kenstravelphoto.com – Page 20 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Animas Forks, CO

We finally arrived in Animas Forks, where we did not intend to linger for long, since we still had to drive back to Silverton, then on to our lodging in Ridgway, CO. and the day was slipping away.

One of the best remaining old structures in Animas Forks is the old home of William Duncan. This site was completely covered by an avalanche a few years ago and I was curious to see how it had survived.

Water damage to the old wood structure is evident. Maybe some of this was there before the avalanche, but I do not recall seeing such damage the last time I was here.

For its age this old home is in remarkably sound shape.

Of course, many visitors have to scratch their names and initials into the wall boards, which have a nice aged patina.

The inhabitants here had magnificent mountain views.

As we were getting back to our vehicle to begin our return trip, the couple we had met on the road at a waterfall, drove up and we chatted again. I learned that the driver was a retired photographer, who was happy not to have to continue making school photographs. He told me about an old mill nearby that his dad had made a painting of many years ago and also about an abandoned truck just a short distant past Animas Forks.

My wife was reluctant, having had enough of this rocky road, but relented to allow me to try to find that old truck.

Stay tuned to see if I was successful,

Ken

The Road to Animas Forks, CO, August 2022

Since we were in the neighborhood, I made a spur of the moment decision to take a 4 wheel drive road to the ghost mining town of Animas Forks.

I’d been to Animas Forks with my oldest son a few years ago, accessing it via other 4 wheel drive routes. I thought I recalled the route from Silverton being very easy and suitable for even regular passenger vehicles and it is a well maintained gravel road for the initial few miles out of Silverton. However, where it begins to climb into the mountains, it becomes rocky and rough. This route is still classified as an easy 4 wheel drive route, but it is not safe for regular passenger vehicles. But we did encounter a young female driver in a low clearance small passenger vehicle, returning towards Silverton. She was either a skilled driver, crazy or stupid. A bad move could easily result in undercarriage damage or a punctured oil pan, punctured gas tank or high centering on rocks.

This was the first 4 wheel drive road that I have taken in my 4Runner TRD off-road Toyota. I still have road tires on this vehicle, which are only a couple of years old with low mileage, so I was not overly concerned about the tires, but knew I needed to exercise more care in driving than if I had more suitable tires for such roads.

This mountain road, like all here, is scenic with great views of mountains, mountain streams and waterfalls.

Just after shooting at this waterfall, another driver pulled in behind my vehicle. He was “local”, being from the Durango area and knew this area well. We had been driving for awhile, making slow progress and I had no idea how far we were from Animas Forks, but he assured me we were not far away now.

Next Animas Forks,

Ken

Silverton, Colorado, August 2022

Silverton, Colorado is a picturesque old town nestled below Rocky Mountain peaks along U.S. 550 between Durango and Ouray. Silverton originated during mining boom times in the nearby mountains and was a rowdy place of saloons and bawdy houses, where the miners came to spend their wages, earned by their hard toiling in the mines.

It is now a major tourist attraction with lots of art galleries, antique shops, souvenir shops of all sorts and numerous restaurants and eating places to choose from. Nothing here is inexpensive, food or otherwise.

When we decided it was time to have lunch, most of the restaurants were crowded, including the limited outdoor seating, which we required, since we were traveling with a miniature labradoodle.

We ended up purchasing sandwiches from a food truck that had picnic tables and umbrellas for shade. The sandwiches were tasty. In talking to the lady working in the food truck, we discovered she and the food truck were from East Texas not so far from our home base. They trailer the food truck to Silverton for the tourist season, live in an RV, then back to Texas in the winter months. There were lots of Texans in Colorado. No doubt fleeing the excessively hot and dry summer in Texas this year.

Next up a spur of the moment decision to take a 4 wheel drive road to the ghost town of Animas Forks.

Let’s hope we don’t end up like this rusty truck in a Silverton alleyway.

Until then,

Ken

Durango, Colorado, August 2022

After departing Santa Fe, New Mexico we headed to Colorado, stopping for a couple of nights in Durango.

I had anticipated spending most of our time in downtown Durango, allowing my wife to shop to her hearts’ content; but she was not interested in shopping here.

Our motel was near the Animas River, with a walking/bicycle path along the river. We checked out that path, but discovered that it was not a great walk at this location, being completely open with no shade and it was warmer in the sunshine than we expected. There was a pedestrian bridge on this path with good views of the river and that was as far along this path as we ventured.

We drove a few miles into the downtown area, intending to have dinner at one of the many restaurants there, but we could find no available parking. After a number of circuits through downtown, we abandoned it and finally found a decent Mexican restaurant in a small shopping center off of the main roadway between our motel and downtown. We enjoyed our dinner at outdoor seating at that location and judging by the number of Hispanic customers, it appeared to be a popular restaurant with the locals.

There are numerous parks in Durango and long pleasant walking/biking paths along the Animas River, which we checked out the full day we had in the area.

I noted that the two youngest kids in the front of this raft were more interested in me than the river. It must have been the phone camera that I pointed at them.

There are modern art work pieces in the parks.

We drove around the local area to check out the countryside, driving up into a national forest and along numerous backroads. Along one of these roadways, I spotted a large rafter or flock of wild turkeys, maybe a couple of dozen.

On to Silverton next,

Ken

Santa Fe, New Mexico – Miscellaneous

We were in Santa Fe, New Mexico in early August, 2022, meeting up with one of our sons and his wife, primarily to attend a couple of performances at the open air opera.

Santa Fe is a typical tourist town with over priced everything, but a very pleasant place to visit, although it was warmer than the pre-trip weather forecast indicated. The old town atmosphere is charming, with lots of shops, street vendors and activity. I usually had the task of waiting with our labradoodle, while my wife shopped. Some stores allow dogs inside, some do not.

This portion of our trip was not conducive to photography activity, so I have only a few iPhone photographs to share. The image above was made prior to the first opera performance we attended. The mustache on the stage might give away the performance: “The Barber of Seville”.

The sun sets behind the stage and it was spectacular at the beginning of this first event. The second night’s sunset, during the early portion of “Carmen”, was not so great. Even though this facility is covered, it is open. We were expecting cooler temperatures at night, but it was still quite warm in the audience area.

One afternoon we went to the Meow Wolf art display, which is a rather wacky place.

There are numerous good museums in and around Santa Fe. The only one we went through is the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

This museum had many beautiful pieces of pottery, old and modern, on display with historical information.

There were other museums that looked interesting, but we did have time to visit those on this trip.

On to Colorado next,

Ken

Old Stuff – Antiques

One of my wife’s favorite pastimes is browsing in antique stores and malls. I frequently accompany her on these visits, occupying my time shooting photos, usually with an iPhone, of items or displays that I find interesting and/or nostalgic.

Fuzzy Blue Ducks – A large plates decorated with ducks in a pond

I recall seeing the Memorex magnetic recording tape commercials many years ago, but I do not recall Memorex brand radios, which seems strange, since Memorex came into existence in 1961, while I was in high school. I had a Westinghouse clock radio in my bedroom then, not Memorex.

Having photography as a hobby, I’m always drawn to displays of old cameras.

The vendor of the booth in which this odd electronic device is displayed has an elaborate description of its ability to transport one in space and time. I see no Flux Capacitor, but there are numerous potentiometers in its Circulator panel.

Cameras, comic books and yams. What can be better?

Remember when cameras were manufactured in the U.S.?

Six-20 Camera, as opposed to Brownie Scouts or Fudge Brownies.

Not sure what makes these “Lucky”, but it was a popular brand for years.

Sieves used for sorting some materiel by diameter, probably have/had numerous application in industries. Maybe these even were even used for particle size distribution analysis of data that I used in my job, prior to retirement.

Colorful lamp shades hark back to the early days of popular home electric lighting.

Rows of colorful glassware always catch my eye,

as do rows and shelves filled with old cameras. Such displays remind me of how fast technology advances. This image (and all others in this post) were made with a device that is obsolete, even though it is only a few years old.

Not Dak Prescot, but seen in Dallas.

From Wikipedia: “An anastigmat or anastigmatic lens is a photographic lens completely corrected for the three main optical aberrations: spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism. Early lenses often included the word Anastigmat in their name to advertise this new feature”.

I learned something new from this old camera.

All the best,

Ken

Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).

I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.

The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.

In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.

Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.

This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.

Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,

Ken

Upper Calf Creek Falls, Escalante National Monument, Utah

As a side trip from Capitol Reef National Park, we decided to hike to Upper Calf Creek Falls in the Escalante National Monument. The trailhead to this waterfall is just off of Utah Route 12 near Boulder. We traveled this route numerous times going to and from Torrey and the southern portion of Capitol Reef National Park.

The trail to the falls is only about a mile one way, but it is very steep over slick rock for the first portion, before becoming moderately level, then moderately steep just before the base of the falls. It is so steep that not only is coming back up the trail strenuous, but going down the trail takes some effort to avoid slipping and falling. There were a few places on the trail that required big steps down and up.

The information we found for the trail says the grade is 14% at the top and my son’s trail app showed as much as 20+% grade over some portions. Anyone reasonable fit can do this trail, but care is advised.

We had planned to make the round trip to the falls in about an hour. When we signed the trailhead register, we noted that the two previous hikers had taken hours on the trail, which gave us pause to consider whether much of that time was due to the strenuous nature of the trail.

Anyway, we proceeded cautiously down the trail. I knew the trip out would require me to stop to take periodic breathers, but I had no doubt that I could safely navigate down and back.

Due to the steepness and strenuous nature of the trail, I elected not to carry the weight of my heavy DSLR and lens. So the few photos in this post are via my iPhone.

Upper Calf Creek Falls and Pool, iPhone Photo

We took time at the base of the falls for photography, snacking and hydrating, before heading back to the trailhead. Our round trip time was 90 minutes, 1.5 times as long as we had anticipated. The additional 30 minutes was mostly due to the strenuous nature of the trail both going down and coming out.

We had done the trail to the Lower Calf Creek falls years ago. That trail is three times as long, but mostly on flat, sandy ground along the creek bed.

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 25 – Bentonite Hills

Continued from Part 24:

After sundown, I continued to shoot in the dimmer light, going back to some of the earlier locations to capture the scenes in muted light.

Staring at this old tree I see what appears to be a fierce guardian of the hills, rising up from the desert sand, spreading its tentacles and roaring from its upper, dark center. (Viewing on a large screen can help viewers see what I see, or else maybe I’m off my tree).

This concludes the Capitol reef portion of this trip. I’ve just got a few other miscellaneous items and experiences from this trip to share.

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 24 – Bentonite Hills

Bentonite Hills 1, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old Tree

On the final day of our time in Capitol Reef National Park, we photographed around some of the many bentonite hills in the northern portion of the park and/or along the roadway into Cathedral Valley. The area where we photographed may actually be outside the park boundary on BLM or private land. We had driven past these hills numerous times during out trips into and out of Cathedral Valley.

Bentonite Hills 2, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old Tree

There were a number of old, gnarly trees in this area, so I used those and other desert vegetation as foreground for photographs of the colorful hills.

Bentonite Hills 3, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old Tree

Bentonite Hills 4, Desert and Bentonite Hills

Scrubby Desert Vegetation, Rocks and Bentonite Hills

Hard Rock Desert and Bentonite Hills, Early Golden Hour

Bentonite Hills 5, Bentonite Hills Golden Hour

Bentonite Hills 6, Bentonite Hills Golden Hour

Bentonite Hills 7, Bentonite Hills Golden Hour

Bentonite Hills 8, Bentonite Hills Golden Hour

To be continued,

Ken

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Animas Forks, CO

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The Road to Animas Forks, CO, August 2022

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Silverton, Colorado, August 2022

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Durango, Colorado, August 2022

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Santa Fe, New Mexico – Miscellaneous

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Old Stuff – Antiques

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Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

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Upper Calf Creek Falls, Escalante National Monument, Utah

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 25 – Bentonite Hills

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 24 – Bentonite Hills

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