August 12, 2012 Webster Pass returning home

After several hours of exploring Peru Creek and Chihuah Gulch we could have simply gone back the way we came and returned home but we elected to make a day of it and return home via Webster Pass.  Coming down from Red Cone pass on the ATV trip we did in 2011 dropped us onto the top of Webster pass.  The scenery from the top is spectacular and we had been telling people about Red Cone for a year.  Jaime, Jered, Brandon and Jeff had heard so much about it that they wanted to see it for themselves.

Returning via Webster Pass would mean we would have made a loop: I-70 into the area from the north and back out on Colorado 285 from the south.

After coming back down from Chihuahua gulch we headed through the town of Montezuma and toward Webster pass.

The ride from Montezuma to the top of Webster is classified as 'Easy' and it is. The road is gravel all of the way with only a few areas of roughness but a simple road to navigate and awesome scenery pretty much the entire way.



The panaramic photo above doesn't do it justice and it's probably hard to see here but this is the top of the pass.  The valley to the left is the valley we came up from Montezuma through.  The dirt trail headed up from where the vehicles are parked is the final stretch of Red Cone.  You can't see it but just to the right of the viewpoint here is the beginning of the one-way stretch from the top of Red Cone down to here.  It's one of those decision points you sometimes hit while going through life.  Once you start down there is not turning back.  If you look back in history a little bit in this blog I have an entry about our 2011 trip to the top of Red Cone.  I'll certainly never do it again unless of course if I have wings in my next lifetime or come back as a mountain goat.

The road along Handcart gulch.  With mine tailings along the stream.



Continuing on toward the south other than the first mile or so coming off the top (which can be a little frightening for those that don't like riding on a one lane dirt road that hangs onto the edge of mountain through a land-slide area with a sheer cliff just outside the drivers door) the rest of the trip to the bottom and highway 285 is another wonderful ride.  The road goes through Handcart gulch and follows along a river that seems highly poluted from the minerals running out of the old gold mines up-stream. 

I noticed a big change along that river between the last time we followed it in 2011 and this time.  I'll have to investigate who is responsible I suppose but someone has been working diligently to clean it up.  Last year the water was running red from the iron and everything was dead that grew within several feet of it.  Although I wouldn't take a drink from it yet this year it was much improved.