Los Ojos and Vado Lake Drive

Our second day of exploring around the Chama area had us covering area not too far from our campground.  The weather was promising rain, so we felt like we had to explore in between the raindrops!!  A visit to a (pretty much) ghost town and a drive to a state park that we wanted to check out!!

Our first stop was at what I think is a ghost town, Los Ojos.  The church is truly one of the nicest buildings in the town, with the exception of perhaps some houses we didn’t see.  The main part of town is deserted.  The building in the lower right of the above photo used to be the home of a great shop that sold yarn, sold completed woven items and taught weaving.  However, it was completely closed down and vacant.  I was feeling disappointed, but then I looked them up online and found they moved into the town of Chama.  I didn’t find that out in time to visit them on this trip, but next time!!  The last image above is of a deserted market’s sign above the building.  I love the character of the round sign, don’t you?

After Los Ojos, we took off on the roads around the area, primarily looking for Vado Lake State Park.  We knew it would be closed due to the virus, but wanted to see what we could see in terms of a future camping destination.  The makeup of the area is quite diverse, as you can see from the above photo.  True desert landscape, with low shrubs and small trees, and then a lush meadow that the horses found to be great grazing!

And, then we came to Vado Lake.  It’s quite pretty, and very calm now, since the park is closed and that’s really the only access we could see to the lake.  It’s also a “no wake” lake, so you won’t find any jet ski’s or power boats on it even when the state park reopens.  I’m guessing it’s a fairly decent fishing lake from the signs around it, but fishing’s not really my thing!!

As we drove over a bridge heading back to Chama, I had to stop and take a photo of this lovely scene.  The river is Rio Brazos (pronounced with a long A).  I’m guessing it flows into (or from) the Chama River, as that’s just a little ways down from here.

And, finally, we drove by the nest of (we think) a hawk.  She was up high on a power line/telephone line pole, but still got a bit nervous when I got out of the Jeep to photograph her.  I was really very far away (magic of zoom lenses!), but she didn’t like me anyway.  Cars were ok, but not humans outside the cars!!

Enjoy!!

Chama Campground and the High Road to Taos

We started out our July camping trip with a stop in Chama, NM.  We stayed at a lovely campground that sat along the Chama River, although we weren’t lucky enough to have a spot right on the river.  Nevertheless, we had a great first day exploring….that began with fun time with Max!

This view of a train trestle is where the Cumbre Toltec Railroad generally runs, carrying passengers up to Colorado along some mountain scenery that is to die for!  However, due to the COVID virus, the train isn’t running in New Mexico.  Temporarily, it begins it’s journey in Colorado, just over the state line.  Although lovely, I think the trestle looks a bit lonely.

But, not lonely for long!!  Max decided the tall grassy area along the side of the Chama River and in front of the trestle was a great place to romp and play.  There was a small ditch at the near side of the grassy area that he didn’t see at first, so he took a tumble or two and ended up with grass stuck in his collar.  However, he did finally get the idea and learned to leap over where the ditch was!

We didn’t take the high road to Taos all the way there, but we did take it far enough to get to what looked like a small ranch.  In fact, it’s what’s called a “cow camp”.  I guess when ranchers are herding their cattle, they use this area as a bit of a base camp.  Right now, though, all that is grazing there are a few horses!

Beautiful views were all along the road, and we stopped so I could capture this image looking down across the valley.  The clouds were so perfect, just hanging in the blue sky, with the green trees trying to reach up to touch them, and mountains in the background.

On our way back toward Chama, we saw what appears to be a “dude ranch” called Red Rabbit Ranch.  The newer buildings were very large and quite spectacular, and off to the side, almost hidden, was this little cabin.  We sort of thought it might be the original homestead for the ranch.  Quite the quaint touch and rather down-home after the rather elaborate new structures.

Enjoy!!

Alternate Route Up Bachelor Loop Road

There is an alternate route up Bachelor Loop Road that forks off from the “main” road at the Commodore Mine, and heads north up the mountain.  It was worth the extra effort to explore it!

When driving up the alternate road, it feels very much like we are in a slot carved out of the mountain. It really makes one feel rather small!

#There were some remnants of those that once lived and worked here.  The image on the left shows what seems to be the remains of a mine, up high on the mountain side.  The top image on the right is of what appears to be an old wagon that may have been used to transmit the ore that was mined, and the image on the lower right looks to be an old trestle from a mine.

This route also offered a creek running along side the road that we traveled.  It was wonderful to see what appears to be such clear water, given the former mining operations, and how polluting they could be to the water.

The green space you see in this image was once the Phoenix Park Mill Site.  It was constructed in the 1960s, and processed gold, silver, zinc lead and cadmium.  In 1971, milling operations ceased; however, about 5 acres of tailings remained from the mine. In 2003, the Willow Creek Reclamation Committee began work to restore this area back to what it most likely looked like before the mining operations.  After much work, this is the result.

And, as we reached the end, the top part of this road, we did enjoy a lovely tree lined road, and some traffic!!

Enjoy!!

Bachelor Loop Historic Tour

One day, we decided to explore the backroads around Creede, CO.  To our surprise, the backroad had a name – Bachelor Loop, and it was part of a historic tour of the old mining area, which was the instigation of the formation of Creede.

The Bachelor Loop Trail is in the mountains above Creede, and if you look down from the road, you can see the small town of Creede, nestled in the valley.

#2 – The largest mine along this road is the Commodore Mine.  It is one of 3 mines in the nearby area – The Commodore Mine, The Amethyst Mine and The Last Chance Mine.  Silver was mined from the Commodore Mine up the mountain to the Park Regent Mine.  The first image shows the immediate buildings around the Commodore mine, with the center image giving you a perspective of the mines in the area – Commodore, Amethyst and Last Chance, in the order from bottom of the image to the top.

There was no way to get a good shot of the old Amethyst Mine, but I did get some images of some of the support structures and the old cabins down below the old mine site.

Just up the road from the Commodore and Amethyst Mines is a section of road call Black Pitch.  The road may not seem steep for today’s cars, but the old wagons led by horses or mules, would sometimes suffer broken wheel locks and wagons loaded with ore would then push the horses or mules down the road to their deaths.  There is a creek that runs down the mountain next to the road that is so pretty it’s hard to imagine this stretch of road ever being dangerous.

The next stop on the tour is the Weaver Town Site.  In the image, the building next to the road (middle image) was the old livery, where several of the animals that worked in the mine, would have been housed.  The images on the sides of the main livery building are what appears to be the opening of a small mine (left) and a small cabin (right).  During the “boom” days of mining in the mountain, several hundred families lived here.  It is thought that the name of the town, Weaver, was due to the large number of families with that name who were among the first residents.

The Midwest Mine was around from 1911 until the 1970s.  In 1929, this mine put about 5,000 pounds of contaminated ore into Nelson Creek.  Despite a tremendous amount of work, this mine never recorded any real production of usable ore.  In the early 2000s, work was done to remove the contaminated ore and treat the surrounding area.  The photos of the creek (image below) is of the Nelson Creek, now free from any contaminates.

There is a sort of spur road off the main Bachelor Loop Trail that leads to another mine.  Along this spur road are some lovely sights, crystal mountain waters and some wildlife to boot!!

The Equity Mine is off on the little spur road from the formal Bachelor Loop Road.  It’s an up and back drive.  The Equity Mine was first recorded in 1902 and between 1903 – 1912 work on the mine was undertaken.  In 1912, production began and continued off and on until almost 1970.  It closed then and was reopened in 2012 by the Hecla Mining Company.  I’m not certain if both of these buildings are being used.  The one on the left looks like its windows are boarded up.

In between old mine sites, there was such beautiful scenery to be had.  The scenery was so grand, it sort of made our Jeep look small!  And, I really loved the old fence.  I’m not certain what the name of the style of fence is, but it certainly fits up here in the mountains!

This is all that is left of the Park Regent Mine Site.  Prospectors first staked a claim on this site in 1891.  They hoped to connect to the very prosperous Amethyst Mine, They weren’t all that successful getting ore from the mine, but it did produce some ore, and was busy during World War I, when there was an increase demand for ore.  However, mining at the site ceased soon after.  The lack of tailings on the site indicates that not much ore was produced by the mine.

#12 – When gold and silver were discovered in nearby mountains, this meadow at 10,500 feet in elevation became the town of Bachelor City.  It was in its heyday between 1890 – 1896.  In January of 1892, it was surveyed, and by March of that year, nearly 100 homes had been built.  However, I won’t comment on the quality of the build!!  At its most occupied, the town had 12 saloons, 4 hotels, 5 grocery stores, a meat market, 2 barber shops, 2 bakeries, some restaurants, a school, jail, city hall and Catholic Church!  A bustling town!!

Just after we finished the “formal” Bachelor Loop Trail, we came across this lovely little church, just about a block from the Creede Cemetery.  What is interesting about the cemetery is how the graves are laid out.  You can’t tell it from the overall image I took, but some graves face north to south, and others east to west.  It was said that murders, faced north to south, whereas the God-fearing citizens, including little babies, faced east to west, so that they would face the sun come Resurrection Day.  Those that were considered “not-so-God-fearing”, like prostitutes, gamblers, robbers, etc., were placed crosswise in the cemetery, as it was felt that matched how they lived their lives!!

 

Our last stop related to the Bachelor Loop Trail, is Bob Ford’s Grave Site.  Bob’s history in Creede was quite legendary, and perhaps for that reason, he wasn’t laid to rest in the cemetery.  His claim to fame was killing Jesse James on April 3, 1882, in St. Joseph, Missouri, by shooting him in the back.  To escape revenge by the James gang, Bob Ford fled to several different locations, landing in Creede, when the mining boom started.  He ran a gambling and dance hall in Creede, called the “Exchange”.  He bullied the town so much so that a vigilante group was formed to get the power away from Ford.  He did turn over some power to “Soapy Smith” when he arrived in town.  Smith didn’t kill Ford, but on June 3, 1882, Ed O’Kelley, a friend of Jesse James family, came to town and shot Bob Ford with a double barrel shotgun, at point blank range.  It truly was the wild west back then! 

Enjoy!