Since we got to extend our stay in Ouray by two days, we suddenly had time to do some more exploring in this beautiful area. We remembered a lovely drive in the mountains northeast of Ouray five years ago, so we headed back towards Owl Pass today. From the distance, we zoomed in to get our first look at the signature set of mountains that crown the pass. That's Chimney Rock on the left side of the photo below, and Courthouse Rock on the right.
Owl Pass is another bumpy gravel road that twists and winds up the mountain. We've been spending a lot of time on roads like this lately.
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. So we'll shorten this blog by a thousand, and just include a picture from the GPS screen that shows the direction of the road we're driving.
Our first wildlife sighting of the day came early. A buck and doe were obviously having a nice conversation on the ridge beside the gravel road.
The doe couldn't help but stare at us when the buck told her, "See those people with the camera? Those are the folks out wandering God's wonders again. They are crazy enough to drive roads like this just to see more of God's wonders."
Those deer were right. Sure enough, we are that crazy. But just around the corner we got an open view of Chimney Rock, with Courthouse Rock tucked behind.
We got that open view because we stopped beside the meadow that is famous for filming one of the final scenes in the 1969 movie "True Grit." It was here that John Wayne, with a patch over one eye, rode his horse full speed with the reins in his mouth and shooting revolvers from both hands. The outlaw of the movie had taunted John Wayne with the line, "I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man."
We drove just a little further, to a trail head for a hike that will take us closer to Chimney Rock.
It got bigger and bigger, but that's as close as we got to the chimney.
From there, we could just see the top of the point of the courthouse on the left as well.
Now that we're up higher, we can also look across to this interesting ridgeline behind us. We've seen the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, so we've named these the Snaggletooth Mountains of Colorado. Mark is looking longingly at that ridge, thinking that it sure would be fun to wander among the fins on the top of that mountain. Maybe next time!
Our progress today was slowed because Denisa discovered the first wild strawberries of the summer on this trail. Much of Colorado is in a drought, and that might be the reason the strawberry harvest is so small (in quantity and quality).
She also spotted this lovely group of yellow flowers, that were being enjoyed by several moths.
She first called it a butterfly, but she changed her mind when she saw the antennae. Butterflies have smooth antennae that usually end in a bulb, while moths' are feathery or saw-toothed.
Instead of hiking back down the same trail to the car, Mark was pretty sure he could make this into a loop trail if we just did a little bush-whacking through the forest. Why does Denisa always fall for this line?
After climbing over lots of logs and wading through bushes and jumping the creek, we did make it back to the car. Mark posed in front of the snaggletooths in victory that he successfully made another loop hike possible.
Our next stop on Owl Pass was only 5 miles away, but took another 35 minutes to make the drive. Our fondest memory of this area five years ago was the three hours we spent kayaking on Silver Jack Lake. But when we arrived today, we found that the lake had shrunk! This sandy parking lot used to be under water.
The drought has caused one of our favorite lakes to not be as beautiful. Between the storm clouds brewing . . and the very long ways we would have to carry the boat . . . and the smaller lake . . . we decided against kayaking this afternoon.
Instead, we hiked to another little lake that we remembered. This is Rowdy Lake, and it still looks good this summer.
There's a good thistle crop on the shore, and many of the plants are taller than Denisa.
The lovely purple blooms are obviously very tempting to the local bees. We took so many pictures of the blooms and bees that Denisa couldn't decide which one to put in the blog. Should she use the full bloom with the bee on the side . . .
or the photo with the center not yet bloomed out, but still very tasty to a bee . . .
or the very young bloom that was still a brilliant color, but not interesting at all to a bee . . .
or just a close-up of a bee covered in pollen, in the middle of that purple bloom. She still hasn't decided which one picture she should include in the blog.
As we left the Silver Jack area to make the long winding drive back to Ouray, we spotted another deer among the aspen trees. She smiled as we drove past and we heard her whisper, "Those must be those crazy wanderers. I hope they were blessed with another good day wandering God's wonders here on our mountain." Yes, indeed we were blessed!
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