It's Cold and Dark

We are in Bayfield, CO
We will be in Antonito, CO next and then on to New Mexico


We took a drive through the town of Creede, CO on our way to the old mining area.   There are a lot of mines in the West, but especially in Colorado.  We decided to tour the Bachelor Loop and check it out.
It was a dirt road, but not nearly as difficult as Grayback or the Alpine Loop.

There were lots of abandoned mines and buildings.

The mountains and other landscape were part of the drive.

In addition to seeing the remnants of old mines and associated mining areas, we actually got to take a tour of a working mine.  The Lost Chance Mine is also a museum so we saw a lot of antique machinery and tools.  The mine was closed for about 50 years before it was reopened by an old mining buff who recently restored it.

Ready to go in!

This tunnel is original from 1891.  It's cold and dark in here!

Where you find amethyst, there is silver.

Our tour guide, Tony, actually does some of the mining himself.  They have not only found amethyst and silver, but copper and jasper along with some other minerals in this mine.  The tour took place on one of the lowest levels of this 15 level mine.

We learned at lot on this tour.

On a more random note, we did take drive over to Grand Sand Dunes National Park.  It was not cold and dark here, but bright and hot, hot, hot!

The Sand Dunes themselves were a pretty awesome sight as they are the highest Sand Dunes in North America.  We learned a lot about the combination of mountains, precipitation and wind that created this natural phenomenon.

Earlier in the summer there is a creek next to the Sand Dunes that fills up with snow run off from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  But this winter there was so little snow that the creek never really filled up.  We did, however see some brave people climb the mountains and sand board down.  Wow!

The tire issue we had along the Alpine Loop did not prevent us from more off roading.  The road at the National Park was not nearly as treacherous as the Loop so we took a quick drive.

Alas, we needed to deflate our tires to go beyond this spot with such an appropriate name.