We headed out on a cloudy, cool Tuesday morning for Rat Creek and Willow Creek. To get there, you drive to Creede where we unloaded the UTV's and the ATV "Old Yeller" that we would be driving for the day.
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There's Old Yeller!
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Rat Creek and Willow Creek are 4-wheel drive roads off of Bachelor Loop. The scenery and views are outstanding. We like being on the ATV - nothing blocks your views. It wasn't dusty today either which always makes life better!
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| Calvin - what a gem of a guy! |
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| Looking forward to fall with the aspen trees turning. |
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| There's our road! |
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| So sad to see what the beetle kill has done to the pine trees. |
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| We had a large group of riders today. |
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| Beautiful flowers |
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| Ron and Walter in deep discussion. |
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| Huge beaver dam |
We made it to the summit! I think the elevation was over 12,000'. Hard to breathe, a little chilly, but WOW! What a view it was! A great place for a picnic lunch!
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| Standing on the edge! |
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| I do get scared of heights! |
Now, as I understand the story about Old Yeller, who is about 18 years old, he's done more trails than any other ATV or UTV anywhere, and he ends up costing most folks a lot of money. You see, they like him so much they decide to go out and buy their own. He's been rolled a time or two. For all of his wear and tear he is still in the best of shape. As we are leaving the summit, the road ahead of us has a few "bad and treacherous" spots. No biggie I say to myself. We're the last in the long line. Ron leaves plenty of space between us and the folks in front. When it's our turn Old Yeller starts the climb down slowly. I am hanging on tight to Ron. And oh my! The UTV in front of us is stopped. They are enjoying the beautiful scenery. So what happens next is that Ron applies Old Yeller's brakes which lock up and we start sliding down. We start hollering (me screaming most likely) for them to Go! Go! Go! (The scenery is just fantastic!) So as we are sliding down and tipping heavily to the left I am having flashbacks to our daughter Liz and her golf cart accident where she put her foot out to try to stop it from laying over. My sweet hubs I see is doing the same thing, but I guess his tree trunk legs are stout enough to save us. The UTV in front of us hears us hollering and moves on so we don't crash into them. We end up slip sliding slowly down and life is good. So good that I get off and walk the rest of the way down. I am dizzy from the lack of breathing. And Old Yeller has one more story to tell.
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| What you can see here is that I'm not on there and what you can't see is there's a really deep patch of road. He can navigate better without me on the back. Wish I would have caught the picture as the back tires are in the air! |
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| Marmots enjoying the sun |
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| This looks easy but it was another stretch of trail best done without me on the back. Thanks David and Barbara for letting me hitch a ride! |
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| Stopped at an old mine. |
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| Decided it was a core sample. |
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| All the lady riders |
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| All the men drivers, including Old Yeller! |
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| And we made it back, all in one piece and no broke foot or legs! |
Our next day we took a jeep ride by ourselves on a road outside of South Fork. Destination Cathedral Campground. The drive took us alongside Embargo Creek and we found the campground to be perfect for us! We decided to bring the tent back tomorrow and stay the night by the creek. As we left we took a fork in the road that wound up taking us up a beautiful pass! The views allowed us to see Del Norte from way up there.
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| Embargo Creek |
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| Beautiful flowers |
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| One of the biggest antelopes I've seen |
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| Beautiful views |
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| Fireweed |
We came back the next day with the tent and set up camp. So peaceful. I had it on the agenda to do a little hiking, but the elevation was around 10,000' and we huffed and puffed just walking around the campground! We really enjoyed hearing the creek and napping in the hammocks and listening to the birds.
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| Perfect spot to sit and relax! |
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| Nap time! |
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| Happy spot! |
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| Perfect way to end the day! |
Back at the park we did a few more fun things! One of the guests, Marie, is a talented artist and loves to share her gift. About a dozen of us gathered to do a little painting. It was fun!
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| JoAnn and Rhonda |
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| JoyceAnn and Barbara |
South Fork had their Logger Days Festival this past weekend. The festival was held right by the RV Park. Saturday morning they started their chain saws up for all the activities. Yep that noise got a little old after 2 days. There were various competitions. Lots of craft booths. A lot of preparation went into this festival. See those 6 trees that were replanted? That was a lot of work to only have them cut down again.
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| I guess you have to be a logger to know what to do on this obstacle course. |
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| The last competition was cutting down a tree and making it land on a full beer can. |
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| One contestant made it. |
And then there was a rodeo that night, which is also located by the RV Park. I do like small town rodeos!
And last but not least, both of our grandkids had birthdays over the weekend! There's one day a year that they are both the same age.
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| Happy 7th birthday Lucy! |
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| Happy 8th birthday Aiden!! He always gets a donut cake for breakfast on his special day! |
Until the next adventure......
