Nathrop, Colorado

We both arrived within a 1/2 hour of each other

Our timing was perfect

Just before the hail

Day 1

George and Janine

Pronghorn

George catching a nap while we hiked up to look for an arch

Rock Climbers

Old Railroad tunnels

Tracks relocated closer to the Arkansas River now

Day 2

Church of Marmot

View from Mt Princeton

Love Ranch

The Chalk Cliffs located at the opening to Chalk Creek Canyon.The Cliffs are not made of chalk. The texture is kaolinite, a soft rock that's produced by hot springs that percolate through cracks in the mountain.

Day 3

Hancock Pass here we come

Hancock Lake

Grey Jay

Hancock Pass
Continental Divide
Elevation 12,140 feet

Marmot

With the rain we decided to turn around and head for camp

Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. We found these 2 young male moose.  They played and put on a show for us for 30 minutes.

Checking out Iron Chest Trail

George walking on water

Checking out the trail to Grizzly Lake

 St. Elmo is a ghost town founded in 1880, St. and sits at an elevation of 9,961 feet. Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining for gold and silver started. The mining industry started to decline in the early 1920s, and in 1922 the railroad discontinued service. The community is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the St. Elmo Historic District. It is one of Colorado's best preserved ghost towns. Even though St. Elmo is considered a ghost town it is still inhabited.

St. Elmo was originally named Forest City but was later changed because of the multitude of towns with the same name. The name St. Elmo was chosen by Griffith Evans, one of the founding fathers, who was reading a novel with the same title.

Town Hall

No Town Hall would be complete without a jail cell

Hummingbirds love the high altitude

Chipmunk Crossing

The General Store has chipmunk food .50 cents a bag

Day 4
The Mary Murphy Mine recovered over $60,000,000 worth of gold while it was in operation. While the other mines eventually shut down, the Mary Murphy Mine continued to operate until the railroad was abandoned in 1922.

We hiked over to look down on Grizzly Lake

We saw on Facebook that our friend Carol was in Buena Vista just 8 miles away visiting her daughter.

Dinner with Carol

Down town Buena Vista

Too bad we weren't there on a Wednesday

Day 5

At first we thought he was laying down but it turned out that the brush was just that tall.

Mirror Lake

Right on the edge

 TinCup, originally called Virginia City. The community was once a prominent mining town. TinCup is now a community of summer homes with a few year-round residents. Many historic buildings are still in use.

In October 1859, prospector Jim Taylor panned some gold from Willow Creek, and carried it back to camp in a tin cup; he named the valley “Tin Cup Gulch.” For years the area was the site of seasonal placer mining, but no year-round communities were established, partly because of the danger of Indian attack.

In 1878, lode deposits were discovered in the area, and the town of Virginia City was laid out in March 1879. By the 1880 census, the town had a population of 1,495. Virginia City was incorporated in August 1880, but confusion with Virginia City, Nevada, and Virginia City, Montana, caused the residents to change the name. The town was reincorporated in July 1882 as Tin Cup.

Early Tin Cup was a violent place. Town marshal Harry Rivers died in a gunfight in 1882, and marshal Andy Jameson was shot to death in 1883.The town population declined when the mines were exhausted. The post office closed in 1918, and the last town election was held in 1918.

Lunch at Frenchy's

Frenchy's sold fish food .50 cents a bag

Avalanche damage

Midway Water Tank

The 47,500 gallon tank that stood her was located at the midway point on the railroad between Pitkin and the Alpine Tunnel

The 30,000 gallon Williams Gulch water tank was constructed in 1885. This is one of the only tanks on the entire South Park railroad system that remains intact.  Water tanks were an essential part of the railroad.  Typically, tanks were located every 15-30 miles along the line, but because of the steep grade and high elevation, here they were found every 2-5 miles.

Sherrod Loop
Loops on the rail line were important features because they made it possible to avoid reversing the locomotives up a series of switchbacks.  This particular loop achieved a 228 degree turn.  It was placed on the south facing slope so that it could take advantage of the sun to keep the snow from building up on the track.

Day 6

Taking it easy at the campground before heading to our next destination tomorrow.

George and Janine had not done very much jeeping prior to this week.
They really enjoyed seeing all the wildlife but commented that they felt like they were in intense training. Funny because we thought we had taken it easy on them.  Not even hitting the trail til 9am.  We'll see if they meet up with us again.