Move to Summit County

 Today was part drive day and part ski day. It took me about 3.5 hours to drive from Grand Junction to Silverthorne. Light snow coming down in Vail pass but basically an easy drive. I was on the lift at Keystone at 10:30. Nice packed powder. No new snow although there were places in the woods that had fresh snow from the last storm. Clouds and sun. They put in a new lift, Bergman lift, since last year. Nice area and you can traverse out to both sides and get to things you used to have to hike to.

Grizzly rest area I70:

Train was passing by:

Keystone:

Looking at Breckenridge:

Sun bathing going on in another state:

Bangs Canyon

 This is another large area of BLM land close to the Colorado NM. Hiking, biking, and 4 wheeler roads. At least four trail heads that I saw. I went to Bangs Canyon trailhead. There are many trails here but I went on Mica Mine and Rough Canyon. These are really part of the same canyon just going in different directions. The Mica Mine trail heads up the canyon and ends at a Mica and Quartz mine. Interesting area and as usual something different at every corner. The Rough Canyon trail is steeper and you spend time at different levels of the canyon. Some places you need to pay attention but mostly just wandering in a very cool canyon. There is some water in this canyon and you can see that there is a lot of water from time to time. You can see by the wood and grass wrapped around the base of some of the trees.

I checked out Fruita on my way back to Colorado NM. A small town with a main road that has a few cafes, bike shop, farm to market store and other small shops. Fruita main Street is north of I70. South of I70 is a strip area with the usual hotels, businesses, fast food. I like this town because it is close to lots of hiking and biking and is a lot smaller than Grand Junction.

At the end of the day one last visit to Colorado NM. Moving on tomorrow AM.

Mica Mine trail:

Next four pictures are mine area:

Rough Canyon:

Fruita:

Colorado NM, Window Rock trail:

Near visitor center: