On The Road Again 2017: Saturday, June 17, 2017 OH! POINT & ENGINEER PASS

Some of the historic information provided in this blog is from "Backcountry Adventures Colorado" by Peter Massey, Jeanne Wilson, and Angela Titus. And, as always, Click on the pictures to view a larger size.

Today's run was up to "OH! Point" and onto Engineer Pass which reaches an elevation of 12,800 feet. Riding with four Jeeps today: Larry & Cathy, Bonny & Ronny, Doug & Peggy, and us.

We head out of town on the "highway" to Animas Forks which is rough & rocky.

For awhile, on the way to Animas Forks, we run alongside a toll road built by Otto Mears in the 1870s. It was the main route for wagons & mule trains delivering supplies to the miners. Here's a shot of it; you can see it running parallel to the road about lower-mid-picture (this info compliments of Doug who is also a tour guide):

This water fall is much photographed and you can find it on postcards in town.
Not at all sure how easy it is to get to the cabin on the left.
It is called Little Niagara:

Animas River still has some frozen spots:

Animas Forks, originally called La Plata City is now a ghost now. At one time settlers had built 30 cabins, a post office, saloon, general store, and a hotel reaching a peak population of 1,500 residents. Most people could not endure the harsh winters with 25' snowfalls and one winter "the population dropped to a dozen men, three women, and 20 dogs." Mrs. Eckard, the first woman to settle there ran a boardinghouse. She was very popular because she extended credit. Once a deadbeat skipped out without paying and vigilantes found him in Silverton & threatened lynching. He paid and that was the end of deadbeats. There were a couple of periods of mining activity, one in the 1890s and again in the early 1900s. It is now a ghost town where several intact buildings still stand.