Colorado Western Slope and FJ Summit Vacation (20100716-25)

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Monday, July 19th, 2010 - a Hike to the Grassy Meadow above Ouray


Before we left on the hike, I noticed that the road actually kept going, at least a little further.
So, after the hike, we decided to drive up the road and see where it leads to.

This time, as with another day on this trip, the adventure ended at a downed tree across the road.
Of course, if I had a chainsaw, I could have put an hour into it, cleared the road, and continued, but not so.





On our way back down, we could see the trailhead parking area (many more vehicles there than when we first arrived)
and the valley in the distance (not visible from the trailhead due to all of the trees)





looking up at the rocky outcrop that served as our overlook spot way up on top





Back to the creek crossing (people with low-clearance vehicles usually park and start their hike from here)






looking up at the overlook spot from Lake Lenore










We were on the bigger knob on the left, and the thing on the right is the spire visible in some other photos earlier.





This is one of my favorites...we can see both the overlook spot we were at, as well as Ouray down below.




 

After the hike, we headed up to Montrose to run some errands.
On the way back to Ouray, I took a few shots of Cimarron Ridge, just East of Ridgway.

 

Back in Ouray that evening, we were walking along, checking out the shops, etc,
and we noticed this little place.

As we were crossing the street, JammerGirl said, "Hey, it's White Eyes!!"

As it turns out, it was the new location of a shop we had come to love in Silverton,
but was gone the last couple times we were there.

We started a small collection of pottery from her place in Silverton,
and placed it in our Native American shrine at home
....intending to add another piece to it each year or so.





 

Here's her primary place of business...

then, here's what's on the back side of her card...

    



Here's a photo of the pottery from White Eyes at home
The sheep skin is from my Mom.
The antler is from a fossil hunting trip.
The photo in the background is a shot of Cliff Palace that my Dad took when we were at Mesa Verde National Park when I was a kid.
The little objects are arrow and spear points that my Dad found when he was a kid (he grew up in Colorado).
The pottery pieces are genuine Navaho - or Diné (d'NEY) as they refer to them selves; made by someone that White Eyes knows personally.
It's made with feathers and horse hairs in the firing process.






As the days went by, more and more FJ Cruisers continued showing up in town.

At the Ouray Hotel, we were treated to a close view of this beauty.
As it turns out, it belongs to Radrod57 on the forum, and we ended up hanging out a bit during the Summit.






Well, that was pretty much it for our pre-Summit portion of the trip.
Even though the Event didn't actually start till Wednesday, hanging out with Jared (one of the FJ Summit organizers) on Tuesday
made it a bit of an unofficial Summit day for us.   :)


Click ---> here <--- to see the next day of this trip.



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