Creede - Flowers to Fires

June has been an interesting month here in Creede CO.  It started our with beautiful, clear skies with wildflowers popping up everywhere.  It is ending the month with smoke-filled skies with the West Fork Complex fires burning out of control.

It has been many years since we spent the summer enjoying the beautiful Colorado mountains.  I hadn't realized how much I had missed the wildflowers that grow everywhere - some lasting only a week or two and others lasting all summer.

 

 

The red letters say "we are right here" with a line drawn to our rig.  You can see why we like it here - right on the Rio Grande River.  TaDa - I figured out how to make the pictures larger.  This is a learn-as-you-go project.

These lilies are so delicate.  In the picture below, you can see Deep Creek at the edge of the grass behind the field of lilies.

 

 

As we cross a bridge over the Rio Grande River near the RV park, we often see guided fishing boats departing.  This one has a big black dog in the back.

 

 

 

The West Fork and Windy Pass fires started on June 5, but we really didn't see any evidence of the fires here until about 10 days later.  One day, these huge smoke plumes arose to the southeast of us.  At first we thought they were clouds, but soon realized they were smoke plumes rising over 30,000 feet into the sky.  We could see them growing by the second.  The official description follows:

The West Fork Complex fire was so hot that it spawned numerous pyrocumulus clouds-tall, cauliflower-shaped clouds that billowed high above the surface. Pyrocumulus clouds are similar to cumulus clouds, but the heat that forces the air to rise comes from fire instead of sun-warmed ground.

 

Let me assure you that these smoke plumes are not nearly as close as they appear.  They are to the west of South Fork, about 30 miles away.

 

The perspective of this picture makes it look like the fire is almost on top of our rig.  Thank goodness that is not the case.



The same day we had the smoke plumes, we had ash collecting on our patio.  We had a little the following day but not much at all since then.  Notice the wood chips on the ground, evidence of one of the few days Alan was able to carve.  It has been quite windy, making outdoor carving difficult.

This smoke is coming from the Papoose fire that started several days after the West Fork fire but is giving us much more trouble here with the smoke.  It is to the southwest of us, again quite a ways away.

Sunset one evening looking towards the Papoose fire.  The color isn't fire but the sun reflection.

 

We went to a fire incident meeting in Creede on Tuesday, June 25.  It was very interesting and informative.  These fires have now been joined into the West Fork Fire Complex and have burned more than 83,000 acres without losing any structures.  They are burning bone-dry pine and spruce that have been killed by the pine and spruce beetles over the past few years.  There is no containment and the only thing that will put them out is a lot of rain or when the snows come.  As Alan says, "this needs to happen from Mexico up to the Canadian border and it is not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen.

We came away from the meeting realizing that fire fighting at this point is very complicated and technical.  There are nearly 1500 fire fighters working on these fires along with air support.  This fire complex is now the No. 1 priority fire in the country.

About Creede, however, this is what we were told at the incident meeting: 

 

But at least residents in Creede won’t need to worry about evacuations. The town has considerable defensible space – wide-open meadows with little vegetation – making it a relatively safe place, said Russ Long, operations section chief for the fire.

“This is a safety zone,” Long said at the meeting. “You have a very safe town."

If there is any evacuation in Creede,  it will be because of air quality, not fire.  The smoke now varies from a light haze to fairly heavy.  Time will tell, I guess.

On to more fun things.  This is Doc, our next door neighbor dog being trimmed by Jon and Angela.  He is in the tub to contain all the hair.  Isn't he darling?

A deer along the highway on our drive to Lake City on June 26.

Downtown Creede on June 27.  Of course, the merchants are struggling so we did our part to help the economy with purchase of a fishing license and a little gear, Creede Repertory Theater tickets, groceries and lunch. 

Childhood Memories of Creede CO

Sometime before 1947, several families in Lamar CO bought 130 acres just south of Creede.  The property was called Pine Crest Ranch.  From about that time until 1962 or so, Alan spent all or part of the summers in Creede.  There were several cabins on the property, each owned by a different family.

Alan's stepfather, Cecil's dad and his second wife owned one - that would be CJ and Freeda.
Family friends, George and Ardis owned another one.
A family named Stevens owned a third one.
The final cabin had at least 3 owners that Alan remembers.

He really doesn't know who owns any of the cabins now, but they are still here in varying degrees of repair or disrepair.  The cabins are in fairly easy walking distance of the RV park where we are spending the summer, so on one of our walks, we took these pictures.

At one time, Alan woodburned a Pine Crest Ranch sign, but the current one is painted.

This was Freeda and CJ's cabin.  Many of the logs are rotting and it doesn't look as if it has been used for a long time.

 

Alan would often come up with CJ and Freeda and Margaret and Cecil (his folks) would come up on the weekends or when they had vacations.  Although most of the land in the area is now fenced off with no trespassing signs posted, back then, that wasn't the case.  He tells stories of wandering all over the area, fishing (the Rio Grande River is very close) and riding horses.  The stable in Creede kept their horses on part of this land and rotated them as necessary down to the stable.  Alan was able to ride the horses left on the property as much as he wanted.

These cabins were owned by the Stevens and the people Alan doesn't remember.  The back of CJ and Freeda's cabin is just like this, but because of an addition, you can't see that part.

 

The outhouse, obviously.  Some of the cabins now have electricity, but we couldn't tell if they have plumbing.

The old barn has seen better days.

 

 

Views from the cabins - such beautiful scenery.

Oh, don't ask me why this picture is extra LARGE.  Hmmmmm.  We are just down the road a little from the cabins and that is our RV park through the trees.

A distance shot of the ranch.

Alan ignoring the no trespassing sign!  This was the original ranch house that has had a screened in porch enclosed and also another addition.  George and Ardis Havens owned this cabin.

He is having a fun time remembering (or trying to remember) so many experiences he had here.  Lots has changed in 60 years, but it is amazing how much he can recall.  Folks here in the RV  park are pretty much newcomers to the area, so they are very interested in hearing what it was like back then.

We have arrived!

We left Cortez CO the morning of June 1 on our way to Monte Vista and Alamosa, intending to stock up at WalMart and do some genealogy research.  Our plan was to arrive in Creede CO on June 3 or 4.  We passed the road heading to Creede just before stopping in South Fork for lunch.  While eating, we decided to take that road to Creede today and arrive early.  We will drive to Alamosa for stocking up next week.

Our drive today was very scenic - Colorado at its best.  As my sister, Dorothy, describes herself and me - "I am a green girl, not a brown girl."  Driving along today Alan asked if the green girl was happy, and my answer was definitely yes.

These pictures were taken from the truck as we drove - not the best but it will give you the idea of the scenery.

When we arrived at Mountain Views RV Resort (are we resort people?) our site needed some fill dirt and gravel.  Within minutes, a crew of workers were here and spent a couple of hours filling and leveling our site.  Very nice to have that kind of response.

These are views from the park - oops, the resort.

You'll notice there is a "park" side and a "resort" side.

A fountain and elk statue just inside the entrance.

Dorothy and Jerry, this is the view of the site you reserved.

All fishing in the river here is catch and release.  We laughed at this sign.

The Rio Grande river.

A stone statue of a bear and cub at the end of our street.

A creek feeding the river.

In the far left is the nose of our truck.  This is the view down our street.

The park is very pretty and the neighbors that are here seem very friendly.  We even have a cocker spaniel next door named Doc.  As we drove in, Alan could see the roofs of the cabins where he spent so much time as a youngster.  In 60 years or so, I am sure much has changed.  It is really pretty amazing that he can recognize anything.