Wednesday, August 16, 2017 BLACK BEAR PASS, IRONTOWN, CORKSCREW

Finally, a beautiful, sunny day!  We grabbed a sandwich and hopped into the Jeep and headed for Black Bear Pass, elevation almost 13,000 feet.  The trail was pretty empty of other people, so we parked the Jeep in the waterfall chute, had lunch & let Jingles play in a snowdrift.

Start of Black Bear trail:

 

Going up:

This is the beginning of the waterfall chute.

We parked & had lunch.

Those are Jingles' two hind feet up in the air.

She saw the saw and made a bee-line for it:

Loves rolling in it:

But she also takes time to stop & smell the flowers:

Or stick her nose in a marmot hole:

Jim getting ready to "climb the chute"

No snow in it this year & not much water!

Looking thru the windshield, going up the chute:

The end of the chute; had to use the lockers:

Decided to head back down & explore another trail

instead of going all the way to Telluride:

Only critter we saw all day was this little marmot:

Shot of Yankee Girl Mine from US Hwy 550;

on way to Irontown:

A few shots of the old Cora Belle Mining buildings:

Next trail was Corkscrew:

Can you see the gully cutting into the shoulder of the trail?

This is why you don't drive close to the edge!!