Stardate 2016.375

The Sangre de Cristo Range

The Last Of Our Trip
This is the last post for my California trip. From the canyons of southeast Utah, we flew northwest across southwestern Colorado and its finest mountain range — the San Juan Mountains. In the pic below, Lone Cone (12,614 feet) welcomed us back to Colorado. Lone Cone is the western-most major peak in the San Juan Range. It's also Colorado's western-most 12,000-foot mountain.



Southwest Colorado's sprawling San Juan Mountains reach for the sky. There are even more peaks to the left and more peaks to the right. The ski runs of Telluride may be seen in the lower right.



The summit of 14,150-foot Mount Sneffels (rank #27) is my favorite 14,000-foot peak in Colorado. The peak is almost dead-center in the following pic. The band of snow running off its summit is the upper portion of the Snake Couloir, one of the state's finest snow climbs. The section is hidden from view. I climbed the Snake many, many moons ago and should go climb it again. Here's a link to my Sneffels blog post.




Western Colorado's Ridgway Reservoir (no e in Ridgway) will soon be collecting lots of runoff.




We like to road cycle the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River area. The north rim road is visible.




Blue Mesa Reservoir also is gearing up for the spring runoff.




Here's the southern end of the Sawatch Range.



This is the northern terminus for the Sangre de Cristo Range. It's hard to tell here, but the Sangre de Cristo Range runs south all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.



A landmark of the Front Range, Pikes Peak towers to 14,110 feet (rank #30). The peak was named after Zebulon Pike of the Pike Expedition in 1806. In 1893 Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful after a visit to the summit and taking in the view.




The great plains of America meet the suburban sprawl of the Front Range.




Parting shot: A race to land.




Thanks for reading!

Adios