Last Days in the Mountains!

We headed into our last 2 days in the mountains before turning towards Texas. We drove through another small hamlet, Pitkin, out in the middle of the mountains on the dirt road with people who had restored old mining cabins to use as summer homes I presume, I doubt they would spend the winter here. Pitkin pass is at 9,237 feet.

We continued on through an area of Bureau of Land Management and took a loop where we ran into a couple also doing a portion of the BDR. We sat and talked with them for about 20 minutes before driving up on a plateau to have our smoothie lunch.

We then searched for what would be our last campsite for this trip. We found a free dispersed site which we were surprised was free because it had a vault toilet, metal fire ring, and a picnic table, not what you usually have at a dispersed site. We got a site on the end by the rushing creek with trout jumping out of the water, set out our bird feeders, collected wood, and made split pea soup the first night. The second night we made vegetable beef soup. We were enjoying soups and stews because it was our last cool days. We also kept our fire going all day. The birds that visited us were the Rufous Hummingbird and the Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, a Black-Headed Grosbeak, Mountain Chickadees, a Green-Tailed Towhee, and a pair of Robins busily feeding babies in a nest.

The next morning we headed out early and as we were traveling out on what had been almost 500 miles of mostly gravel backroads through Colorado we came across this guy.

We also went on our way saying goodbye to the mountains, cool temps, wildlife, rivers & streams, and wildflowers. As alluring as it all is the pull and bond of family is stronger and we excitedly turned towards Texas ready to see everyone over the next several months!