Telluride PhotosPhotos of Telluride Ski Area, Snowboarding, Hiking

Monday evening a couple mudslides closed Ophir Road to all vehicular traffic other than off road bikes and such … as seen below in the video clip of a motorcycle making it through the 3 foot deep and often very soft and mushy mix of mud, rocks and other debris.

The storm was actually very intense and lasted for a while, so it didn’t surprise me to see the amount of flow matter which existed … which came down from one of the steeper drainages on the north sude of the road, just to the west of the “halfway house” (about 1/2 mile to the west of town).

The annual Ophir Hill Climb took place this past Sunday morning at 10am on a beautiful fall day which felt more like summer and typically bodes well for those who ride their bikes.

The race begins in Old Ophir in front of the town hall and proceeds up to the top of Ophir Pass and back down to the finish line. The race is open to mountain bikers, runners, and of course dogs.

Traditionally, when the weather is bad or there is snow on the course, the advantage goes to the runners; however, when there’s a dry course, bikers tend to have the advantage. In addition to a dry course this year, much of the dirt road has been graded by the National Forest Service who have been doing a lot of work in the area with large equipment … so I’m sure it only helped the bikers that much more. I am not 100% certain, but believe this is how it turned out with local biker Pete Dahl taking the first place slot.

The wet weather might not always be the most comfortable to be in, but it certainly makes for some great photos around Telluride and in the mountains. Below is a sunset which lit up the sky in the Ophir Valley a couple of days ago:

Sunshine Mountain

Here’s a double rainbow looking into Waterfall Canyon and the orange clouds on the south side (acid chutes can be seen) taken a little over a week ago in Ophir:

Below is a photo taken in macro mode of an Osha plant in Waterfall Canyon near Ophir, Colorado which has flowered recently.   It seems we’re pretty much in the peak season with respect to mountain wild flowers in the high country.

The roots of the Osha plant are often harvested for medicinal purposes; in particular treating upper respiratory cold and flu symptoms.

Osha is the term used for “bear root” by the Ute’s who apparently witnessed bears seeking out and consuming Osha root after hibernation or when sick or wounded.

Cow parsnip flower looks very similar to that of Osha, but normally has much broader leaves.

I went on a hike on the North side of the Ophir valley yesterday and tried to reach an old mine / tram station up near the Ophir Needles (few hundred yards to the east), but of course took the wrong path and overshot it to the west and underneath in terms of elevation. I believe I made it as far as St. Louis Gulch where I turned around due to not wanting to deal with a goat track on a very steep cliff wall. It would be much easier to traverse through this gulch at either a higher or lower elevation.

So, I backtracked slightly upwards & spotted the clearing of what I believe to be a shack which resides immediately adjacent to the mine I originally was looking to make it too … but it was good 300 vertical feet higher than where I was currently positioned and was too tired to go higher.

So, I opted to simply continue the bushwacking back east and try and locate the main trail in order to find the proper route the next time around. The general rule of thumb for hiking on northern side of Ophir is that you can generally find SOME sort of trail, be it: a full on jeep road, old miner’s trail, or a well defined Elk / animal route … if you simply bushwack it up or down in elevation. Of course, it is important to realize there are many rock outcroppings, cliffs, and other natural features of the terrain which might not allow direct egress. Below is a shot taken from the choke of what is referred to as the West Badger slide path:

I scrambled straight down through the choke … which is basically a narrowing or bottleneck of the gulch by rock formations. Chokes on ski runs are often scraped off and rocky, since most skiers and snowboarders have very little room to manuever in order to pass through & typically scrape off the existing snowbase.

Back to the hike at hand: I realized that after years of snowboarding, I’m now very conditioned to look at what is actually steep terrain below me as almost being flat!!! It’s a sort of trick of the eye. It normally serves me well snowboarding; however, in the context of hiking, it is much more difficult to negotiated a decent down a steep path avalanche path vs. what would otherwise be a few quick turns on my board.

Once I did make it below the choke, I accidently stumbled upon/near a nest of Gunnison Sage Grouse which was on the ground and very well camouflaged. Luckily I didn’t step on any of the little chicks (or whatever they’re called), but did scare away mom … who I’m sure she returned shortly after I left the nest.

Below the choke, I quickly picked up one of the jeep switchbacks and continued downward, on a very rocky pathway, but ultimately figured out where I initially took the wrong turn at the beginning … so next time, I’ll be fairly certain about the route.

There might be an actual official name for it, but it’s what I refer to simply having a decent compact point in shoot camera with you (which can easily fit in your pocket) at all times. Having a camera always with you can lend itself to being in the right place at the right time for either a natural event (i.e. sunset, rainbow, great lighting, etc.) or some other human / group activity which converges at once.

Below are a series of photos take simply because I stopped my car on the way out of Ophir (on the Way to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival) and took a few shots of the mountainside during the sunset hours. I guess I’m going to have to figure out the precise names of the slide path picture in the photo. I believe it’s either Magnolia or Colorado.

Here’s a shot of the beaver ponds just to the Ophir Pass side of “east ophir” taken a few days ago.   You can see East Ophir in the background.

There is actually a National Forest Service remediation site very near this area.  There is a relatively large pile of mine tailings located sufficiently close to the South Fork river.  So, they are going to condense the tailings material into a large pile and “ecapsulate” the pile with material and vegetation … while also engineering proper drainage.

Is often referred to as being two months surrounded by winter; however, we’ve finally received a solid two weeks of warm sunny weather. I’ve programmed in both Telluride and Ophir into my iTouch’s weather app. and have noticed what I’ve known all along. Telluride’s temperatures are on average about 6 degrees warmer than Ophir. Below is a shot taken in the center of “Old Ophir” (west Ophir) looking to the north with Spring Gulch in the background.

According to the San Miguel County website, Ophir Pass is currently closed (as well as Imogene Pass and Black Bear Pass).

I did see a jeep tour ride come down the pass yesterday, but they very well could’ve drove a ways up and turned around.  Apparently, the hold up is due to downed trees vs. an overabundance of snowfall.  Here is a photo I took of the pass yesterday.  There is still plenty of snow visible at the higher elevations.  I’m sure there’s a fairly tall shaved wall of snow at the summit.

Still.  Or at least yesterday was very nasty with snow and cold temps.  This morning looks to be fairly similar, but the old saying in Colorado mountain towns is to “wait 10 minutes and the weather may change”.   So, the cloud cover could very well burn off later this morning.  In fact, it’s always a great opportunity for a photo in Ophir as far as alpenglow occurrences looking out to the west on Sunshine Mountain in the midst of a breaking, yet looming cloud cover; or just as visually appealing, a western rainbow!

While not exactly a rainbow, the photo below (taken in October of 2008) is a similar sort of convergence of a view out to the west of Sunshine Mountain in the fall season after a mild dusting of snow left it’s trace on the still brightly colored aspen trees.  The elevation of the most prominently visual house in the foreground is about 9,800′  …. so, my guess is that the snowline started about 10,500′.