Alpine Loop @en

now browsing by tag

 
 

Alpine Loop (2)

 
I slept in Animas Fork. This is an old mining town founded in 1880 and which was abandoned around 1920 when the fall of the metal rate during the great depression made their extraction unprofitable. The village hosted up to 450 people during the summer of 1887.
 
 
1. The village transformed into a Ghost Town but an association keeps the remains in a state close to the original.
 
_dsc1896b
 
 
2. The “mill” that served to separate ore by block sizes collapsed.
 
_dsc1895b
 
 
3. Well preserved house that housed two families (one per floor).
 
_dsc1894b
 
 
4. VivaLaVida heading to another pass over 13,000 feet : Engineer Pass.
 
_dsc1900b
 
 
5. Small alpine lake…
 
_dsc1901b
 
 
6. The track rises in the tundra. It doesn’t seem but some sections are quite steep.
 
_dsc1903b
 
 
7. Reaching the pass.
 
_dsc1913b
 
 
8. Grandiose panorama…
 
_dsc1911_pano_b
 
 
9. VivaLaVida looks small up there!
 
_dsc1914b
 
 
10. Tundra and Snowy rocks.
 
_dsc1921b
 
 
11. Touch of vegetal color…
 
_dsc1922b
 
 
12. Facing to the North…
 
_dsc1924b
 
 
13. … there is a “Matterhorn Peak”! Funny Americans! 😉
 
_dsc1925b
 
 
14. Descent into the aspens I so love and who, on this slope, began to take their fall colors, such intense orange yellow !
 
_dsc1926b
 
 
15. A small lake made by Mr. Beaver!
 
_dsc1930b
 
 
16. Dam builder.
 
_dsc1932b
 
 
17. Capitol City.
 
_dsc1937b
 
 
18. Indicator of past industrial activity, an arch dam built around 1890 or what is left…
 
_dsc1939b
 
 
19. Beautiful house in the picturesque small mining town of Lake City.
 
_dsc1941b
 
 
20. 2nd street…
 
_dsc1954b
 
 
21. Cinnamon Valley in late afternoon.
 
_dsc1942b
 
 
22. Aspens.
 
_dsc1943b
 
 
23. last sunrays on the road.
 
_dsc1947b
 
 
24. Cheers from my camp along the Lake Fork Gunnison River.
 
_dsc1953b
 
 
It continues with some other places of Colorado in a few days. Thank you for your loyalty to follow this blog! 😀
 
 

Alpine loop…

 
Imogene Pass is by far not the only track traced in these mountains. I went through Ouray buy some fresh food before traveling part of the Alpine Loop, a track that some Jeep enthusiasts love to discover.
 
 
1. In Ouray even more than in Telluride, we believe to be a century ago!
 
_dsc1778b
 
 
2. The opera building.
 
_dsc1777b
 
 
3. Red Mountains which are aptly named, since my camp.
 
_dsc1781b
 
 
4. The next day, VivaLaVida begins by Gray Copper Gulch roa, amid the Red Mountains.
 
_dsc1789b
 
 
5. It’s color of the iron oxide which obviously gave their name to these mountains.
 
_dsc1792b
 
 
6. Colors are awesome!
 
_dsc1797b
 
 
7. While on the nearby mountains, the iron ore concentration is not as important.
 
_dsc1798b
 
 
8. At the first pass (12,400 feet), a small lake…
 
_dsc1805b
 
 
9. A little further, another cad and peaks powdered with snow of the night.
 
_dsc1806b
 
 
10. Lake Como, the larger of the area.
 
_dsc1813b
 
 
11. VLV cashes altitude unflinchingly.
 
_dsc1814b
 
 
12. Snow shower at 12,700 feet, over California Pass.
 
_dsc1819b
 
 
13. Downhill on the other side while the shower goes away.
 
_dsc1821b
 
 
14. I left VLV a few hours to walk to a swampy area.
 
_dsc1826b
 
 
15. Altitude bogs…
 
_dsc1828b
 
 
16. Everywhere, mining relics leave their trace. Here, a typical mine with tongue extracts waste.
 
_dsc1866b
 
 
17. entrance of Silver Queen Mine…
 
_dsc1844b
 
 
18. All were closed to prevent accident.
 
_dsc1842b
 
 
19. Nice surprise: I could finally capture the portrait of an adorable pika, so lively that it’s almost impossible to photograph.
 
_dsc1858b
 
 
20. It lives in screes and it sneaks in full speed.
 
_dsc1862b
 
 
21. New snow shower.
 
_dsc1868b
 
 
22. Small alpine lake.
 
_dsc1870b
 
 
23. Downhill into the next valley. I only saw two Jeeps that day…
nbsp;
_dsc1872b
 
 
24. For my brother and just as testimony because the picture is very bad: a golden eagle.
 
_dsc1874b
 
 
25. Another raptor that I have not positively identified.
 
_dsc1887b
 
 
26. There is plenty of marmots..!
 
_dsc1889b
 
 
27. Alpine biotope.
 
_dsc1880b
 
 
28. Within minutes, the track is covered with hail…
 
_dsc1892
 
 
Well, following the Alpine Loop in the next update, hoping not to bore you with all these alpine tundra images…