Thurs, Sept 10th, GLADSTONE AREA MINES

We hit all the side trails west of Cement Creek-Gladstone area today along with Larry & Cathy and Bonnie & Ronny.  Looking at the National Geographic topical map, it shows about a dozen named trails.  We have only found four.  I know that one we were on was Prospect Gulch.  Not sure of the names of the other three.  Pretty sure one was Georgia Gulch.   It was pretty breezy in some spots.  Mornings are pretty cold now.  Last couple of days everything has been covered in frost.  This morning's temp was 29!

Trail thru the forest; wish I could post the smell:

 First "mine" stop:

 One of those climbs where you just have to have faith that the road keeps going:

 This is where we stopped for a picnic.  

We can look across and see trails we've taken on other days:

 Larry & Cathy:

 Bonnie & Ronny:

 Brandy (8yr old mom) and Annie (4 yr old dtr) stopped to give me some doggie kisses:

 On the way to another mine:

 Remains of the Galena Queen Mine:

 Vertical mine shaft:

 Larry was actually inside this mine.  That's Bonnie looking in:

 Bonnie found this "fresh" elk leg.  We looked,

but couldn't find signs of any other carcass:

 We have traveled this trail in the past - end of the trail today.

I'd call this a pretty big wash-out:

 Aspens starting to change colors at the lower elevations:

 Last mine stop of the day:

 Ronny & Bonnie headed home:

 There's a 3-row "shake & bake" on the top of this mountain and we 

have no clue how they got up there. 

Going to try to post a video of the Aspens shimmering:

(no clue if it will work)