North Creek Pass
There was snow on Abajo Peak and we weren't sure what to expect from the trail. We were taking it from the south end to the north end so we wouldn't find out for a little while. It was about 65 degrees at the trailhead so we had our hopes up.
The first parts of the trail were gorgeous, surrounded by thick and healthy aspen trees. Most of them had hundreds of yellow leaves though some were still green. It was definitely scenic.
We didn't stop very much until we got to the big switchback. There we parked and wandered around, enjoying the views. There is a big hill of talus that you can climb that really gives you some great angles on the scenery.
Even though we had gone many miles already it didn't seem to take long at all to get to the spur to Jackson Ridge. We took it, hoping to find something more challenging. We definitely found it when we found snow on the trail.
It was wet snow at first but then it turned to slick snow that packed down tightly. There were ruts in the road and one side dropped off quite a bit. We were sliding around a lot and then Monica had her fill of the danger. We turned around but then found on the map that we were almost at the end of the spur anyway.
When we got almost back to where the spur started we climbed up to the top of the ridge. What luck! The views were incredible. But the best part was that we were standing on top of a ridge filled with the stripes we'd been seeing on the sides of some of the mountains. Mike guessed that it was some old reclamation after mining operations. It was very overgrown but it would be a very long time before the stripes were no longer visible. We stayed there for a while just talking about it.
But we did get back to the trail eventually. The snow turned to a black mud that got all over Mike and our vehicles. It was nasty as we climbed.
We stopped at the pass for picture taking so Hoa could get us all in the snow. The sun was starting to go down and the trail was covered in a little to a lot of snow all the way down the other side. We took it slow but it wasn't long before the snow stopped being a danger. We were soon out and on the pavement.
The Blanding and Monticello areas have lots of deer because they don't hand out many hunting passes. We drove by at least a hundred of them on the way to town. It was crazy.
We got to Monticello and aired up in the parking lot of the pizza place as the sun went down. Then we went in and had a good dinner. It was the perfect end to a great first day.
