Creede Area, CO (7/18/2019)

One of the major attractions to Creede is the Bachelor Loop, a 17 mile drive through the mountains above town that has about 15 historic locations marked for visitors.  The marked locations are mostly mines, including those at Bachelor City.  This ghost town had a population of 1200 at its peak, but nothing is left today but a few foundations.  In its heyday, it had twelve saloons, five grocery stores, four hotels, several restaurants, two barber shops, two bakeries and one church.

The loop follows West Willow Creek, a beautiful stream with many waterfalls and cascades as it rushes down the mountain to join the Rio Grande.  Some of the mining sites appear to have been active recently, while others have little to see.  One, the Last Chance Mine, is a mining museum of sorts, mostly a tourist trap.  Coming out of the mountains, some of the meadows overlooking Creede were covered with wildflowers.

About twenty miles north of Creede, I stopped at North Clear Creek Falls, although I had been there before some years ago.  There is also a South Clear Creek Falls, but I skipped it this time and started back toward South Fork.

The Rio Grande begins near here and one can easily step across the start of this major river.  There are several reservoirs made for irrigation of local ranches and farms.  The fields in many places are covered with wildflowers.  Lots of side roads lead off into wilderness and I drove one for about 25 miles where it ended near the mountain top, a hiking trail the only way to continue.

As I came back down the mountain, a young deer on the road was frightened by my approach and ran down into the valley and "hid" in a patch of plants.  A man in a truck stopped me to report he had seen a moose there about a half hour earlier.  I knew it was good habitat for moose, bit I still haven't seen one there.

PS I've just learned that a woman died driving an ATV over Corkscrew Gulch only hours after I was there.  Here is a link to the story, which also includes a video of a portion of the trail.  I don't know why, but I've never videoed that particular trail..  I'll have to do that some day.

Corkscrew Gulch