Slumgullion Earthflow

Imagine, it has been an extremely wet period and suddenly millions of tons of rock, earth and mud start a slow slide from a mountain peak and travel over four miles damming a river and creating a lake! Such an event happened about 850 years ago. The soils of Mesa Saco were super saturated from heavy rains. When the earth flow began it was like a dirty raging river of mud and rock! The second largest natural lake in Colorado. Lake San Cristobal, was formed by the damning of the Gunnison River. Approximately 350 years ago a second, slow moving mudslide began on top of the previous slide. This latest slide is still moving at the rate of about 21 feet per year!

Yesterday we drove from Creede to Lake City, Colorado. Lake City is located on Lake San Cristobal on Colorado Highway 149. CO 149 continues on to Gunnison. When we traveled to Creede we came from Gunnison but we elected to bypass route 149 because of Slumgullion Pass, 11,361 feet, and the long steep approaches to the Pass, inclines exceeding 7% for several miles. Although our Jeep has brakes that can be applied when the motor home is braked, its extra weight has the effect of pushing the motor home down the hill. We downshift the motor home and use the transmission and engine for braking but it still requires a lot of brake application to keep our speed under control. Diesels with exhaust brakes have an advantage here! After driving CO 149 in our Jeep we are glad we avoided this route. It is beautiful but it is narrow, winding and steep!

Slumgullion is a mining word that refers to the muddy deposit left in mining sluice boxes. The miners also prepared a stew that they called slumgullion because of its multi-colors of meat and vegetables. Evidently the multi-colored rock and soils exposed by the earth flow caused it to be named Slumgullion as well as the nearby Pass.

Lake City is a very picturesque town and well worth the 52 mile drive over to see it. It has a large historic district and many buildings of Victorian architecture still remain. We had lunch at Poker Alice's, a quaint restaurant named for a Colorado gambling legend, "Poker Alice Tubbs". This old gal "broke the bank" most places she played!

We encountered a group of Bighorn sheep rams on our way to Lake City. They were about 100 yards away from the highway and oblivious to our presence. Evidently they prefer bachelor groups in the summer. The head butting comes later in the fall when they begin to pursue the ewes.

Today we took our Jeep into the hills once again and toured the "Bachelor Loop", a loop road that takes you through the heart of the old Creede mine fields. Many old buildings are still partially intact and it is hard to imagine the work required to build these structures on the incredibly steep hillsides. Most of the mines closed in the late 1800s when the government removed the price guarantees on silver and the value of silver then plummeted, making mining prohibitive in this area. There still appears to be lots of ore so some of the mines may reopen at some future date when the price of silver warrants it.

Don tried once again to fish the waters of the Rio Grande with his fly rod. The Rio Grande is fast moving and has a rocky, uneven bottom and it is taking some time to learn to wade in this swift water. No fish yet but lots of fun. He is learning how to leave his flies in the trees, however.