{"id":1675,"date":"2008-08-30T23:25:48","date_gmt":"2008-08-31T03:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2008-08-31T00:55:43","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T04:55:43","slug":"alpine-adventures-in-the-san-juans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"Alpine adventures in the San Juans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our hosts Mike and Tracy have wanted to take us out on some 4WD adventures around Silverton. \u00a0 It’s not hard to find good 4WD roads here, in fact almost all the roads outside of the town center require 4WD. \u00a0 The old mining access roads that criss-cross the mountains have been claimed by the County, and are “maintained” to a relatively primitive standard for tourists and modern-day prospectors to use.<\/p>\n

No matter where you go, you will see old stamp mills (for refining ore) or their foundations, hanging onto steep hills. \u00a0 There are also literally hundreds of abandoned mines and shafts. Some have been sealed by the Bureau of Mine Safety, others haven’t. \u00a0 (Don’t go in old mines under any circumstances.) \u00a0 There are also ghost towns high up in the mountains, and the remains of mining camps.<\/p>\n

\"silverton-pika.jpg\"<\/a>And, thankfully, there are pikas. \u00a0 Pikas are cute little rabbit-like creatures that inhabit high altitudes. \u00a0 They can’t survive in warm climates, so they are an indicator species of global warming. \u00a0 When temperatures go up, so do the pikas, until they can’t go up any further, and then they disappear.<\/p>\n

It turns out that pikas thrive in areas near old mines. \u00a0 The piles of rock and tailings give them housing and protection, and the nearby meadows provide their food. \u00a0 In a one-acre area near a mine at 10,500 feet, I spotted a dozen or so pikas and heard many more chirping to each other. \u00a0 I also spotted a few marmots, which are just fun to watch.<\/p>\n

\"silverton-car-at-pass.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Paused at California Pass, alt 12,930. \u00a0 Note the Isuzu at center. <\/em><\/p>\n

The 4WD roads can be intimidating. \u00a0 There are lots of places where the road has a steep hairpin bend and the drop-off is a thousand feet or more. I can’t count the number of times I was gripping a handhold in the Isuzu in complete terror. \u00a0 Fortunately, Mike is an extremely careful driver with a lot of experience in driving these roads. \u00a0 We wound up to a peak of 12,900 feet where the views were spectacular, and then looped around the mountains to come back to Silverton by a different approach.<\/p>\n

You can’t really see this area without a 4WD vehicle. \u00a0 We could have taken the Armada, but it is too large for some of the turns. \u00a0 The Isuzu Trooper was a fine choice because of its small size and nimbleness, and a Jeep would have been as well. \u00a0 You can rent Jeeps in downtown Silverton.<\/p>\n

\"silverton-ca-pass-view.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

View from California Pass. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"silverton-california-pass.jpg\"<\/a>At each ghost town or abandoned mine, we’d park the car and look around for a while. \u00a0 It’s amazing that over a century ago men somehow got up to these places above 10,000 feet, built roads and railways and trams, and managed to mine metals from hard rock mountains, all with a steam-engine-and-burro level of technology. \u00a0 Just walking around at these altitudes will tire you. \u00a0 These folks were up there living year-round<\/em> in crude cabins, where snowfall is routinely dozens of feet. \u00a0 Just the existence of the roads is absolutely amazing when you’re up there driving on them.<\/p>\n

By the way, Silverton is an excellent place to camp in relative seclusion if you are willing to pull your RV over a few bumpy dirt roads. Free camping is widely available on public land (as well as at three commercial campgrounds in town). \u00a0 “Make local inquiries,” as they say, before wandering off the beaten path.<\/p>\n

Well, we’ve seen a fair bit of the Silverton area but there is much more. \u00a0 We’ll be back again. \u00a0 I don’t know when, but we will be back, someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our hosts Mike and Tracy have wanted to take us out on some 4WD adventures around Silverton. \u00a0 It’s not hard to find good 4WD roads here, in fact almost all the roads outside of the town center require 4WD. \u00a0 The old mining access roads that criss-cross the mountains have been claimed by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}