Wednesday, July 14, 1999
WOW – we took a Hummer tour in the mountains – WOW!
Colorado cut and scraped roads through the mountains going through Cinnamon and Engineer passes. For the most part, these are four-wheel drive roads and most of the traffic is Jeeps (one can be rented for $100 a day). Edith and I had signed up for the Hummer tour, which took about seven hours. The Hummer is quite an imposing vehicle and nothing could stop us on this challenging drive. It even has a feature where the tires can be inflated or deflated by pushing a switch on the instrument panel. (Fred, you would have loved this trip. If only we could have driven this road together when we were young and wild!). We had nine people on the tour, and we were nicely fitted into two rows of open-air seats, one three feet higher than the other. The driver was entertaining. He would stop alongside other drivers who were passing us in the opposite direction and asked why their occupants looked so terrified or warned them that three more Hummers were coming around the bend. He was good at it and everyone, well almost everyone, took it good-naturedly.
It’s a lot different having someone else, especially someone experienced, do the diving on these mountain roads. And sitting in the open air and higher than anyone else really gave us a wonderful view. The road is mainly one lane and watching our driver pass other cars was part of the enjoyment (and excitement). The higher elevations were especially cold today but we had jackets, hats and blankets and we did just fine. We had a little rain but hardly noticed it.
At times the roads, which are scraped in the dirt, are relatively smooth and unimposing. That’s about 20 percent of the trip. The shelf roads are carved out of the side of the mountain and some of the time the drop is not too steep, but there are some that will take your breath away. Some parts of the road have large boulders that could not be removed when constructing the roadway, and many times are found at the hairpin turns (there are many of these switchbacks as the roads wind up the mountains). The Hummer was ready for every challenge.
One of the first stops was Great American Basin. True to its name, a large cupped valley rests between several very high mountain peaks. Just last week, the basin was filled with snow. But now, the snow has mainly melted and the wildflowers have started to bloom. These are nothing like the wildflowers we saw a few days ago. The area was lush and the flowers gorgeous, nourished by the melting snow. Everyone took pictures. Edith sought the “perfect” picture showing a small stream framed with flowers. She has such an artistic soul. The Columbine is the State flower, and we saw many of them along the road – they are worthy of their designation.
We saw a few new animals. Three elk were grazing at the edge of a stand of pine trees. We later saw a marmot scooting down the side of a meadow with is large bushy tail flopping up and down to give it balance. We also saw a large herd of sheep. Our driver called them gray maggots that eat the wildflowers (there’s no shortage of opinions here). There were two shepherds on foot accompanied by a few sheep dogs. They grazed on a very steep mountainside and munched and moved at a fairly good clip. This is public land and open grazing is allowed. Whenever we saw green mountain valleys such as these, we always kept a lookout for Julie Andrews.
At a certain point, there were no more trees, and we entered the tundra. We parked at our highest stopping point and looked around at the surrounding mountain peaks. We were standing at a 12,000-foot elevation. There were no trees or flowers, only the alpine tundra.
Much mining occurred in these very mountains. The remnants of many mines were visible, some of them in pretty good shape. The structures themselves are not what are impressive. What’s impressive is how the miners traveled these roads and brought the supplies in and carried the ore out. This was all done in severe and unpredictable weather conditions and on roads not nearly as “good” as these.
Everyone packed a lunch and we stopped near an abandoned mine. Boy-oh-boy, those sandwiches tasted good. This was one of the few chances to go to the bathroom, and the line to the unisex toilet was long. Edith filled her pockets with some more rocks. Out of necessity, these were small ones. The driver told us a story about a husband and wife who worked a mine together. I pictured in my mind a similar mining team of Edith and Carl. I could hear her say “oh, look how pretty this rock is Carl, and look at this one with the cute little bumps, and…”
On the way back, we stopped at a waterfall. We had to walk down a hill, and the first part of the trail had steps made out of irregularly shaped rocks. Edith led the way, and was first down the hill. I would call her maneuver the double flip, one and a half twists and a double roll. Maybe she learned this sequence in gymnastics class at Ohio State. Right now, we are in the cabin, and I am watching her apply the fourth Band-Aid. Actually, she’s doing fine and we’re planning tomorrow’s trip. It’s a little overnight vacation away from Lake City. Stay tuned.
When we got back from the mountains I saw a cute little blonde, who is a recent arrival at the cabins, walk over to the fish-cleaning bench. She pulled fish after fish from her creel and cleaned and gutted the finny critters. To all the guys out there: where were the girls like this when we were making our life’s choice? Should I get her phone number?
We decided to reward ourselves for surviving our trip through the mountains. We went to a restaurant called Facing West. It changed hands this year and is located in an impressive building overlooking the river. We arrived at 7 p.m. and were a little worried since there were only two other people in the very large, paneled dining room. But soon, group after group arrived, all looking like they were part of the BMW crowd. It was a gourmet dining experience. We each had trout with a delicious sauce. And yes, we did save room for dessert.
On Thursday we are heading out
for a two-day trip to Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride.
We’ll be back in our cabin in Lake City on Friday night.
We are hoping the telephone/computer connections are better in Telluride.
(Oprah and Steven Speilberg, among others, have mountain homes in Telluride.
We should fit right in!)