Ah Monday's, I love them now. Monday is now our Saturday, since we work Wednesday through Sunday. For an old lady like me, it has taken some time to adjust to this routine. I am still having difficulty keeping the days of the week straight. I was up at the crack of dawn, still having trouble sleeping, and had the laundry going by 6 am so that we could make the trip into Durango for our weekly grocery shopping. I don't know why, but for some reason it takes the better part of the morning to get this chore done. We got home around 1130, had a quick lunch and decided to forgo any further chores and go for a ride. We woke up to a cloudy day; the first we have had since we have been here. We loaded Dharma into the truck and off we went.
Bob has been fascinated by the mountain that is directly across from the campground and the Animas River. We can see the sun reflecting off the roof of a house half way up the mountain. Reed, the maintenance guy here - really nice young kid - told Bob that we could drive up the mountain even though no road was visible. We started up Missionary Ridge Road not knowing what to expect. The beginning of the road was smooth, packed dirt. We both said "this is not bad"; then we passed the last house and it turned into a windy, wash board narrow road with sheer drop offs and no guard rails. Some areas were wide enough for only one car (there were pull off areas if you came upon another car). It was a breath taking ride. We went from approximately 6,500ft to 10,500ft at one point. The terrain went from scrub pine and oaks to aspen, noble fir, balsam and giant pines. The smell was wonderful. Part way up we took a picture of where we thought the campground was. Our perception was totally off. We think we are just below the white area at the base of the mountain.
At the 10,500ft level we started to get a few sprinkles on the windshield of the truck. The next thing we knew the rain had turned to hail and it was coming down hard enough to accumulate on the side of the road. My thought was "this is not good" and around the next curve in the road it stopped. We kept climbing higher and wound through some areas that had been totally destroyed by a forest fire. There were stands of aspen and pines that were completely destroyed. The area is trying to recover, however, and there are baby oak, aspen, pines growing as well as fields of wild flowers.

After 2 hours of climbing higher and higher; negotiating switch backs and endless curves we arrived at Henderson Lake. A beautiful spring fed lake tucked among the pines.

We let Dharma out for a little walk and headed back down to civilization.


Rain clouds hovered overhead all the way back to the valley. We did see snow on some of the distant mountains on the way back down. It is still difficult to believe that there is snow on the mountains in July. On the way back "home" as we passed a pasture on route 250, Bob spotted deer and elk grazing with the cattle. We tried to turn around and go back to get a picture, but by the time we got back to the field, the deer and elk were gone and only the contented cattle were still grazing. The area on the opposite side of the Animas from where we are is a mixture of horse farms & cattle ranches and beautiful houses. It still amazes me how diverse the country is here. It was a four hour trip that was well worth it.