San Juan National Forest – Pagosa Springs, CO

After crossing Wolf Creek Pass, we drove down Mill Creek Road with this view of Nipple Mountains.
We found this cozy little spot to set up a dispersed camp site.
We had some visitors – one morning one of these lovelies was licking the van – never thought of a cow as curious!
We enjoyed a few sunsets silhouetted by the trees.
Lots of brief monsoon type rains gave us lots of interesting clouds along with the moisture.
We even got to see the rainbow!
Which of course leads to beautiful wildflowers in the nearby meadow.
We took a short hike to Treasure Falls
One of those collared lizards – they are hard to photograph as they are quite fast!
We spent the afternoon at the Archuleta County Fair, watching the Rodeo.
They had to separate a specific cow from the herd, rope it and then ‘Brand’ it.
Of course we got right into the action and tried our city slicker hand at roping!
Another day we hiked into Weminuche Wilderness, North of Pagosa Springs.
We had this hiking companion.
The fireweed was in full bloom – a very nice magenta!
Our destination was Fourmile Falls for a picnic lunch!
The cliffs are actually large conglomerate rocks that were part of the ancient seabed.

 

Chimney Rock National Monument and Navajo Reservoir Area

Chimney Rocks is a new national Monument in San Juan National Forest.
It is on the Ancient road to Chaco Canyon.
The sun shines between the chimney rocks on a neighboring hill at equinox.
We had an excellent guided tour where we learned all bits and pieces of the native American history.
Plus it was an awesome day to just be on the hilltop.
The original wall is closest to the camera with the most texture while the rebuilt wall has less protruding rocks.
Details, details, details.
Mostly sandstone construction.
This is the large kiva at the base of the chimney rocks.
Nice to meet some other travelers – we had a great group.
Storage rooms around the kiva with the orientation to the chimney’s.
This is as close to them as we can venture as the sandstone is a bit fragile for too many visitors.
There are faces looking north – perhaps the clouds have outlined them enough for you to see.
A bit further south at Navajo Reservoir, we learned that the Dominguez – Escalante Expedition crossed the San Juan river here near Arboles, CO.
This was a water tower that serviced the narrow gauge railroad – of which the Durango – Silverton portion is still operating.
You can still see the Rio Grande name on this part of the tank.
An old coal car of the Denver and Rio Grande Rail Road. And I realized we have taken no pictures of the Navajo Reservoir!