Soggy Day in the San Juans

I set out this morning to do a loop through southwestern Colorado...primarily for the purpose of leaf peeping.  This countryside north of Durango was a good start.  A rickety fence is the photographer's friend.

Blazing orange aspen.

A mountain valley has a fine contrast between blue spruce and aspen.

Blow this pic up and you'll see that it's a study in aspen trunks...white rods in a sea of gold.

This mountain had a dusting of snow that revealed its intricate rock formations.  I learned today that the San Juans are of volcanic origin..though the volcanoes died 20 million years ago.  Still, you see some resemblances to the much newer Cascades.

Silverton, CO, with the San Juan county courthouse on the left.

Downtown Silverton.  It's quite busy...a major touron stop, and of course the northern terminus of the railroad from Durango.  Need to stay here sometime.

North of Silverton, you get into mining country with all sorts of minerals coloring the mountainsides.

Near Red Mountain Pass.  Wonder how it got its name?  Lots of gold and silver was extracted from this area between the late 19th and mid 20th century...at least 300 million dollars at todays value.

Blazing hillside.

Another dappling of green and gold.

This waterfall is between Red Mountain Pass and Ouray.  a platform has been built out over a cliff so when I took this picture I was looking maybe 300 feet straight down!

West of Ridgeway, the highway heads straight for the San Juans.  This pic was taken about 130 PM.  No rain had yet fallen, but the forecast had an 80 percent chance of moisture.  And it was closing in from the south, the direction you're looking toward in this photo.

Fall in the foreground, winter in the background.  Winter will soon take over the whole area.

And here's the 80 percent chance of precip!  Ascending south of Telluride to Lizard Head Pass, 10,222 feet above sea level, a steady rain turned to slushy snow.  Naturally the Lizards had to have a photo op at their pass, but they didn't like it.  "Get me to Phoenix!" is what they're saying.

Nonetheless, the snow was beautiful, coating the spruces in fresh white.  It's a boreal look, like Canada or Alaska.  Wild and untamed come to mind.

Now I'm in Rico.  At 8800 feet there was a mix of rain and snow here, but look at the aspen blazing just south of town!  There were some of the best aspen I've seen here around Rico.  But it was gloomy and misty on this day, so the full effect was missing.

This shot from Mesa Verde was taken as the rain was beginning to diminish.  I'm staying at the Far View Lodge in the park tonight.  It's very quiet, peaceful, and cold.

Mesa Verde is in P-J country (pinyon-juniper) and the trees have been further diminished by a couple of large fires in recent years.  But the hillsides are still in fine fall form.  The damp fogs and mists reminded me of Ireland.  A rare day in the normally dry four corners region.

And at the end of the day, this was the view from my deck at the Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde.