Float Trip on the Rio Grande

Thursday we rescheduled the float trip on the Rio Grande that we had to cancel for Monday so Wayne could see the doctor again.  His blood pressure and oxygen levels were up but she still wanted him to go home.

We had to be in South Fork at 8:00 for the float trip.  We saw these two deer at the Great Divide at the top of Wolf Creek Pass.  I thought they were going to come up on the road to see us.

 

After filling out the paper work we went with Aaron, out guide, to launch his boat.  Here are Wayne and Aaron right after we launched.  Aaron is an eighth grade math teacher during the school year and a fishing guide during the summer.  He was very nice.

I was planning on just going along for the ride and to take pictures like this one looking up at the road.

This was the first catch of the day.  A little brown trout.  It was a catch and release trip so back it went into the river.

Aaron pointed out this doe feeding near the edge of the river.

 

I caught a small brown trout but we didn’t get a picture.  Then Wayne caught a few more browns.

These were a little bigger.

The river went from being smooth to full of rapids like this.  Aaron nimbly maneuvered around all the rocks with a pair of oars.

In all we caught a total of 9 fish and only lost a few flies.  On the way home I hear this loud thump and asked Wayne, “WHAT WAS THAT?”  That was a deer who cam out from nowhere and hit the front fender on the car.  We drove on for a little while but stopped where we had a shoulder to look at the damage.

We were leaking anti freeze so we called the tow service and our insurance agent and got towed in to Buckhorn Towing across the street from Wolf Creek Park. 

To pass the time I took a picture of one of the flowers on the roadside.

The tow driver dropped us off at the motorhome and as soon as we got in one of the owners, Diana, was at the door making sure we were okay.  We were so we went with her up to the clubhouse for the Thursday night dinner they provide.

We are certainly going to miss this place.  The owners took us out to Brunch Sunday morning before we finished packing and before we left Monday morning.  We drove the motorhome over to Buckhorn Towing and hooked the car up there so that we could tow it back to Aransas Pass.

Williams Reservoir

Since our time here has been cut short we are trying to pack in some day trips that we had been wanting to take.  This Sunday we decided to drive up to Williams Reservoir which is West of Pagosa Springs.  On the way up we encountered this doe who decided to leave when we turned around to take her picture.

 

We had heard that the drive up here is beautiful and it certainly was.

Not only are the mountains beautiful but the clouds are too.

 

This was a very unusual formation.

As we get closer to the lake you can see where the river has cut trough the countryside.

Then we come to an area where the drop off is dramatic.  I got as close as I could for this picture.

I’m sure that Wayne wishes he had brought his fishing pole along as the streams along the way looked very inviting.

Finally Williams Reservoir comes into view.

The reservoir is not as large as we had expected.  There was a man sitting on the edge of the lake fishing but he said that he had not caught anything.

On the other side of the parking lot is a small pond.

We had a visitor while we were in the parking lot.

 

On the drive home we stopped at the picnic area and were able to walk down to the water.

We couldn’t decide it this was meant to be a barn or a house but at least half of it was underground.  There are a lot of houses like this in New Mexico.

 

This is an area called Pagosa Lakes.  There are several subdivisions on this road that surround these small lakes

It was a nice drive and we are glad we took the time to do it.

Drive to South Fork

We ran some errands this morning and then decided to drive over Wolf Creek Pass.  We kept going until we got to South Fork.  This is the view leaving town.

 

We stopped at Treasure Falls to take pictures.

In addition to seeing the falls there is a hiking trail which we didn’t even attempt.

Next stop was the Great Divide.  There is a large parking area here and there are also hiking trails.

The mountains around this area are varied in size and shape.  I like the ones that look like they are terraced.

 

The road winds around and is very steep in places.  Those white things are cars/trucks on the road below us.

    

It was a nice afternoon’s drive.

Good News, Bad News

First the bad news.  Wayne went to the Pagosa Medical Clinic on Friday for a cough and cramps in his ankles.  The staff there took his blood pressure and oxygen levels and everyone went into a panic.  His blood pressure was very low and so was his oxygen level.  The good news is that he left the clinic with medication for his bronchitis and oxygen for his oxygen levels.  Bad news—the doctor suggested that we leave soon for sea level as this altitude is making his heart work too hard.  Good news—we can have another week here. 

Instead of staying here until August 14th we will leave on July 19th and go to Albuquerque to have the generator worked on.  Hopefully we will head to Texas on the 20th and be back at sea level by the end of that week.

In the meantime we are trying to pack in some experiences.  Today we drove over Wolf Creek Pass to South Fork and back.  Here is a picture heading out of Pagosa Springs.

 

We stopped at Treasure Falls to take a picture.

There are plaques telling about the History of Treasure Falls, The Legend of Treasure Mountain and a diagram of the interpretive walking trail which we did not take.

 

There is a tunnel through one of the mountains along the way.  There is a roadway that goes around the outside of the mountain as well.  I guess it is in case there is a wreck in the tunnel because it was closed.

The scenery is spectacular.

 

I think this is another waterfall but I couldn’t get it to zoom in close enough.  If not, it is some of the snow that is still on the ground.

If Wayne is feeling good tomorrow we will try to drive up to Williams Lake.  He will see the doctor again on Monday.

Fourth of July Picnic at Wolf Creek Run

At 4:00 this afternoon we had a picnic complete with entertainment.  This gentleman played all the familiar music that we grew up with.

 

Our hosts provided hamburgers, hotdogs, and baked beans and everyone else brought side dishes.  Here are some of the desserts.

 

The first few pots were the leftovers from our Italian dinner on Thursday night.

Here are some of the other side dishes.  There was lots of  potato salad.

We ate inside the recreation room.  It is a beautiful log structure.

Some of the others ate outside on the deck.  Here is a family with those caps with the funny spiked hair.

This is Ted, our host and cook.

We had lots of people here including some invited guests from outside the park.

This is a view of the mountains looking toward the park entrance.

Looking off the deck we kept seeing something moving in the grass.  It turned out to be a Marmot and Wayne got this great picture with his big lens.

The picnic was supposed to end at 6:00 but we were there well past 7:00.  This is such a fun group.  We decided not to drive into town for the fireworks but we could see some of them from our patio.