Over Wolf Creek Pass to South Fork, Colorado

By the time we left Pagosa Springs, Mark was feeling stronger. With his high fever came some digestive issues, so he still must be careful about what he eats. The pounds have melted off him this summer with our busy hiking schedule, and he didn't need to lose more weight now. But he did. Denisa hikes the same trails and eats the same meals, and she usually doesn't eat the nightly ice cream that Mark enjoys. But she isn't seeing the pounds melt off her. It just doesn't seem fair!

We are continuing our trek to the east, and traveling back into the tall mountains when we leave Pagosa Springs.

That means we're taking the motor home over Wolf Creek Pass, with all its twists and turns. Once again we will cross the Continental Divide at the top. As we approached the pass we were humming the old C.W. McCall song that was released in 1975, and then belting out the chorus, "Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the great divide, Truckin' on down the other side."

Denisa took a picture of the Garmin screen as we drove over the summit of the pass at an elevation just over 10,800 feet. Our little diesel motor is working hard to drive up all that elevation gain, and it shows our speed is down to 32 miles per hour by the time we hit the top.

But if you're familiar with the Wolf Creek Pass song, you know the harder part is going down the pass. We didn't lose any chickens like Earl and his brother in the song, but we can relate to the lyrics, "It was hairpin town, and switchback city, One of 'em looked like a can full'a worms, another looked like malaria germs." We kept humming the song, even though we were sad to see the views from the top that include all the pine-beetle-killed trees. At the summit there are definitely more dead trees than live ones.

It was a 52-mile drive today from our campground at Pagosa Springs to our new site at Alpine Trails RV Park in South Fork, Colorado. We're looking forward to cool temperatures in this little mountain town at an elevation of over 8,200 feet. To go along with those cool temperatures, we also got rain. We found out that this town hasn't seen any moisture for a month, but our first three days were all rainy. So of course, we take credit for bringing the rain with us. But it has curtailed some of our plans, like cancelling some planned kayak paddling.

In between raindrops, we did manage to take the one-mile hike to see the biggest tree in the Rio Grande National Forest.

The old sign said that this big tree is 66 inches inches around, and we think it has grown since then. That's more than Mark can wrap his arms around.

On Sunday afternoon, we thought it was fitting to take a short hike up the Church Creek Trail.  The first section was rather steep . . .

and we had just popped out of the forest when we started hearing the thunder. Above tree-line is not a good place to be when there is lightning, so we had to head back down the mountain prematurely.

But this area needs the moisture so badly, that we are glad they are getting some rain. Besides, we were treated to a nice rainbow view more than once this week.

So after our successful trip over Wolf Creek Pass, we are enjoying the cool temperatures of South Fork and wandering God's rainbow wonders!