The Alpine Loop, Visit From Our Friends and More!!

We have been looking forward to the week of August 20th since we got here!  Why you may ask?  Because our life long friends are coming to stay a week at Alpine Trails!!!  Yay!  It was a very busy week!  They wanted to see some old mining stuff, so we took them on the Bachelor Loop, outside of Creede.

 We stopped to take a mining tour!

Donna and Greg looking good in those hard hats!

Oh.......maybe this brings back memories of wearing hard hats in the refinery!

And we are ready to go into the mine!

And just like that we get to witness the first snowfall on the distant mountains!  And it's August 21st folks!

And the next day we decide to ride over to Platora.  It's a great jeep ride with the reward of good hamburgers once you reach your destination.  Our other Sweeny friends, Doyle and Karen Keith, also rode with us.  It was one of those cool, cloudy days. Saw a lot of mule deer!

There's a deer down there!

The next day Doyle and Karen took us on the Alpine Loop.  This was a really long day, but wow!  The scenery.  The Alpine Loop takes you across Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass and Hurricane Pass and California Pass (where we got sleeted on).  It's a good thing Doyle has a 4-seater and a 2-seater with him!  (Might be a bit of picture overload, but we just saw so many beautiful things!)

Look real hard and you will see a cable with a bucket on it over the chasm.

Donna and Greg exploring a waterfall up the hill.

Would love to see American Basin in the spring when it's filled with wildflowers.

Very cold and windy at the top of Cinnamon Pass.

Looking down on Animas Forks. 

A little challenging trail with a little sleet coming down.

Sheep herder's tent.

The road less traveled.

Windy and sleeting and freezing cold here!

But you are rewarded with a beautiful view!

Look at all of the sheep!

Our trail

Adding to the stack of rocks.  (BTW I have on 7 total layers of clothes. I stayed warm!)

Made it!

Donna, Mary, Ron and Greg - all bundled up at Engineer Pass!

The next day we drove over to Monte Vista to visit some of the Amish Stores - included Sunshine Country Grocery Store, Bontrager's Variety Store and Worth the Drive Bakery.

Saturday we decided to have a lazy day.  The campground held a chicken fried steak dinner that evening.  Then at 10 pm we went to Creede for an Improv Show at the theatre.

We had a great time exploring with our friends!

Next up is a wedding in Albuquerque and checking out the fall foliage!