How do you like my new hard drive........?

I'm back at the Looney Bean once more.    Trust me, they make the best frozen skinny mochas I have ever had and I've enjoyed the 2 baristas, especially Morgan, a cute kid with piercing and various hair shades and tattoos.....and she is just so good at what she does.....how refreshing these days !  

Anyhow, the new bigger  hard drive is successfully installed.    Thanks to Mr Fixit....with a little help from the local Apple expert who also works at the Horsefly Brewery and is where you take your MAC for help.....nice guy as well.     I now have tons of storage and probably a lot of other things that I have no knowledge of.    Now, if I only had internet in the moving house.......but then I wouldn't come to the  Looney Bean..... 

We are still in the San Juan Mtns and despite daily rain and thunder and lightning and damp campfires, we still are very happy with this neighborhood.      Yesterday, the rain stopped and the blue sky showed it's magnificence and we headed out.       

This is a view of Ouray as you head south towards Silverton.   

The aspen are just beginning to show their color..........

We chose Ophir Pass this day to explore.   It has some bumps and narrow ledges but mostly it's just a beautiful ride .........

After the heavy rains, the streams and falls are again running......

Once you get above tree-line, amid the rocky landscape, you find the busy marmots.    I managed to capture this one as he was about to scamper into his den.....that dark hole in front of him.   I need to find out info on them but I think they must hibernate....he had a mouthful of grasses.

Ophir Pass connects Silverton with Telluride.   We didn't see any mine debris or buildings but I'm sure it was some sort of road to carry silver and gold.  It was COLD at the top, and windy.    In the low 50's.

As we decended lower, the aspen stands were huge and dense....no color yet.

We came to the old town of Ophir , of which I haven't researched, but it is now a small residential area of cabins and this quaint post office.  

We headed on Rt 145 towards Telluride but came to Mountain Home Village first.    Wow, what a developed  area this has become.    Beautiful log condos, hotels and large homes perched at 9600 ft.   It reminds me a bit of Vail with the flowers and walking paths and scenic golf course.    In the heart of it all is the gondola.....It is functional year round to get you up to the top of the mountain or over the mountain to Telluride.    It's designed to carry the masses and to keep the cars and buses to a minimum. It is a brilliant transportation system....

And a really fun way to get around.    As we came out of the launch pad, I had the feeling we were going to drop like a stone......well, not quite but we did drop and it was a bit like an amusement ride.....with stunning scenery.

The gondola is free in the summer but suspect you need a lift ticket or something in the winter altho it is a main link to Telluride from Mountain Home.

It is popular with hikers and bikers as they ride the gondola up and come back down the mountain via trails .....
This is the only shot I could get of the aspen turning from yellow to orange...blurry as it is.  It was a beautiful day .....

And now, to catch up on the previous week.....  we met Joe and Gay in Silverton one chilly Saturday.   It was fun to share good times once again after our first meeting in Moab and then Park City.    They are off to Albuquerque and then Georgia before heading to the Florida panhandle for a bit.   Hopefully, we'll meet up again.    We showed them Animas Forks and it was cold and drizzly so we didn't stay long.     

 

Then, a few days later, we met up with Nancy......if you've read the blog for a bit, you'll recognize her as the one who just had to ride a water buffalo in Costa Rica.   She was the photographer part of the Art and Photography Tour ..... she was in the Silverton area, camping at 12,000 FT !!!  Her husband finally got a buck tag for hunting and they were up there in the cold and rain and snow.    Alas, the efforts were not successful but they did see a moose.    You are assigned an area so it's not like they could move to a different area.    She was happy to come down to warm up !!  This is a "selfy pic" with her phone.

On another day , we headed up to Owl Pass....not very high or rugged.    Perfect for raising sheep apparently and they were in no hurry to give up the road.    We saw many large herds and 

 the sheep herders wagons.   Years ago, the herders were Basque but now they are mostly Peruvian.   We saw one sitting among the trees .... what a lonely job that must be.    And, one in the area was gored by an elk (according to the local weekly paper) but was able to somehow get himself to help 4 miles away and altho in critical condition after being airlifted out, he was expected to survive.  

In the same area, we saw some deer and as I snapped the pic, he decided to leap the fence.   It's not a great capture but I'm always surprised by what the camera finds.

One morning, on our way to Ridgeway, we came across this pretty site....we'll look for the balloon when we get to Albuquerque.   

OK, almost done with the travelog...... we are only about 30+ miles from the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison NP.    It is very hard to capture the depth and awesome-ness of this deep chasm in the earth.    The Gunnison River carved this scenic wonder.  

This area is called the Painted Wall.   During peak tourist times, they offer boat rides down the river but they are done for the season.....

With all the rainy days we've had, we've almost become accustomed to the rainbows that usually follow.    This one was especially brilliant and complete.


Here's my comfortable spot at the Looney Bean.