San Juan Mountains / Alpine Loop Colorado

[Craig M]

My wife and I have been heading up to the San Juans annually for the last 9 years and just returned from our 2017 trip. We prefer more of a base-camp style of exploring and for this trip only planned for 2-3 camps (2-3 days each). I won't bore you with a bunch of writing.. On to the pics!

All loaded up and ready to depart!

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Of course everyone is excited and happy to be moving.

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Of course, that never lasts long on a 13 hours drive...

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Although we went trhough a couple of storms up in the TX panhandle, the drive was pretty smooth.

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[Craig M]

We arrived at our first camp site pretty late (~11PM) and just set up and went to sleep. The next morning I got up early and took some pics around our campsite:

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We camped with a couple of friends the first three nights, then were on our own for the remainder of the trip..

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[Craig M]

We stayed in our hammocks the whole trip and this first site had perfect trees for us to sleep next to each other...

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[Craig M]

We were also able to meet up with @BubbaP, who camped with us one night, and we ran the loop with the next day (Monday):

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[Craig M]

On Tuesday we moved campsites.. The first 3 nights we were camped between Lake City and Engineer's Pass, just below the tree line. Then we moved over to Eureka Gulch, which is roughly between Animas Forks and Sliverton..

I used our 10x10 canopy as the base, and set up our hammocks and pulled in the Jeep so everything was accessible, visible and under cover..

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[Craig M]

The weather was nice (highs in the 60's - 70's, lows in the low 40's). It rained daily, but usualy only for short bursts. Here are a few other random pics..

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[Craig M]

On our last day (Friday) we intended on heading over Stony Pass and following / camping on the Rio Grande for our last night. Unfortunately I hit a snag on Thursday while exploring the drained Like Emma..

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I got it changed pretty quickly but we only had one spare, so...

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We went back into Silverton on Friday but were unable to locate an available tire in our size in the area, so we called it quits and booked a motel room in Pagosa Springs for that night.. Now I'm thinking about going to two spares. :o

It was a fun trip, as usual! Hope you enjoy the pics..

 

[RiverCityDave]

We stayed in our hammocks the whole trip and this first site had perfect trees for us to sleep next to each other...

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DUDE. Nice camp site.

 

[Craig M]

DUDE. Nice camp site.

Yeah, it worked out pretty awesome! We actually camped at that site for a few days, a few years ago, but I had just started getting into the hammock stuff then, so we were in a ground tent for that trip (positioned where the three rigs were parked). I really liked both sites this year. Both were right next to swift water and provided a nice little open space in beween a grouping of large trees.

We also scoped out a number of others, and will likely try some different spots next time.

 

[HankinWI]

Great report Chili...thank you!!