Saturday's Mountain Trip

On Saturday we visited an abandoned mine and the Rainbow Lakes area. I was glad he drove!

Boulder Canyon

The drive up the canyon was very slow because there was a lot of construction going on. It was actually nice because we could absorb more of the beautiful scenery :-)

Greg mentioned he rappels these cliffs with friends (yikes!)

See the climber?

Former Caribou City (abandoned mining town)

The side road up to the abandoned mining area was a mere dirt road and pretty rough. There not much left of the town. Back it 1875, there were 3,000 residents! (see further info below)

There were two stone foundations. One was the the Sherman House--the former town's finest hotel-- and the other, the assay office. Assay offices are institutions set up to assay--test the purity of--precious metals.

The stone foundations

A log cabin ruin

We were at ten thousand feet and walking around was "breath taking" (pun intended).

And there was still snow nearby!

Nederland

We then drove back to Nederland for lunch - there was a good layer dust on the back of our rental vehicle from our excursion to the mining ruins.

I (of course) fell in love with a coffee shop built from old railroad cars - amazing!!

Inside the caboose

Inside the passenger car

Rainbow Lakes

Next we headed north and Greg took us on a near "off-road experience" on a narrow rutted dirt road to the Rainbow Lakes campground. It was pretty bumpy and dusty. Once at the end - I snapped a photo of the snow....

Back down via Jamestown

Lastly, we returned to Boulder on a less-traveled side road which was devoid of pavement half of the way.

But it was a beautiful family moment, with country music playing on the radio and Greg in the driver's seat doing his thing: "exploring"! :-)

Further Info

Caribou City (abandoned mining town)

• Caribou, Colorado (Wikipedia)
• Caribou, CO Ghost Town

Jamestown 2013 Floods

• Jamestown 2013 Flood
• Images of the Flood