Animas Forks Ghost Town-Alpine Loop

The historic mining town of Animas Forks is located about 12 miles north of Silverton, CO at the junction of the North Fork and West Fork of the Animas River. It is one of the attractions on the 65 mile Alpine Loop in the San Juan Mountains.

There is a 13 stop walking tour brochure for interpretation of the Animas Forks site. I found one at the Silverton visitor center for $1. The brochure might be available at the site, but I think they were all taken when I visited. There was an initial boom here between 1876 and 1884. A fire that started in the Kalamazoo Hotel on October 22, 1891 destroyed the hotel and 13 other buildings.
 

The Duncan House is stop No. 1 and one of the most eye catching of the remaining buildings. It was built in 1879 by miner and mail carrier William Duncan for his family.

The second stop is also a private two room residence for a miner and storekeeper and was constructed around 1898.

Stops 3 through 7 are close by and are also residence related buildings. Stop 4 is the Gustavson House built in 1907. Gustavson was a storekeeper and tram operator in nearby Eureka.
 

top 8 is the remains of the Gold Prince Mill, built in 1904 at a cost of $500,000. It was the first mill in Colorado with a steel superstructure. It only operated for six years, then was disassembled and rebuilt in nearby Eureka.

The Silverton Northern Railroad was completed in 1904 next to the mill, Stop 9, and transported the ore to the New York and San Juan Smelters in Durango. There are remains of the aerial tram at Stop 11 that brought the ore 12,600 feet from the Gold Prince Mine that is located somewhere to the west.

Stop 12 is the Columbus Mine and Columbus Mill. In 1882 the mine had a 107 foot tunnel and a 35 foot shaft into Houghton Mountain. This mine produced galena ore which is high in lead. This mine was last worked in 1939.

The Animas Forks Jail is stop 10 and is located at the edge of the community overlooking the combined North and WestForks of the Animas River. It was constructed using two by six inch boards assembled sideways for a stronger structure. The door with barred windows is on display at the San Juan County Museum in Silverton.

From the Animas Forks area there are three immediate choices for hiking in this area. The Engineer Mountain Pass Road continues north. The Cinnamon Pass Road turns east and the California Gulch Road heads west. Stop 13 at the Frisco Mill is about 0.7 miles away along the California Gulch Road.

Animas Forks to Frisco Mill-Alpine Loop

The Frisco Mill is one of the many historic mining sites on the 65 mile Alpine Loop scenic by-way in southwest Colorado. It is easy walking distance from Animas Forks along the California Gulch 4WD road. Animas Forks is about 12 miles north of Silverton, CO at the headwaters of the Animas River.

The starting elevation at Animas Forks is about 11,300 feet and the trail climbs another 360 feet in about 0.7 miles. Looking back down the trail, the rough roads to Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass are visible, both parts of the Alpine Loop.
 

The Frisco Mill is point of interest number 13 on the Animas Forks Walking Tour, even though it is somewhat distant from Animas Forks and not many actually walk there.

The Frisco Mill is also the site of a long tunnel where drilling began in 1877 but took many years to reach profitable ore. The project changed hands several times and had several names. The mill was built in 1903 with a design capacity of 150 tons per day and was intended to separate the valuable ore from sand, gravel, and clay.

On the way up there is a small sign that says this area is an example of Alpine Tundra, found only in the arctic and isolated high mountain areas. In mid-July there are lush wildflowers along the way. Some of the information for this area says that there were previously many more trees on the slopes, but they were taken for use as building material and firewood.
 

Looking inside, many of the beams and columns have numbers on them. It was designed and constructed at the San Juan Lumber Company in Durango, CO. Then it was disassembled, shipped to the present site and reassembled according to directions.

The California Gulch Road is a side loop off of the Alpine Loop and visits other mining sites including the Vermillion, Sound Democrat 1886, Mountain Queen 1882, and Gold Prince 1903. My hike to the Frisco Mill took 0:45 minutes for about 1.4 miles round trip from Animas Forks. All the other visitors that I saw arrived in 4WD or ATV vehicles.

Wilson Mesa Trail-Sunshine Trailhead

The Wilson Mesa Trail runs mostly east and west for about 13 miles on the northern edge of the Lizard Head Wilderness near Telluride in southwest Colorado. The east trailhead is at the south end of Sunshine Mesa Road. There are two other access points further west at Silver Pick Road and near Woods Lake.

Sunshine Mesa Road connects to the South Fork of the San Miguel Road and starts out straight, wide and smooth as it climbs. This lower road segment is a part of the Galloping Goose Trail. After the point where the Galloping Goose Trail branches off and becomes a single track trail, the Sunshine Mesa Road becomes narrow, rough and twisty with a few mud holes before arriving at the trail head.
 

The signs at the trailhead say Wilson Mesa Trail and 2 miles to the Lizard Head Trail and Bilk Creek. Practically speaking this is the trailhead for the north end of the Lizard Head Trail. The trailhead elevation is about 9760 feet.

About 0.8 miles along this wide and smooth segment, the Wilson Mesa Trail turns west and the old mining road continues south. The first 2 miles of trail are through thick Spruce, Fir and Aspen forest as the trail switchbacks down about 500 feet toward Bilk Creek and an open meadow and wetlands area. Near the bottom, there are some views of the mountains to the south.
 

The Bilk Creek crossing had a ramshackle bridge as recently as August 2009 but it appears to be gone in July 2011. The crossing was up to my knees and fairly swift in mid July, but not dangerous.
 

The segment along Bilk Creek and wetlands is the most scenic of the east end of the Wilson Mesa Trail. Looking upstream, the Wilson Peak group of mountains is on the right and the Sunshine Mountain group is on the left.
 

Looking downstream, the mountains to the north are the group on the north side of Highway 145 west of Telluride.

 About 3 miles down the trail there is a junction with the Lizard Head Trail. About 1 mile past this junction, the Wilson Mesa Trail leaves the meadow area along Bilk Creek and starts to climb towards the west. There was a herd of cows grazing comfortably near this point. After about 0.5 miles of climbing there is a large pond. I noticed a valve along the trail that makes this appear to be a constructed water management pond.

After 2:15 hours and about 5 miles, I turned around about 0.5 miles past the pond at a small creek near a fence that also appeared to be engineered for water management. On the return hike I noticed a good view up Bilk Creek that showed the Bilk Creek Falls and the Lizard Head Peak.

My return hike took 2:05 hours for a total hike of 4:20 hours for about 10 miles. I saw two motorcycle riders during my hike, but no other hikers or horse riders. At my 2:40 PM finish it was starting to cloud up, but I didn’t get caught in afternoon mid-summer rain. I carried and drank 3 liters of water on a 65 F degree day.

Scotch Creek Trail

The Scotch Creek Trail is a 5.5 mile 4WD road connecting to the Colorado Trail and following a historic toll road route from the mining era. The trail head is east off of Highway 145 about 3 miles south of Rico in southwest Colorado.

At the trail head there is an interpretive sign explaining the history of the road. The mining riches of Rico needed a transportation connection with the Animas Valley on the east side of the mountains. The trail head elevation is about 8720 feet and the climb is about 1660 feet to 10,380 feet.
 

 The first segment of trail follows the Scotch Creek closely and passes through an area with many scree slopes below the eroding formations. The forest is thick with Aspen and Spruce and Fir. I heard the loud squeaks of the rabbit relative pikas in the scree slopes but didn’t see one.

There are a few sunny and rocky glades along the lower segment with wildflowers. In late June there were a few flowers but not spectacular. The walking surface was reasonably smooth and the grade is gradual and easy in the lower segment. There are two small creek crossings, one might get your feet wet.

After about 3 miles and 1:40 hours of hiking the trail switchbacks away from the Scotch Creek and becomes steeper. As the route climbs, there are glimpses through the thick forest of some of the peaks to the north.
 

There is a short segment where the views open up north to what I think are Dolores Mountain, Blackhawk Mountain and Whitecap Mountain, all over 12,000 feet.

A little further, some more distant mountain tops come into view. In late June the trail at the top was snow free with a few snow patches in shady spots off the trail.

It took me 2:45 hours to reach the junction with the Colorado Trail at Forest Roads 550 and 564. Looking at the map it looks like a descent to the east would arrive near the Durango Mountain Ski area.
 

The return hike took 2:30 hours for a total hike of 5:30 hours for 11 miles. It was 47 F degrees at the 8:40 AM start and 80 F degrees at my 2:10 PM finish. This was a 95 F degree day in Cortez, CO about 50 miles south. I carried and drank 3 liters of water. I saw two 4 WD vehicles during my hike but no other hikers or mountain bikers.

Jud Wiebe Trail

The Jud Wiebe Trail is a 2.7 mile loop in Telluride town in southwest Colorado. The west trailhead is at the north end of Aspen Street. I parked in the free parking that is on the southwest side of town and it was a 20 minute walk through the scenic town streets to the trailhead.

The west trailhead is also the beginning of the short trail to Cornet Falls and to the east ends of the Deep Creek Trail and Sneffels Highline Trail. At the trailhead there is a bridge across Cornet Creek.
 

The first segment climbs steeply to the west through spruce, fir and aspens. There are increasingly higher views to the west down the Telluride Valley and across the town. It took me 0:35 minutes to climb to the trail junctions.

The Jud Wiebe Trail switches back toward the east and continues to climb. 

The views get better as the elevation increases. In early June there was still a lot of snow at the higher elevations.

At the high point there is a small bench with more spectacular views. It looks like the high point elevation is at about 9680 feet with the trailhead about 8800 feet.

 I thought the bench view point was higher than the top of the Bridal Veil Falls to the east. From the trail junctions it took 0:20 minutes more of climbing to arrive at the bench.

From the bench the trail begins to descend and winds around the Cornet Creek. This segment of trail still had some patches of snow. There is a bridge across the Cornet Creek and a trail junction with the Liberty Bell Trail.

The switchbacks down the final segment come very close to the area above the Cornet Falls but I didn’t see a good view of the falls from there. The east trailhead connects to Tomboy Road, which leads 5 miles to the Tomboy Mine site.
 

The Telluride Historical Museum on Gregory Street is very close to the east trailhead. The museum has interpretive displays on the mining and social history of Telluride and also has the Telluride Blanket, a rare Ancestral Pueblo woven blanket that is more than 700 years old.

My total hike from the parking area to the Museum took 2:30 hours for the 2.7 mile trail plus about 1 mile of town walking. It was a 58 F degree sunny day. I carried 2 liters of water and drank 1 of them.