During our stay at Aspen Ridge Campground in South Fork, we decided to drive to Creede on Colorado 149. It’s a small, sleepy mining town we had visited last year also. This time we explored the surrounding area and ended up on Bachelor Loop Road, which is a 17 mile gravel/dirt road with lots of abandoned mines. These mines were active in the late 1800 and produced Silver and Amethyst. One of the mines, Commodore Mine, was active from 1883 until 1976. Almost 200 miles of tunnels were dug to extract the Ore. The drive took about 2 hours and was very scenic, some times very steep and rough, but our trusted steed, SuziQ, did not let us down.
We wanted to also drive to Summitville Mines between South Fork and Pagosa Springs, however the road was still closed. There is always a next time….
On May 1 we packed up and drove to Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch Campground near Gunnison. During our drive, the temperature dropped down to 35 degrees and we had some snow flurries. The road we took (CO 114) had us cross the Continental Divide on North Pass (10100 ft elevation). At Blue Mesa we will stay for 3 weeks and explore the area.
Until next update,
Maria and Bernhard
