Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Cheri July-3-12
7:38 AM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
Today we did a 219 mile trip. We traveled the Silver Thread Scenic & Historic Byway. We rode the winding road spotting 4 antelope right away at Blue Mesa Lake. The motorcycle scared them and they began running along the water’s edge.
We continued along Hwy 149. It weaves along spectacular river canyons. We entered the San Juan Mountains and the historic town of Lake city. They were having a craft show in the little park there and we needed a break, so we stopped and looked around. We didn’t spend much time there. All the items were beautiful, but very expensive.
We continued our journey and climbed up over the Continental Divide (over 12,000 ft elevation) via Spring Creek Pass. Near the summit, we pulled off at North Clear Creek Falls. This proclaims to be the most photographed waterfalls in Colorado. It is not visible from the road; it seems to appear almost magically out of a meadow and flows down into a little canyon. It was beautiful.
The little town of Creede was our destination for the day. It was another 52 miles, nestled in a beautiful canyon, 8,852 ft up in the San Juan Mountains.
In 1889 silver was discovered in Creede. In the early days Creede was one of the largest producers of silver in the country, shipping out more than $1,000,000 in ore every month. Today, Creede is a town centered on tourism. They have great fishing and hunting. All last month they had closed one of the canyons there to build a set for Johnny Depp’s next movie, The Lone Ranger.
The main street is graced with century old buildings. The town is four blocks wide and 12 blocks long and has a year around population of 500.
We walked the streets and checked out the shops. We ended up having lunch at the old Fire House. It gave us a chance to sit and relax. The atmosphere was nice and the food was good.
We had stopped at the Visitors Center on the way into town and picked up a pamphlet on the mining tour there. It was a 17 mile loop on a dirt road (yes, another DIRT ROAD).
The first part of the loop was a steep climb, but we made it ok. We got some really neat pictures of the old silver mines. It started to rain about half way around the loop, so we stopped and put on our rain suits. This was the day they said no RAIN. We finished the loop and headed for home. We must have ridden at least 50 miles in rain.
The scenery was beautiful. We saw 4 deer and I even saw a bear in the trees along the roadside.
We arrived home at 6pm and were ready for something hot to drink. It was a cool-wet ride.
We do hope everyone enjoys the pictures and they make you feel as if you were along with us today.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Lake City, Creede ride.
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