January Up The Dolores River

Highway 145 north of Dolores, Colorado.

My favorite highways are those that are so lightly traveled that, if you saw a must-have photo, you could hit your emergency flashers and stop without pulling off to the side. Most of the time, anyway.

The Upper Dolores near Stoner, Colorado. (Yes, its real name.)

I usually pull over anyway, if at all possible. Because frequently it turns out that there's more than one good shot to be had, now that I have stopped rolling down the road.

Snow covered Alder branches along the Dolores River.

A mid-January snowstorm failed to make it all the way down to the Montezuma Valley of southwest Colorado in any meaningful way. So I decided to go up into the nearby San Juan Mountains to meet it up there.

Blue Spruce sapling, Dolores River.

From Cortez to Telluride, Highway 145 is the way to go. Scenic and lightly traveled, it crosses the Dolores River at the town of Dolores (elevation 6,936 feet), then follows the upper part of the river to its headwaters near Lizard Head Pass.

Due to a very dry and warmer than normal winter, the upper Dolores was partially ice free at about 7,500 feet. Above that it was almost totally frozen over.

Downtown Rico, Colorado, the historic former silver mining boomtown.

I paused once again at my favorite mountain town, Rico (elev. 8,825), which gets a lot of snow in the winter. The roads were wet but clear of snow or ice.

The Rico Community Church, and the Town Hall just down the block.

Above Rico, on the way up to Lizard Head Pass, I spotted a herd of elk up on a mountainside, lounging around in a high meadow. Amazing. Not that there were elk there (it's public land, after all, on the San Juan National Forest), but that they were there now. In January. When normally they would have migrated down to the ranches down near Dolores.

Elk herd in a mountain meadow above Rico, Colorado.

But with the snowpack so thin, why bother? They will happily stay up there unless more vigorous storms force them lower.

Rest area at Lizard Head Pass, elevation 10,222 feet (3,116 meters).

Soon I arrived at Lizard Head Pass itself. The high mountain meadows there are favorites of mine. Especially on such a snowy day when I couldn't see the surrounding high peaks.

Partially thawed mountain meadow stream at Lizard Head Pass.

After a couple more hours I decided I was satisfied with my day up in the high country, and started back down the Dolores. Interestingly, the further down in elevation I drove the more snow was flying. And sticking to everything. I was driving into a snow squall coming in from the west.

Snow flocked Cottonwood trees along the Dolores River.

I paused several times to photograph the ethereal beauty of the white-flocked cottonwood trees along the river, which would drop off their branches early the next morning at the slightest bit of warming.

Upper Dolores River valley in the snowstorm.

Photo location: Montezuma and Dolores counties, southwest Colorado.

See much more of my photography at my website: www.NaturalMoment.com

© Copyright 2018 Stephen J. Krieg

Last Dollar Road, Last Day of September

Driving up into the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, I hooked a right turn onto Last Dollar Road. Always worth it.

The fall aspen colors were not quite at their peak, despite some early snows. Light snows. The aspen forests seemed to be sitting it out for another day, week, whatever before casting their leaves for the winter.

Since fall is my favorite time of year, I was in no hurry to see it go any faster than necessary.

© Copyright 2017 Stephen J. Krieg

Mesa Verde: the Green Table-Mountain is Greening Up

Point Lookout Trail, along the North Rim, Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde is Spanish for "green table". Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado encompasses that "table", which is actually a tilted one (a cuesta, in geologic terms).

It's a high table, deeply dissected by canyons that flow (when there is any flowing water) to the south. The "mesa" is also titled toward the south. Between these two conditions, it came to be home to the largest cliff dwellings in North America.

Square Tower House cliff dwelling, Mesa Verde.

This particular mesa is a high desert environment for most of the year, though it's position on the surrounding landscape, high above the Montezuma Valley and the Mancos Valley, causes it to wring significantly more moisture out of passing storm fronts, making it more like a mountain environment.

Point Lookout, the very northern edge of Mesa Verde.

And since its uppermost surfaces are also tilted toward the south, toward the sun, it's like a giant solar panel. The combination of more moisture than the surrounding valleys, along with the solar-panel effect of a longer growing season, meant that corn could be grown here. In abundance. And it was, along with beans and squash, by the Ancestral Puebloan people, until about 700 years ago, when they migrated onward, out of here. To the south.

From the northern edge of Point Lookout.

 It's springtime at Mesa Verde, and the green tilted table-mountain is quickly greening up. No Ancestral Puebloan people plant their corn seeds up there anymore. Native Americans do continue to worship the place as sacred, though. While the tourist crowds flock to it to see what they have left behind, and to savor the views that they did when they lived there. The National Park Service rangers do all they can to balance the land with the crowds. They do a superb job overall.

Looking north from atop Point Lookout, onto the Mancos Valley and the La Plata Mountains.

See more of my photography at www.NaturalMoment.com.

© Copyright 2017 Stephen J. Krieg