Ready to go--with the screen I made to find those diamonds!
Willow Creek Pass--dead fir trees from the beetles
Nat'l Dead Forest
Into North Park
North Park makes hay
West from Cowdrey--yes, the roads connect.
Crossing the North Platte River
West to the Park Range
Swing N to climb Indenpendence Mtn
Top of Independence Mtn
Oops, trouble
20 mintues with a bow saw....
The "location" of Pearl--not a town, but what? Nothing shows up with google
Dealing with beetle kill
Beetle kill makes a mess
Lots of little "parks" in the Park Range
Tie Hack--producing ties for the Union Pacific
Encampment River in the background
Park with Encampment River
Hog Resevoir from the continental divide
In the morning--that's not mist, it is road dust hanging over the roads as the hunters blast around looking for elk with their bows
Turn off to head up Elkhorn Mtn. Forest road 508, 10 miles of great Syncro road!
Mine on the way up
Better check this out--I can't see all those rocks in the shade!
Top of Elkhorn Mtn, looking WSW
40.98779, -106.96516
West side of Elkhorn Mtn
A mile of ferns!
Then a couple of miles of choke cherries--El Jefe is REALLY scratched up!
Three Forks Ranch--just google it, and its owner, David Pratt. The upper part of the Little Snake River. You have never heard of the Little Snake in Colorado?.... Nobody much has
Chamisa
Baggs, Wyoming. Are these Robidoux related to the trader Robidoux?
Heading down the lower Little Snake River valley
Here the river no longer looks like a mountain stream, but more like a desert river
That ridge in the back ground is Seven Mile Ridge, the edge of the Sand Wash Basin wild horse range. See my trip report for May '09 http://jones.colorado.edu/Dinosaur09/
Skirting N around the Sand Basin area. Diamond Field is off in the distance
Lookout Mtn--see what it look like on the top: http://jones.colorado.edu/Dinosaur09/six.html
Diamond Field
That's Lookout Mtn in the background, off to the SE
Beautiful sunset at the Diamond Field
Beautiful sunrise at the Diamond Field
That's Diamond Mtn in the background
What covers the ground
Cup o' tea before looking for diamonds
Here's your clue to know if you are at the right place
Looking down on the Diamond Field
The only ant hill I could find. The 1872 reports talk about ant hills and being salted with diamonds, rubies, emerald. Where have the ants gone. This global warming joke has gone too long....
Looking at the Diamond Field from the W, trying to pick out features mentioned in Clarence King's report
Sandstone caprock, "scarcely 100' long"....
Is this where some dry riffling was done? No diamonds here for me.
Hard to match reports from 1872 to what's on the ground
Is this where the gems were hidden in rock crevices? No diamonds for me.
At the top, 2-3 holes--evidence of someone digging not too long ago. No diamonds for me.... Well, on the trail out, a DIAMOND-backed rattler crossed in front of me and paused long enough to coil up and rattle. That was my DIAMOND.
Vermillion Falls
