WalkingCarrot

Rising in the cold morning air, before the sun has hit the pass where we are camped, we get the start we know we will need to get to Wolf Creek pass 19 miles away.

The trail never strayed more than a few hundred yards from the actual divide from our camp south of Elwood Pass to Wolf Creek pass, so we were walking on the crest or contouring on high slopes all day.

We continue to see more amazing wildflowers, vibrant colors, clinging to unlikely places, thriving in talus slopes or wind blasted slopes. Sunflowers dominate the scene. The way that light is attracted to the talus abundant sunflowers makes them seem to light up as if the were giving off light and standout from their “competition.”

Rainshowers developed early again with rumbling by mid morning and widespread blanket of clouds, storm cells and sheets of rain by mid afternoon.

Amazingly we only got sprinkled on just a couple times, even as we saw both near and distant deluges of rainfall.

As we roll along the series of ridges towards Wolf Creek pass we drop enough in elevation that bare ridges mix with heavily timbered slopes and passes. There is an incredible number of downed trees in several stretches, many of them quite large and obscuring the trail and making it difficult and time consuming to get by them.

Towards the end of the day we are on top of the Wolf Creek Pass ski area. In the summer the detris of their operation, which is covered in the winter season, shows, leaving an unattractive mark upon the landscape in marked contrast to the wild highlands through which we have otherwise walked the last four days.

We pushed hard the last few miles, going 2 1/2 hours without a break to get past the storms, ski area, and down to Wolf Creek pass early enough to get to Pagosa Springs for a room, shower and dinner.

We got an amazing ride, just three minutes after arriving at the pass and make it to Pagosa Springs in the early evening.

19 miles