Ahhhh, yesterday we took a glorious road trip, prepared for rock hunting and fishing.

What we actually did was take a long ride with many little stops for pictures, lunch, and rock spotting opportunities.

But man, was it beautiful! I have quite the gallery to show you, if you haven’t seen them on Facebook. See them bigger here, lol.

On the way to Telluride, turn off where it changes into West Dolores Rd and head to Dunton. It will take you on a loop of sorts, bringing you back into Rico-an old mining town-and then back here to Dolores.

It’s long and circuitous, but so many places to stop and gawk at God’s beauty. From mountains to rivers, millions of pines, aspens, cedars and other trees, to unimaginable rock formations. The rock that was cut through to make roads way back when, changes from a sandy color to deep rusty reds.

In Rico, we stopped at the cafe next to the mine just off the main road, ate in the back so we could stare up the tree covered mountains. I could have sat there all day if the pull to go search around the mines wasn’t so strong. We wore shorts and it was comfortable even at 62 degrees!

We drove past one mine that looked inaccessible to what we thought at first was another, yet what it was was the hopper that received the silver, lead, and other minerals being mined way up on the opposing mountain. Buckets full of rocks came down a zip line looking thing, to the hopper. Something would park under the hopper and someone would open it and it would fall into whatever they used to collect it.

The entrance to the mine shaft up on the mountain was so big it was visible to the naked eye. I took a pic and enlarged it so you can see. Its fascinating to imagine the ingenuity it took to figure all this out before they had the tools and equipment used now.

Enjoy the gallery. That’s all I brought back from this trip except four rocks I picked up that may or may not polish up in the tumbler. Most of what we saw laying around near the hopper was porous, crumbly, or flaky type rock. Flint, shale, iron, and others.

What isn’t labeled is just scenery I had to share. I don’t remember where we were exactly but between Dunton and Rico. Burro Bridge was in there somewhere too as was Stoner. Dave could have fished at any number of spots, but seemed not to care about it. I think he really wanted me to find some rocks. We will have to go again and plan better next time.

I was disappointed that we couldn’t find and get close enough to the mines to look around, but it was getting late anyway, and we worry about the dogs if we are gone 4-5 hours. They did great by the way. No accidents in the house!