History, Photography, Travel

Exploring Creede’s Scenic Wonders

For those of you who have been following my blog, you might recall that I was in the process of retiring when I made my last post. Before we get into the trip to Creede, I just want to fill you in on what’s been happening since that post.

I have sold my practice to another advisory firm, but I am still fully licensed during the transition period. I wanted to stay licensed to be there for my clients as they adjust to new advisors, and I also wanted to be a resource for the new owners. For the past two months I have been totally swamped with meetings as we are trying to get with as many of my clients as possible in joint face-to-face meetings.

The Continental Divide Trail

However, in later June I had a chance to go visit my best friend whop has a small summer cabin in Creede, Colorado. This year, David had planned a full itinerary for us. The first full day I was there, we took their Jeep and drove up a trail to the Continental Divide.

This is a view downstream from a small series of beaver ponds along the Continental Divide Trail. If you look into the background of the photo, you can see the severe beetle kill in the area – a symptom of climate change.

The Continental Divide is a geologic line across North America which is generally the highest point on the continent running mostly north to south. All rivers on the western side of the divide eventually flow into the Pacific Ocean, and those east of the divide eventually flow into the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. (I am leaving out northern Canada and Alaska for simplicity.)

This is looking ahead on the Continental Divide Trail. Those two peaks are over 13,000 feet, and yes, that is our trail winding up ahead between the peaks.

Part of the drive was a fairly easy gravel road, but as we continued to climb, first over 10,000 feet (3048 m), then over 11,000 feet (3353 m), the road became a true 4×4 trail. It got rougher and steeper. At one point, I got out of the Jeep, to help David across a very steep section in case he needed to back down the trail. And then we had one fairly deep water crossing where again I got out to help David make sure his Jeep didn’t go in over the engine air intake. Everything was fine in both instances, and we continued climbing past 12,000 feet (3658 m)! We were now above tree line, and still we climbed! Finally, we reached the crest and the end of the trail at about 12,850 feet (3917 m)! The views were incredible!

This is looking mainly west from the end of our trail. The foreground peak is over13,000 feet (3962 m), while some of the peaks in the background over over 14,000 feet (4267 m)!
This was the view north from our Jeep, again with that foreground peak being a bit over 13,000 feet!

In a normal year in later June these peaks and even the upper valleys would still be covered in snow, but the winter in the western US was incredibly dry and warm. There were only a few snow patches in the northern facing peaks. But we did see some cool purple flowers, and if anyone know what these are, please let me know.

I found these bluish purple flowers right about where I took the above photo. They were really beautiful.

The return trail was even rougher than the one we came up on. These trails make a bit of s loop in the upper area. So, David and I had a very slow rough ride back down toward Creede. However, along the way we saw a cool marmot! The little guy (girl?) was sitting in a perfect pose on a rock near the trail. David stopped the Jeep, and just as I was very quietly sliding out of the passenger door, another Jeep approached from behind and spooked our little buddy. Fortunately I was already out of the Jeep and tracked the marmot up on some rocks in low brush. Here is my photo of our marmot friend.

I only had my 24mm to 200mm lens on my camera when I snapped this, so I had to crop in quite a bit. But, here is our little friend keeping watch. Right after I took this photo, the marmot scampered up into the rocks and out of sight.

North Clear Creek

Now my buddy David is an avid fishermen, so the next day we drove up to an area northwest of Creede known as North Clear Creek. David has fished (fly fishing – catch and release only) this creek many times, and he wanted to try a bit more remote section. So, while David was fishing, I hiked around and took some photos. North Clear Creek flows into the Rio Grande River which ends up in the Gulf of Mexico at the southern tip of Texas.

If you saw my post about Creede from last summer, you saw this photo of the North Clear Creek Falls

This is North Clear Creek Falls which is quite ways downstream from where David was fishing.

David and I tried to stay within earshot of each other due to the presence of bears in the area. The first place I really stopped to take some photos was along a section of North Clear Creek with a cool beaver dam. As I was walking around the area near the dam, I found some logs from the trees uphill that had beaver teeth chew marks.

David was fishing downstream (well behind me). If you look into the center of the photo, you can get a really good look at the beaver dam. This was such an incredibly beautiful area, and we didn’t see anyone else fishing for most of the day. I can see why David loves to fish this location with the peace, quiet and beauty.
Here is another view of the creek from a bit farther downstream. You can see the beaver dam in the distance.

As the day progressed, storm clouds were building to the east and southeast, and that provided me with a cool shot from another area of North Clear Creek well downstream from the above photographs.

This is looking southeast along North Clear Creek. Those were rain clouds, but as you can see the rain wasn’t quite reaching the ground in the area in the background upper right. This can be quite dangerous for fires if these storms produce lightening, but no rain.

Upper Rio Grande River

David had been doing his homework, plus he has now spent three summers fly fishing these waters. He had planned for us to drive up to the Rio Grande Reservoir, and then beyond where the Rio Grande is fed by another creek. Now there is some dispute about the name of the creek that feeds into the Rio Grande River just above the upper end of the reservoir. The local maps show this creek as Ute Creek, but Google Maps shows this as “Lost Trail Creek”. For this blog, I’ll go with Google and say we were at Lost Trail Creek.

David had been wanting to fish these waters for awhile, so he got into his wading gear, and I got my photo pack together. This is bear country, and down by the creek the willow bushes were really thick with very limited visibility. Therefore, David had made sure we brought his two-way radios with a good range of up to 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km). David is a retired US Air Force Colonel, so he is quite precise and plans about everything. (OK, he was that way in high school, too. I am like that too. That’s probably why we were both honor students. 😉) So, David’s plan was to check in with each other on the radios every 30 minutes and of course, call if there was trouble.

This is the upper Rio Grande River looking kind of northwest. David had fantastic success fishing here that day.

Our first check in went perfectly at 10:00 (am for us non-military time folks). My plan was to hike along the creek upstream while looking for photo opportunities as I noticed that the farther I got from the camping and parking area, the less fishermen I saw. As I was walking along the willows kept getting thicker and thicker, and I was getting concerned about literally bumping into a bear or moose, or just plan getting stuck. So I found a small game trail that went up the hill to the sagebrush out of the creek flood zone. I knew David would not even be able to see me, so at 10:30 I radioed him for the second check-in.

Here is another view of the river from up on the upper bank. You can see the willow bushes as you look toward the left along the river. What a totally beautiful day!

Nothing! I checked the radio to make sure that I was doing things correctly, and still no response. I wasn’t too worried as I figured that David was just in the middle of landing a trout, or maybe tying on a new/different fly. He had been quite way downstream from me; fishing much closer to the more open trail and the camping/parking area. Plus, I had heard no screams, so I was assuming there were no issues. I kept hiking along the upper bank area above the willows looking for more photo opportunities. Along the trail I was following (a game trail), I had seen elk tracks, deer tracks, cougar tracks, and some elk poop and possibly bear poop.

I took this photo from about the last place I tried to stay on the Rio Grande bank. The view was fantastic, but the hiking got pretty much impassible past here.

Haven already taken some decent photographs, and noticing that it was now after 11:00, I decided to start making my way back toward the camping/parking area. I knew the trail I was on would force me to cross another feeder creek if I didn’t get back to the original trail next to the Rio Grande. So I stayed up on upper bank for as long as possible and finally dropped down to the river near where I figured the bridge was crossing Lost Trail Creek. I found my way back to just about the right spot, and as I was looking for a possible photo looking downstream, there was David in the river. I waved at him, and a couple of minutes later we were together again. I asked him what happed to our call check-ins, and he help up the radio with water still dripping out of it! He said when he was netting a fish, the radio slipped off his vest and landed in the river for a second. It crackled for a moment and then died! Thus, no check-ins. Next time I am bringing bear spray!

This was as far as I got om my little hike that day. There was a resort camp to the north of our parking area, and I found a barbed wire fence blocking the trail along the upper bank. The fence actually went right down to the river, and there was decent trail through the willows right to the river. If you look up on the peak, you can see the massive beetle killed dead trees. I have really tried to keep that out of most of my photos, but as you can see, huge swaths of the forest are just dead.

Wheeler Peak Geologic Area

Our last full day adventure was a drive up to Wheeler Peak Geologic area to the northeast of Creede. Once again, David had done his homework. The drive there was about 9 miles on CO 149 from Creede, and then another 25 miles on a dirt road known as Pool Table Road.

The first 11 miles on Pool Table Road was pretty easy going. The road went up pretty high and ended just past the old Hanson’s Mill and campground. Hanson’s Mill was a timber mill started in the later 1800s that mainly supplied timber for the railroad lines for the numerous mines in the area. The whole operation closed down in the 1940s, and there is nothing left but old stumps in the area and an old burn area from where their sawdust pile burned.

I panned around in this little video to give you an idea as to what you would see from our vantage point while looking at the geologic formations.

Right after the campground the Pool Table Road ends, and from here there is a very rough 4×4 trail up toward the Wheeler Geologic Area. We saw a sign at the trail head with a hiking trail 8 miles long going to Wheeler and the 4×4 trail at 14 miles. The sign said that if you take the 4×4 trail, you may see hikers at Wheeler that left about the same time as you! David and I were really contemplating this, but we figured someone had really gotten their times messed up.

This is the Wheeler Geologic Area – remnants of a 29 million year old 4000 foot deep pyroclastic flow.

By a few miles down the 4×4 trail the sign’s meaning began to get clearer. I still don’t think may people could hike 8 miles gaining at least 1000 to over 1500 feet (305m to 457m) in 2.5 to 3 hours (I could not do that). But, that trail was rough!! Really rough! Many times we were cruising along (more like bumping along at around 4 to 5 miles per hour (6 to 8 kph). I didn’t take any photos along the way as we were either in thick forest with the Jeep barely fitting between trees or in high open ground with just grass and sagebrush around. After about 2.5 to 3 hours of bouncing along we finally hit a small parking/camping area. There were a couple of 4×4 side-by-side vehicles there and us.

I like this photo as it gives you a good idea how deep and how far down these formations go.

We found a sign for the remaining foot trail to the Wheeler Geologic Area. The sign said the trail was 3/4 mile (1.2km) long one way. We were at 11,000 feet at the trail head, and the trail got up to about 11,600 feet at the geologic site. David swears that trail was much longer! But what a view at the top!

So, what exactly is the Wheeler Peak Geologic Area? About 29 million years ago a huge pyroclastic volcano erupted in that area covering the entire region with a massive pyroclastic ash flow up to 4000 feet (1219m) thick! These eruptions went on for a long time. And over the many millennia, that hardened ash began to erode into strange hoodoo formations of various colors.

If you are wondering why the sky is so deep blue, it’s not from a polarizer. At this altitude the sky is just darker on a clear day – just a bit closer to space.

The various colors in the ancient ash are quite interesting. You can clearly see the various individual eruption layers too.

One thing that was quite interesting about the ash was just how slippery it was. David and I were really careful to stay well back of the steeper drop off as there would be no stopping if you started to slip down. Another thing that was surprising was how hard the ash was. From the signs at the trailhead, it sounded like the ash deposits were quite soft, but I guess that is relative when describing various rock formations. The stuff literally seemed hard as rock.

The viewpoint was not like the Grand Canyon with landings and fences – no! This is a wilderness trail area, and there are no barriers to keep one from tumbling down into the gorge – just common sense.

Here is another closer view of the formations. Just pick your favorite scene.

After I had left, David shared a Facebook post from Creede, CO with me that was talking about the Wheeler Geologic Area and how it has really fallen out of favor with tourists as the drive to get there is so long, rough and requires a serious 4×4 vehicle. After our long and bumpy ride over 28 miles of trail up and back, I can see why. David said that if others want to see the formations, they will really need to know about the drive, the time required and the hours of jostling.

But, what a trip I had! I totally enjoyed the time spent with my buddy and then the totally wonderful scenery! I forgot to mention that there are some really fine places to eat in Creede. One of the very best is the old Creede Hotel in town. The food there is absolutely wonderful!!

Well, I really hope you enjoyed the story and the photos of the area in southern Colorado. This is a fantastic part of the country with outdoor activities for everyone. Stay tuned for my next post about a side trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Here is a preview photo for you.

Thank you so much for taking your time to visit my blog; I really appreciate your support. Have fun out there, and stay safe!

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