyway, we still get to hike the trail from Maroon Lake to Crater Lake. Cindy and I are finally getting used to altitude.

Lots of avalanches on these mountains going up to Maroon Bells. BTW, they now make you park at a resort (about 10 miles from the Bells) and take a bus up to the parking lot.

Cindy on the trail from Maroon Lake up to Crater Lake.

We camped at Difficult Campground (about 8 miles east of Aspen) and met up with Steve & Terri Chambers (from Arkansas .. but we don't hold that against them). Great people with many interesting stories and recommendations of where to camp (and where not to camp). Much wine was consumed!

The two of us at Crater Lake. We started this hike early and by the time we started back it was like an expressway of traffic coming up the trail.

In the Steamboat Springs area .. heat and smoke from fires in Western Colorado & Eastern Utah. We gave up and headed north.

This was taken outside of Dillon, Montana. Still hot and still some smoke but not as bad as Colorado in this picture. The smoke made for some great sunsets though!

So we went up to the Wise River area and found a super camping spot. The weather was supposed to turn for the better but we had one more day of smoke, this was one of the worst .. after that it cleared out like it didn't exist. Most of this was coming from fires over the state line in Idaho. All of the fires had been caused by lightning.

One day we drove up to a ghost town by the name of Coolidge (named after the president). It was founded in the early 1900's as a mill town (granite we think) and had a population of about 350. By the depression, it was gone.

It was a beautiful day and involved hiking about a mile up to the old town, this was the mill, just down the river from the town. We are very happy to be living in the 21st century with all our conveniences.

One of the more bizarre things we have seen in our travels .. a place called Crystal Park where anyone can come and dig for crystals (like quartz, amethyst, topaz, etc). Lots of holes in the ground, lots of people digging with shovels and sifting sand and rock. Like moles sticking the heads up out of the ground. We did see a couple of nice stones but these people were really different!

A picture of the Wise River which runs through the Pioneer Mountains. Supposedly a very nice trout stream. Our campground was right on the river with lots of trees and shade. We were thankful for no smoke.

From Wise River we went up to a campground outside of Anaconda, MT. The next day we went into Butte to get some supplies and did some touring in this old mining town. Interesting history .. did a mine museum and went into the old mine. They are still mining and it's still a messy business.

Our last night at Wise River celebrated with a nice filet and a wonderful bottle of Hahn Petite Syrah which was a gift from George and Carol Holmgreen from his 70th birthday party. Thanks George! It was perfect!

A picture of the old cages that moved miners and materials into and out of the mine shafts. 6 or 7 per ride and fast. The larger shaft on the left (empty with no cage) was the one they hauled the ore up on. The expression, getting the shaft, was not funny if you were working in one of the mines.

By the 1950's the cost of extracting ore (mostly copper, but some lead and manganese also) became too expensive so they went to open pit mining. This is the Berkeley Pit, which was the largest open pit mine in the world. They stopped this operation in 1983 and it has since filled up with mineral polluted groundwater (as have all the mine shafts in the area). The water depth is now at over 1000 feet and they plan to start pumping water out in another 10 years (with treatment). What a mess! And who owns it now? If you said BP, you win!

Next up on out totally improvised itinerary is some time north of Seeley Lake followed by camping at Hungry Horse Reservoir and then a trip up to Glacier National Park. All of this without plug ins or what they call "dry camping".