Switzerland Trail & Gordon Gulch
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Switzerland
Trail is an old railroad bed. The train shuttled between the front
range cities with mountain gold mining towns near Ward and Nederland.
The trail itself is easy as the grade and curves are designed for
trains. I have traveled the northern section a few times though this
will be a second visit to the southern section (the first was with
family, years ago). Near the southern section there are other trails -
one of the guys in the group wants to check some out - I'll follow
along. |
| An odd mix of cloud today - will it be a sunny day? |
| Last evening Fort Collins received 1/3" of fluff. In the twisty canyon roads the packed fluff looked slick - but it wasn't. |
| Up, out of the canyon and on the Switzerland Trail - beautiful sun! |
| I saw this in my rear-view mirror and had to stop for a picture or two... |
| Low hanging cloud to the east and over the front range cities. A good day to be in the mountains. |
| The sun facing sections of trail are snow free. |
| The shaded areas had snow but it was packed and of no concern to getting stuck. |
| Looking across the valley at the trail we drove a few minutes prior. |
| A "railroad radius" notch cut. |
| More cloud out over the cities. |
| Mining relic - air compressor. |
| Some of the trees were still nicely frosted. |
| The
three of us were in exploration mode - dead end spurs - we checked them
out. This spur was interesting. This seam was mined. We were not able
to get up to the dark "cave" area as just beyond the snow there was a
hole... |
| Looking down the hole. Not terribly deep (20 feet perhaps). Does it extend outward / a mined area? |
| The end of the trail - single track. Looking at maps - there are other mines nearby. |
| One hard rock adit - about fifty feet long. |
| And then they stopped digging. |
| Over at Gordon Gulch - a network of trail and camp sites in the trees. |
