Jay Carter

In remembrance of Jay Carter who passed yesterday. We remember his 4 wheel trip to Ouray with Jim back in 2009.  Jay took some 400 photographs on that trip and talked of it often afterwards as a “trip of a lifetime”.

We will miss your jokes, laughter and constant smile.  You will be missed, Dear Friend……

Summitville Mine

We took a road trip with the Mossman’s to see the Summitville Mine operation.  This was a gold mine about 25 miles south of Del Norte.  Back in the 1980’s the mine was reopened and used a sodium cyanide solution to leach out the gold from the ore.  Summitville is knows for the environmental damage cause from a damaged pad liner and the release of some 85,000 gallons of contaminated water into the nearby Alamosa River.

Back in the 1998 Summitville Mine was designated as a Superfund site and clean up began.  Recently Colorado Department of Health and Environment received $17 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to build a water treatment plant up there.

The drive was pretty going further back into the mountains.

The water treatment plant is up and running.

Right after the Summitville mine there are some old structures that are weathered, but still standing.  So interesting.

Going away from Summitville was just as pretty as the ride up there.

We ended up in Del Norte. On the last stretch we saw this unusual house.

What were they thinking?  Is that roof-line part of a dragon’s tail?  And why all the odd shaped pieces of wood above the windows on the right?

Oh, well, it was a very nice afternoon drive and got us away from the campground for a while.

Remember, you are loved.