Fall color trip to Lake City, Ridgway and Telluride

 Back to back fall color trips, so I will have hit the best of the fall color in Colorado this year.  I drove to Lake City via Creede, and camped a few miles above Lake San Cristobal for the night. It was 22 degrees that morning, but the 40 year old 0 degree goose down bag came through like a charm.   Dayhiked up the Cuba Gulch Road The next morning, and then drove to Ridgway, where I took photos at the Dallas Divide before driving across Last Dollar Road to Sawpit road, and then up to Woods Lake where at dusk I pitched the tent in the aspens about 100 feet off of the gravel road.  The last day was long but spectacular, starting with taking photos at Woods Lake, the driving all the way across from Telluride to Ridgway on Last Dollar road...8 miles of which is a rough “Jeep” road, that the CR-V handled ok.  Did a short and boring day hike half way across (all in the trees, wouldn’t repeat), then gassed up in Ridgway and went a short ways  up county road 12, and all the way up county road 5 (truly gorgeous...we have stayed up here at Thanksgiving and Christmas) before deciding to call it a trip and head all the way back home.  A long but rewarding day.  I ended up driving 890 miles in 3 days, did two day hikes and took about 400 photos.  I’ve whittled it down to 83 for the Blog.  The driving was more tiring than usual because on my first morning when I started the car outside of Lake City, I discovered that the “power steering” wasn’t working.  So I drove an awful lot of miles, and lots fo gravel road miles without power steering.  Verdict from the Schomp mechanics...rodents chewed through wires.  It’s always difficult to rate and compare fall colors, but for me, the top three have been Nova Scotia last fall, New England a couple of falls ago, and the three fall trips I’ve taken to SW Colorado.