GA Gypsies – Fulltiming

Well, our time is winding down here. We decided to explore some more unknown dirt roads. So glad that private land owners give access to the public to get to national forest land. We started off going through Ralph Lauren’s ranch and probably 4 or 5 more ranches on the county access road, about 7 miles until we hit forest service land. Our land – you can camp on it, ride horses, hike, ski, snow mobile, etc. Mostly just have a lot of  “purty” pictures for you to enjoy.

We did come upon an outfitter’s camp – two big canvas tents and a teepee, plus five horses. Oh, how I miss my horse riding days. I would love to ride one of the mountain trained horses up in those hills and mountains. Maybe next year, when my knees work.

The roads are very rough and bumpy – you will be sore the next day, but it’s worth it. And they are very narrow – meeting someone can be quite interesting. This was our long and winding road.

We did make it to the trailhead – we were on the back side of Mount Sneffels, the one we can see from our camper. Much closer to the mountains. Just before we got to the trailhead, we came across a beautiful mountain stream. And there are designated dispersed campsites all along the way, but I think the best ones were along the stream.

And to leave you with a magic carpet of aspen leaves along the woodland floor.

Just a few more.

Many of the higher elevation leaves have already fallen, but this last one is down near our campsite, in it’s full glory. God creates such beauty.

Well, Tuesday we had decided to go back up to Owl Creek Pass and continue on to Silver Jack then to Cimmaron and back to Montrose – about a 4 1/2 hour drive. I had been having some shortness of breath for a while and didn’t feel really great, so we decided to stop at the Medical Clinic in Ridgway, thinking it’s a town of 300 and we can probably just walk in. Well, it was a bustling little practice. They were very nice and worked me at 3:00 – we had gotten there about 1:30. I saw the PA, we all were pretty sure it was altitude, but she wanted to check with the doctor. He came in and talked for a long time and was pretty sure it was altitude too, but he wanted to do an EKG just to check. Everything was fine, but we didn’t do our trip, since it was about 5:00 when we finished up. So, Wednesday we did our trip. The leaves were beautiful, the drive up to Owl Creek was rough and bumpy like last time, but going out the other side, (the counties changed) the road was much smoother.

There was a lot more color at Owl Creek Pass, even some snow left over from a few days ago. The gold aspen leaves that had blown off were stuck in the firs – it looked like Christmas trees.

We went through beautiful ranchland and national forest. The colors were different on the other side of the pass – different trees and dryer. We got behind a rancher with his horses and dogs (aussies – Carol) and followed them all the way back to his ranch.

Coming back into Montrose, we were right at the entrance to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, so we took a side trip.

It was after 5:00 and you couldn’t see to the bottom of the canyon – I think it only gets two hours of sunlight each day. It was an amazing whole in the earth cut by a river. We didn’t do the drive along the rim, but headed back home.

And just to end with a few miscellaneous pictures from the week.

We’ve been chilling and lazy lately. We went to a movie Sunday afternoon. Monday, the wind was blowing so hard all day and into the night and today we woke up to rain. It has been snowing all around us. We went to eat at the True Grit Restaurant around 5:00 and coming home, it began to snow – it’s a mixture right now, so we will probably wake up in the morning to snow. We’ve got a couple of more places we want to go to for day trips and our plans are to start home sometime next week. No new pictures. Oh wait, I looked out the only window open and can see snowflakes floating down among the trees. If we do this gypsy thing for a long time, we both will need spring/fall wet weather boots and warmer winter boots than you can buy in GA!

No, we haven’t got lost on a forest road or eaten by bears. The internet was out here at the campground Sunday.  We took a ride Sunday evening on one of the forest service roads where private ranches are. Beautiful places to live. “Our” mountains are getting more snow every day.

 

On Monday, we left, taking the 270+ mile long San Juan Highway Loop, also known as the Million Dollar Highway. We went from Ridgway to Ouray, then the fun began. We were on a winding, climbing road that had no guardrails. The leaves were beautiful, and the rock formations and mountains were unbelievable. Pictures do not do them justice, and seeing them in person just seemed surreal.

We drove on from Ouray to Silverton and arrived just as the steam train from Durango arrived. The other train was leaving Silverton, heading to Durango. Both were beautiful little western towns. Then we headed to Cortez, which is the gateway for the Mesa Verde National Park. We arrived late in the afternoon and rested, then headed out Tuesday morning for the park. The pictures I have seen for Mesa Verde in no way compared to being there and seeing it in person. We drove a 40 mile loop into the park and we were able to get close enough to see one of the cliff dwellings without having to walk too far.

I saw one coyote throughout our whole drive. There is a lodge that you can stay in inside the park and they say all around the lodge and on all the hiking trails are archaeological sites, but you can’t pick up even an arrowhead or shard of pottery. We visited the quilt store when we got back to Cortez, then back to the hotel. I called it an early evening and Tony explored the pawn shops and then ate at Wendy’s. This morning when we got up it was raining. The weather forecast was for the rain to be mostly to our south. We stopped at the Ute Indian Museum as we headed out of town. The rain got harder and the temperature dropped. When we left Cortez, it was 53. The ranches were beautiful that we passed, at least what we could see of them. We topped out at over 11,000 feet just before getting to Telluride and the temperature had dropped to 32 and it was snowing. We weren’t sure if we would climb higher or go down in altitude and we were only about 40 miles from the campground. Thankfully, the rain slacked off a bit and the temperature climbed back into the 50’s as we made it back to Ridgway. It has been raining here all evening – we are wondering if we’ll have snow in the morning, since the temperature really drops at night. We shall see.

 

 

And the thunder rolls. Been raining all night and all morning. Rain and thunderstorms are different here. We have a mountain range very close to our west, another very close to the east and then Mount Sneffels to the south. The thunder rolls from behind the western mountains, then comes into the valley, then heads over the eastern mountains. Cloud cover thickens until we can’t even see the closest mountains, then it lifts and the cycle starts all over. Nice day to stay by the fire (we have an electric fireplace) and snuggle up with a good book. Yesterday we went to Montrose – I got a haircut and a pedi and we went to the Ute Indian Museum – very interesting. Thursday was a lazy day here – Tony helped some neighbor lady with her hot water heater and her water. A good Samaritan. Getting ready to head along the San Juan Skyway on Monday and stay south of here near the Mesa Verde National Park for a couple of days. I miss my dogs terribly, but I really don’t want to leave here! Right now, we are planning to start home on Oct. 11th. Hopefully, we will have a little snow by then. First frost here is usually the first week of October. We shall see.

Didn’t do much yesterday – just chilled. Decided to ride back to The Grand Mesa National Forest without the camper attached. The Grand Mesa, a 10,000 foot mesa, is the largest flattop mountain in the world. There are over 300 alpine lakes throughout the mesa. Leaves had turned more, we were able to stop at pullovers and take pictures and ride down to the Forest Service Campgrounds and the dispersed camping and check them out. Hoped to see animals – just two deer and open range cows. If a pictures speak a thousand words, then I wonder how many words these pictures will speak. I wish I could send you the smell and sounds of the alpine forest.

The alpine sky coming home.

Last picture – my lunch chips – the bag at high altitude. I think they would have popped if we had gone another 1,000 feet!

We aren’t even running the ac anymore – just windows open and sometimes the fan on in the middle of the day. I am trying to wean myself off noise at night so I can hear the rain, wind, and other sounds of nature. The aspen leaves have been falling like rain today. Monday nights are burger nights at True Grit Cafe – $6 for burger and side. We were going to grill some over the weekend and a lb. of hamburger was $7 and a pack of buns were $5, so we made the decision to wait for burger night tonight. Cheaper and don’t have to clean up. After our meal, (first time we ate upstairs – out on the balcony) we went

elk hunting again on the Double RL Ranch. They weren’t there – this time we had the spotting scope and good binoculars. I thought I heard one bugle, but we didn’t see any so we rode further down the road and guess what!

Elk! -closer to the road, not on RL’s land. One might bull with his harem. Watched them for awhile, then road back to RL’s pullout. It was almost dark, but I heard one bugle and started looking. I spotted two just out of an aspen grove, but it was so dark, we couldn’t take anymore pictures. Fun, fun, fun. Then home for the evening, hoping a deer or elk wouldn’t jump out in front of us.

Pictures from yesterday of the rain/snow in between rain showers. Mount Sneffels is the tallest at over 14,000 feet.

And this is our view every day. God is good.

Rain, wind, then sunshine. Rain again, then sun – this all day long. Watching it rain on the other side of the mountains and then coming to this side. Snowing on Mount Sneffels – can’t even see it. Good day to read and make white chicken chile.

Lazy Saturday morning and we decided to do some exploring in the afternoon. See if you recognize the following pictures.

Do you know? This is Mattie Ross’s ranch in the beginning of True Grit and the end when John Wayne jumped the fence. And by the way, to the director’s objection, John Wayne actually the jump, not his stunt double. Both the stunt double and Glen Campbell have acknowledged this fact. Pretty good for “a one-eyed fat man”! The house and barns and fence are on private property, right up next to the road. We were on a county road which turned into a forest road, where beautiful ranches dotted the land.

I was desperately looking for elk and moose. When we headed back, I saw movement on a hilltop. We stopped and got the binoculars – deer, several. And lots of mountain bluebirds.

 

We met some elk hunters who had a flat tire. We tried to help, but we didn’t have the right tools for a Dodge truck to take the tire off. They had called there car service and before we left, a Dodge truck came along. As Tony was talking to them, I was sitting in the truck just watching deer – mule deer – deer, deer, deer – no elk.

 

As we headed home, we passed the Double RL Ranch – miles and miles of fence post and multiple entrances with the brand on it – guess whose ranch it is? Ralph Lauren and his brother, Ricky. This is the family vacation home – 17,000 acres, still an operating ranch. There are 5 teepees that you can see from the road – these are used as guest houses, set up sort of like yurts. There was a pullout that had a great view and we pulled in to take a look. There were a couple of guys with cameras on tripods and an obnoxious man who was talking to everyone very loud. But he did tell us one thing when we drove up – there were elk down in the open valley. BIG elk. Bull elks – bugling. First time in the wild I’ve ever heard an elk bugle except for Cataloochee – and that’s kind of cheating, since they were brought there and are in a particular valley. We could see with our naked eyes at least 6 or 7, maybe a few more. And I had the little binoculars with me – I could tell they had BIG racks. We will go back with the good binoculars and the spotting scope.

Right in the middle of the first picture you can see one elk and in the second one in the far opening, you can see 2 or 3 white spots – those are elk. Another check on the bucket list – well, actually 2. Seeing/hearing elk in the wild and seeing Mattie’s ranch.

Last couple of pictures are of our camp site and view.

Got the hammock set up. Tony got the dish for our satellite receiver so we can watch TV if we want to. Could see snow on the mountains from the storm last night. Sam, the guy who owns the campground, said he was on the mountain, elk hunting when the storm came up. And he said he walked up on a bear – he scared the bear and the bear scared him and they both ran in different directions. He only had a bow with him. Nice little nap in the hammock this afternoon, until it got too cool and I had to go inside. Rode into Ridgway to pick up a couple of things and for the first time realized we could see chimney rock and the mountains we rode up to from the center of town. There was a farmer’s market in the square – we bought a few vegetables and some cookies. Pictures for today. Rainbow after the storm last night. Look hard to see Chimney Rock.