959overland
Member
If you've ever been to Southwest Colorado, you know that the the beginning of summer, around the end of May, is a magical time. I'll give you a brief rundown of our last little adventure.
Honestly, it's always magical down in Southwest Colorado. The mountains, the weather, the roads, the trails, are all beautiful. However, around the end of May, the towns and cities stay cool, with a bright, warm sun. This all changes when you reach above the treeline. Most of the mountains are covered in a thick, hard layer of snow that's been melted and refrozen over and over by the warm sun and cold nights, and it gets cold up there. In the area we chose to adventure in, the snow looked soft and fluffy, but it was actually strong enough to support our body weights, at least, until the sun came out again.
Why did call this post Bleeding Mountains? Well, the cycle of freezing and melting that the remaining snow was undergoing was causing the Earth to seep with water everywhere we tread. Thankfully not enough to make the trails muddy, but enough to add to the dramatic scenery and put a cherry on top of our overlanding experience before we set up camp.
You know how it goes on social media, most of everyone has the perfect camp spot with awesome views and sweet weather. Unfortunately we weren't able to add to the big selection of sweet camp spots. I guess you can't get the perfect spot everytime.
It was still a fun campsite, but as you can see, the higher the numbers on our altimeters climbed, the higher the snow banks got. There was no way through this think and hard snow, the end of the road was just around the corner where the plow stopped. So, we decided that the nobody could get up the road any further, they were welcome to try, but most likely had no chance. The next day was Sunday, so no plowing guy would be showing up. We then positioned our trucks to get the best view we could, popped the tents, and settled down for the night.
You can't beat sleeping in cool weather, especially with a warm heater and sleeping bags. The sleeping conditions were perfect, our heaters cranked up and snuggled in our sleeping bags, we slept great. The next morning we awoke to a sparkly mountain side as the top layer of snow melted from the sun rising. We ventured on top and had breakfast on swooping, smooth, snowy hills. Plus amazing views of the surrounding mountains which fell off to reveal the canyon we drove up to reach the little bowl we slept in; little specks of green from the pine trees down below.
We enjoyed every last minute of it and cannot wait to come back.
(View from small abandoned mining shack)
View attachment DSC00436.JPG View attachment DSC00420.JPG
View attachment DSC00319.JPGView attachment DSC00312.JPG
Honestly, it's always magical down in Southwest Colorado. The mountains, the weather, the roads, the trails, are all beautiful. However, around the end of May, the towns and cities stay cool, with a bright, warm sun. This all changes when you reach above the treeline. Most of the mountains are covered in a thick, hard layer of snow that's been melted and refrozen over and over by the warm sun and cold nights, and it gets cold up there. In the area we chose to adventure in, the snow looked soft and fluffy, but it was actually strong enough to support our body weights, at least, until the sun came out again.
Why did call this post Bleeding Mountains? Well, the cycle of freezing and melting that the remaining snow was undergoing was causing the Earth to seep with water everywhere we tread. Thankfully not enough to make the trails muddy, but enough to add to the dramatic scenery and put a cherry on top of our overlanding experience before we set up camp.
You know how it goes on social media, most of everyone has the perfect camp spot with awesome views and sweet weather. Unfortunately we weren't able to add to the big selection of sweet camp spots. I guess you can't get the perfect spot everytime.
It was still a fun campsite, but as you can see, the higher the numbers on our altimeters climbed, the higher the snow banks got. There was no way through this think and hard snow, the end of the road was just around the corner where the plow stopped. So, we decided that the nobody could get up the road any further, they were welcome to try, but most likely had no chance. The next day was Sunday, so no plowing guy would be showing up. We then positioned our trucks to get the best view we could, popped the tents, and settled down for the night.
You can't beat sleeping in cool weather, especially with a warm heater and sleeping bags. The sleeping conditions were perfect, our heaters cranked up and snuggled in our sleeping bags, we slept great. The next morning we awoke to a sparkly mountain side as the top layer of snow melted from the sun rising. We ventured on top and had breakfast on swooping, smooth, snowy hills. Plus amazing views of the surrounding mountains which fell off to reveal the canyon we drove up to reach the little bowl we slept in; little specks of green from the pine trees down below.
We enjoyed every last minute of it and cannot wait to come back.
(View from small abandoned mining shack)
View attachment DSC00436.JPG View attachment DSC00420.JPG
View attachment DSC00319.JPGView attachment DSC00312.JPG
