Sunday, June 14 U.S. BASIN; YANKEE BOY to GOVERNOR'S BASIN

We started the day with a leisure drive on the U.S.Basin trail.  It's a fairly easy trail that you enter off Hwy 550, make a gradual climb thru Brown's Gulch to an elevation of approx 12,000 ft,  then come down and enter back on Hwy 550 further north.  Once again, we were stopped by snow drifts before reaching the top. Our plan was to go back out to 550 and go back in at the northern entrance and see how far we could get from that direction  But, as we got closer to Ouray, Buen Tiempo called.  So, we went into Ouray, had Mexican food for lunch and took Yankee Boy to Governor's Basin.

Entering U.S. Basin:

 My 6 1/2s :

 Me, making a snow angel:

 Alexis coming down; sunk to her knees and took a face plant in the mud.

She was a good sport about it though - especially instead of helping her, everybody grabbed cameras!

 Going into Yankee Boy:

 Turning around at the end of Gov Basin, but

we did make it to the TOP!:

 It was REALLY muddy; perhaps the "road closed" sign should have been up:

 Red roof below is part of the operational mine:

 Old Mine debris:

 Working Mine:

 Makes me sad to see how much of the "Tin Cup" overhang they had to blast away to make room for the mining vehicles to be able to travel this trail:

Some year we will come here & this rock will have rolled out:

 Headed back into Ouray & home: