Mt. Princeton Area

I decided to take the girls hiking up around Mt. Princeton. There’s a waterfall there and the Arkansas River, both of which would make the dogs happy.
We departed Denver fairly early around 7:30 AM and arrived in the Mt. Princeton area around 9. The first stop of the day was the Agnes Vaille Falls. You reach the trailhead for the falls by turning west on Chaffee County road 162 from US 285 at Nathrop, CO. The parking area is about eight miles from US 285 on the north side of the road. Keep a sharp eye out for it as I missed it initially. The parking area is large enough for ten vehicles or so.

Once the girls unloaded and ran around a bit we headed up the trail.

Although the trail begins fairly flat it does get a bit steeper as you approach the trees. There’s also water to be found in the trees, too, as the creek which forms the falls shares the trailbed from time-to-time to a depth of 1-2 inches. Water-proof boots are recommended. The girls found the water quickly and were playing in it long before I caught up with them.

There are several historical markers along the trail describing the namesake of the falls (Agnes Vaille) and some of the area geography, including the old rail line that was carved into the side of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley.

Upon entering the slot canyon where the falls are located one is presented with several photo opportunities. While these are not the largest falls in Colorado they are easy to access.

I walked up closer to the base of the falls and found a spot to sit and watch the water cascading off of the cliff above. The spray was cool and chased me away after about fifteen minutes. The dogs were not too sure about the waterfall at first. Fearless Fabi was in the water first but preferred to explore the entire area. Lucy eventually checked out the falls, too, but wasn’t excited by them. They were more interested in the rocks and odors.

The canyon where there the falls are located gives a pretty nice view of the valley below. The dogs and I hung out there for a while before heading back down. Our timing was great as a small group of hikers was coming up the trail as we were leaving the immediate falls area, and another large group was about five minutes behind them.

After hiking back down to the truck we drove up road 162 a bit further west to the “ghost town” of St. Elmo. There are a few year-round residents in St. Elmo so it’s a bit hasty to call it a ghost town.

The main attraction in St. Elmo is the main street with partially-restored buildings, although the ATV rental at the general store seemed pretty popular, too.

On the edge of town is an unmarked trail that turns out to simply climb the hill to another forest service road — I was hoping for a good view of the town from above but was disappointed. There is decent access to a creek where the girls swam for a while.

St. Elmo also has an area where local chipmunks gather to be fed by tourists. These rodents are fearless and will climb right into your hand for some feed (happily sold at the general store). The girls were very interested in this chipmunk feeding area, as you might imagine, but I held them back. I did not want to be responsible for frightening several small children who were feeding the chipmunks. Think of the horror of Lucy gobbling up a chipmunk in front of the small kids!

After walking all over St. Elmo I loaded up the girls in the truck and headed back east on road 162. Just before the trailhead for the falls was a small parking area for Chalk Lake so I pulled in there for a while. Guess what the dogs did here?

I chatted with a fisherman on the shore while the dogs played in the lake. He had caught his daily limit of brook trout and was heading home to clean them.

We jumped back in the truck and headed back to US 285, stopping at the Fisherman’s Bridge area on the Arkansas river. This is a popular spot for rafters to put in during the summer but the rafting season was already over — we had the place to ourselves. Lucy was happy to lay in the water and supervise while Fabi dove for rocks and swam against the current.

An hour later I convinced the girls to get back in the truck so we could grab a late lunch in Buena Vista. Of course I headed for Eddyline Brewing. They have great beers and decent pizzas, as well as a patio where the dogs could join me.

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By the time we made it back to the house late in the afternoon we were all tired but happy. I had not hiked in this area previously but I will definitely return: it’s close to Denver and had a lot to offer.

UPDATE: Yesterday, 30 September, this area was in the local news as a family of hikers from Buena Vista were killed at the falls by a rockslide. This hit me pretty hard as I had just been up there with the dogs a few weeks ago.

Labor Day Weekend 2013

For Labor Day this year the dogs and I travelled to the southwest part of Colorado and stayed in a small cabin in South Fork. On the way down I let the girls play in the Arkansas River near Salida. It was not too hot at that point and the Arkansas was not flowing too fast, although Fabi did have to swim vigorously a few times to avoid being swept downstream.
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On the way to South Fork we passed a sign for Bonanza, Colorado. I thought this was a ghost town and turned down the road. About 20 miles in I realized it was an actual town and there did not appear to be much hiking available so I turned back toward the highway. I did stop along the way back on a road to a pass but it was not designed for my truck, possibly small ATVs only. The dogs ran around here for a while.

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The next stop was Del Norte and the Rio Grande. Recently some donors have built a small but very nice river walk and deck on the river. There’s a nice paved sidewalk back through the trees with lots of access points to the water. After about an hour in the river I loaded up the girls and headed over to South Fork about 17 miles west.

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After driving through an impressive rain storm we found the lodge where our cabin was located but it was only about 2 PM. To kill some time before check-in I drove up US 160 to Wolf Creek Pass and we hiked around at the summit of the pass. There was a nice open field that led to a stand of trees. There was a creek, too, in which the girls played before running through the woods. Lucy managed to find some sort of black stickers to embed in her fur.

We hiked around for another hour or so then headed back to the cabin.

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We hung out in the cabin for another hour or so before heading to dinner over in Del Norte. I headed to Three Barrel Brewing for dinner and a couple beers. Their beers are very tasty! They also have a wood-fired pizza oven in which they produce some damn fine grub. Since it was a holiday weekend and a Saturday night the joint was busy with locals and tourists enjoying dinner and some brews. I was lucky I arrived when I did and found a spot at the bar. A few minutes later and I would have needed to stand! The girls had to stay in the back of the truck while I ate and drank as the patio at Three Barrel is accessed by walking through the taproom and brewery. I suspect they did not mind too much, though, as the temperature was in the low 70s and it was dark.

Three Barrel Brewing, Del Norte

Later that night I was sitting on the sofa in the cabin and heard what sounded like fireworks outside. Apparently the town of South Fork had postponed their July 4th fireworks until Labor Day weekend due to the big wildfire that caused the evacuation of the town for a couple weeks. I walked outside and watched the show about a half-mile behind the cabin. The dogs ran around in the adjacent field in the dark. Soon after we all crashed hard.

The next morning we were up fairly early and headed towards Creede. There was a hot-air balloon festival there and we arrived about the time the balloons were lifting off… unfortunately I did not have a chance to get a good photo of liftoff. I drove around Creede a bit but Main Street was blocked off for a soap box derby race later in the day and parking in town was already hard to find. Since it was only 8 AM I decided to drive on up the road towards Lake City to look for a spot to hike.

A few miles north of Creede I found a good spot to stop: North Clear Creek Falls. I had never heard of these falls but there was a clearly-marked sign on the highway and a wonderful parking area provided by the National Forest Service. There were no other visitors and I let the dogs run wild. I took a few photos of the falls from the observation area… the falls drop about 100 feet and were gorgeous. At first I thought there was no access to the upper creek from the observation area but the dogs found a route around the fences and were very near the water and the sheer drop-off before I noticed. I called them back and they obliged.

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We hiked up the hill towards the other end of the canyon carved by North Clear Creek and took in the views.

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After the falls I drove up the highway a little further and turned on a forest service road to Continental and Rito Hondo Reservoirs. The drive to Continental was not too bad but when we arrived I discovered it was inside of a fence with dozens of cattle and there was not easy access to the water — it was a very steep hill down to the shore about 300 feet below. I really did not want Lucy to drive the cattle down the hill or into the fence so we did not stop here.

I turned back and stopped at Rito Hondo reservoir which is a State Wildlife area. Technically, the dogs were not supposed to be running and swimming here but they managed not to damage any wildlife other than scaring up a few ducks.

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I finally convinced the dogs to load up again after playing in the water and we drove back south through Creede again and noticed there was even less parking available than earlier. I decided to head back to South Fork and through Wolf Creek Pass again on to Pagosa Springs. On the west side of Pagosa we turned north about 20 miles and then east for almost ten miles to the Piedra River. Yes, this trip became a “tour of rivers.” We parked at the end of a road where we picked up a trail to Piedra Falls. It’s a nice hike along the river and finally a small area at the base of the falls. Being a holiday weekend there were a lot of people there, mostly ignorant Texans, so the base area was pretty crowded. We did not stay too long to avoid the dogs getting trampled by people who were not used to the altitude and hiking.

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And Lucy found some crap to roll in! I convinced her to lay in the river before we took off but she still smelled.

As always, Lucy found some poop to roll in

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I drove back through Pagosa Springs and had planned to stop at Pagosa Brewing Company but the temps were still in the high 80s and I did not want to leave the girls in the back of the truck so I headed on down to South Fork and the cabin. I changed into a clean shirt and the dogs passed out on the floor.

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I drove back to Del Norte again for dinner and had a few more beers at Three Barrel. They were not as crowded this night and I had a lovely evening drinking a few Colorado Belgian style ales.

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On Monday morning we checked out of the cabin and headed back towards Denver. The girls were both tuckered out and had to be coerced back into the truck… so there was little chance of hiking at this point. I did drive back up to Wolf Creek Pass and stopped at an observation area on the top of the pass where the girls ran a bit but were not much into it.

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After a few photos we hit the road. We ran into inbound traffic just south of Fairplay and slogged along at less than 10 MPH for the next three hours before making it home.

In summary it was a great weekend. I would love tho go back in September or October to see what the area is like without the hordes of Texans everywhere.

The Rescheduled Craft Lager Festival

The Craft Lager Festival was scheduled for last Saturday (10 August) but was postponed after a flash flood and mudslide destroyed the event equipment. The rescheduled event was held today in Colorado Springs at the Norris-Penrose Events Center instead of Memorial Park in Manitou Springs. As expected, many of the vendors, especially those from out-of-state, were not able to attend the rescheduled event today. There were not many of the local Colorado Springs breweries in attendance, either. Since I was alone today I had to wrangle the dogs, navigate the crowd AND taste the beverages. Because I was wrangling and drinking I didn’t have many chances for photos. I have included a few here though.

It was hot in Colorado Springs today. Even waiting in line to enter the event the dogs were panting.
In line for the Craft Lager Festival

After one circuit through all of the vendors I sat down in some shade with the girls and poured a bowl of water for them.

Taking a break

Note the wonderful winged skull tattoo on somebody’s calf in the background. No one ever said Colorado Springs was classy.
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The volunteers pouring beers were a bit overwhelmed and many of the booths opened a few minutes late for various reasons, and some of those pouring (whether volunteers or staff from the breweries) were not really into the event. Kudos to Lost Rhino Brewing from Virginia, though! They were friendly and appeared to be happy to share their beer.

I will say my favorite beer today was Crooked Stave’s Surrette.

The swag haul was pretty meager this year, too.
Today's swag

The dogs and I had a good time and many young ladies stopped to pet Lucy while they asked how she lost her leg… so there’s that, I guess.

Making lemonade

This past Saturday I had tickets to attend the Craft Lager Festival in Manitou Springs. I enjoyed the festival last year and it’s one of the few fests that allow dogs. Unfortunately this year there was a massive mudslide and flood the evening before the festival that covered the park in mud and damaged all of the event equipment, so the festival has been rescheduled for this Saturday the 17th of August.
Instead of visiting the festival I decided to take the dogs on a road trip to Clear Creek at Lawson, just about an hour west of Denver on I-70. They played in the water and Fabi swam her heart out, crashing over the groomed rapids while Lucy just hung out being mellow. She did get in the water several times but she is smart enough to know the current and rapids were a bit too much for her swim skill level. She laid on the large rocks in the sun and watched Fabi spaz out.

I just found out that dogs will be allowed at the rescheduled festival this weekend so we’ll head down there Saturday!

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Road Trip

Today the dogs and I took a road trip to Eleven Mile Canyon recreation area (where they swam and romped and played).
Fabi Diving For Rocks In The River

Lucy Swimming at Eleven Mile Canyon

Once the playing was done I drove them over to Buena Vista where I checked out Eddyline Brewing Co. The beer was very tasty and the pizza looked good. The first beer I tasted was a raspberry wheat which was pretty tasty. It did not have an overwhelming fruity taste to it and was satisfying. The next beer was their Crank Yanker IPA that turned out to be one of the better IPAs I’ve tasted. I had a meatball sub sandwich to go with the beers instead of pizza, ostensibly to avoid all those “carbs and calories.” I wish I had ordered pizza… Anyway, the food did the job I intended: it soaked up the beer. Also, I picked up a new t-shirt in the process. This is definitely a place to which I will return.

Eddyline Brewing

After BV, it was off to Salida and another brewery: Elevation Beer Co. While the location out by the fairgrounds is a bit too far from the main part of town for my liking, it did offer gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains… or at least, on a clearer day it would. The West Fork fires were pushing smoke all the way into the Salida area on this day. I tried their First Cast IPA while I sat on their “patio” with the dogs. I used quotation marks around patio since their entire outdoor area was crushed gravel.

Elevation beer Co.

I tried to purchase a t-shirt here, too, but they told me they had limited supplies… nothing in my size. “I guess I’ll have to come back again,” I told the bartender.