Creede is a cute little town but there's not much to do and we did most of it yesterday, so today we went out to explore Lake City. This was also a scouting trip to check out the road - we are driving that way to get to Gunnison tomorrow and Dad thought it might be too steep for him so he wanted to check it out ahead of time.
It was 50 miles to Lake City and it was a neat drive! We drove out of the Rio Grande Valley - to the headwaters of the Rio Grande River and over two high passes - Spring Creek (continental divide, 10,898) and Slumgullion (11,530) before coming into Lake City. Lake City is a cute little town, bigger than Creede! There were a few blocks of shops and a couple of resteraunts. We checked out a few shops, had lunch and wandered through more shops.
We were just finishing lunch when I got a text about our schools playground catching on fire, so I didn't really pay as much attention to the shops since I was texting everyone and padding pictures and information!
After we finished in town we went out to drive around Lake San Cristobal. There are tons of dirt "jeep" roads and 4x4 roads to explore (ATVs are big around here!), some are rougher than others, the road around the lake was pretty smooth. It was a nice drive, but it was pretty short. I'd seen a hike to a waterfall on the map and it was just a little further down the road from where we were. We decided to drive out there.
We couldn't tell how far down the trail the waterfall was do we decided we'd walk 30 mins and turn around, waterfall or no waterfall. Right at the beginning of the trail there was a stream crossing. The 1st part had a big log over it to walk across. The second did not. I saw a trail that lead to another place to cross with a tiny tree bridge. The creek was about 2 feet wide here, but the tree was just too narrow for me to walk on and I didn't trust my footing, so I took of my shoes and socks and waded! The water was cold, but it felt good! The rest of the hike up was nice. All up hill but it was a very nice trail! A little past our 30 mins we got to a cascade that was pretty impressive. It may or may not have been "the" waterfall we'd been looking for, but it was good enough for us. We walked down and quickly got back to the stream crossing.
I just took off my shoes ready to wade both parts. Dad however decided to take a huge step to try and get over without wading. He set his foot down just fine, but the rocks gave way and he fell in. Got his shoes and his pants wet, but managed to keep his phone, Fitbit and camera dry! He did cut his finger, but otherwise he was fine!
We were back in the car, ready to leave when the car informed us that we had a flat tire. Oh no! The nice folks who'd pulled up to go hiking offered us their air compressor - only it didn't work. So Dad had to put on the spare. That meant taking everything out of the back getting the spare, jacking it up, putting it on. The spare was also low, but it had more air than the other tire, so it was the best option.
An hour after we'd first tried to leave we finally headed out back to Creede. We decided we'd try the Mexican place in Creede for dinner. We got there at 6:30 and it was 7:30 before we got our food. It seemed like they were having a bad night, but this has been the deal at each of the places we have eaten - dinner last night, lunch today, and dinner tonight - all crazy long waits after we ordered!
After dinner we went up to drive the Bachelor Loop. This is a dirt road right above Creede where there were several mines - silver, amythst , and other gems and minerals - and the remains are still there. The loop has a lot of history and information to read, but we did the quick tour. Mom and Dad had driven the loop with Milt and Janice and read everything and took over 2 hours, this evening we did it in under an hour!
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