Twin Lakes, Independence Pass & Mines near Leadville, CO

Thursday, June 21, 2018

We made friends with a couple while they were in Desert Gardens in Arizona.  They live in Buena Vista, CO where we are now. Today they are taking us sightseeing.  We are headed to Twin Lakes, then on to Independence Pass. Then we will be taking back roads to Leadville, CO for lunch. BTW with such a full day, this blog post is going to be a little longer. So much beauty to share.

 This is early this morning before we left for our excursion with our friends, Jim and Kathy. Such awesome views from our RV park.

 Not far north of Buena Vista, we stopped at a pullout overlooking the Arkansas River.  Look at those rapids! There are some people that actually whitewater raft down this part of the Arkansas.  This area of the Arkansas is called "The Numbers".  Kathy & Jim tell us private rafters (vs commercial rafting companies) get killed in these rapids.

Look at how close together these big boulders are to each other.

This shows some rafters that left the water because it was too rough. This looks like a commercial group.

Above and below are the views from a pullout we stopped at on our way to Twin Lakes. These pictures don't do God's glory justice.

Here we are at Twin Lakes. They are big lakes at an elevation of 9200'. Above is the lower lake.  You can see the small strip of land that goes between the lakes. Below is the upper lake.  That is Mt. Elbert in the background.

We are still on our way to Independence Pass. Looks like we will be going above the tree line.

Above and below are from another viewpoint along our way.

WOW we've come a ways up.  Such beauty to behold! You can see part of the road we took to get here.

From here you can see the start of the windy way up.

This snow is only about 8-10 feet deep. Jim, who used to run the snowplows up here, says this time of year that would normally be 60-70 feet deep. He said they didn't get as much snow this last winter as usual. That is also resulting in the snow melt being less so the lakes are not as full.

We are with our gracious friends, Kathy & Jim, who took the day to drive us around.

We made it to Independence Pass. As you can see it is also the continental divide at an elevation of 12,095 feet.

This was water gathered, from snow melt, along the walk to the overlook.  Tic walked out and got these pictures. I sat on a bench and Jim, Kathy & I waited.

The path Tic took let him get these pictures of the Elk Mountains. Above and below are several pictures.

Tic zoomed in to get this unique rock pile at the summit and was above the tree line.

On the way down the other side of the pass, we saw more beautiful valleys. Below is only one of several waterfalls we saw, all due to snow melting. Just think how big this waterfall would have been if the snow had be 60-70 feet deep this past winter. WOW!

Above and the next 2 pictures below are all we can see of "weird cult" living in the mountains here.

Above shows baby dolls hung from trees as seen from the road. Below is mailboxes attached to a tree trunk also as seen from the road. Jim says the cult leader has a reputation for being "strange" and that all the men openly carry guns. However, as he has plowed during the winter, this guy has come out and told him that if he ever needed anything to just let him know.  Jim appreciated that since often times the winter temps are around 30 degrees F below zero.

This is another huge valley we saw as we drove to Leadville through the back way. WOW, this has been a beautiful drive!

After lunch at Casa Blanca Restaurant in Leadville, we drove through some of the old mining areas above Leadville. Kathy grew up in Leadville and her father and many family members worked these mines back in the day. Jim said he did also for a while.  However, the EPA came in and required so many new safety features that the mining company just shutdown. 3000 people lost their jobs all at once.

Ibex was one of the large mines here that was first owned by  John Campion who later sold it to James Brown.  Brown  developed a way to go deeper without the walls collapsing, so he was able to mine high grade gold and copper.

Next we headed to Turquoise Lake. This was the view from the mining area.

Sugarloaf Dam was built in 1968 to form Turquoise Lake.

As we headed back to Buena Vista this is more views of "The Fourteens".  WOW what an awesome day! Very blessed with beautiful weather and views! We give a BIG thanks to our friends Jim and Kathy.  They made the trip so fun because they are from the area they told us many fun-filled facts.

This our sunset this evening. Wonderful way to end a wonderful day! PTL.