Picayne Gulch
We found the trailhead for Picayne Gulch just south of Animas Forks. We started up the trail, and the climb was fun from the start. This was already one of the best trails of the day and we weren't even very far into it. It was in trees, but it was fun.
We were coming out of the trees when we came to the Treasure Mountain Mining Company buildings. We parked and got out to explore for a bit. There was so much to see. Even though the buildings had been messed up a bit over the years, you could still see how many of the rooms once looked. Across the way, the mill was very intact. Railroad ties and tracks went into the top, but they stuck out into mid-air where they had broken away from the building across the way. That building had sagged down quite a bit. We stayed for a while, but it was too much to explore in a short amount of time.
We headed up the trail taking in the sights as we went. We wondered why there were no aspen trees in this area. We guessed that we had gotten used to seeing blotches of fall colors all around us over the past couple of days and that color was conspicuously absent on this trail. We proceeded up, over and down Placer Gulch back to California Gulch and then headed down. We viewed all of the mines and mining buildings from our Jeeps, but no one got out. There was just too much to see. We were soon on back at California Pass and making our way down to Poughkeepsie Gulch, our last trail of the day.
Report from a Different Day
