Wolf Creek Pass
Southwestern Trip 2022 | Great Sand Dunes to Canyon of the Ancients | Zapata Falls | Big Meadows Reservoir | Wolf Creek Pass | Treasure Falls | Lowry Pueblo | October 2022
*A quick note before beginning today’s post: Over the past couple weeks I had to move my blog onto a new server. I’m still getting things moved over and personalized on this site, but I’m going to resume posting about our Southwestern trip and events that have happened since so that I don’t fall too far behind. Please bear with me as I finish the migration. Additionally, if you used to receive email updates but didn’t for this post, you can re-submit your address at the bottom of this page. Thanks for understanding, and thank you for reading and supporting my site!*
We started off our day in Colorado by taking a short hike up to Zapata Falls. The trail to the falls is only a half-mile one way, but we started from our campsite which added an additional mile. The trail was rocky, but not too difficult. From a distance we could hear the creek running and assumed that meant we would see a full waterfall, but it turned out that the water flow was further back within a canyon than we thought. Curtis attempted to go back and get a better view, but was unable to see the whole thing without walking in water — and since it was a chilly morning, having wet feet wasn’t optimal. Oh well, we still were able to see the sand dunes in the distance and had a nice walk before it was time to begin our drive across the state.
We drove back down the mountain to US-160 to continue heading West. The sky was still overcast and low-hanging clouds obstructed our view of some mountains along our drive. We had a few short hikes saved along the way, and decided to just do as much as the weather would allow. We drove through the rest of the Plain of the San Luis Valley — we read a sign near the Zapata Falls Trailhead that said that this valley was almost the size of New Hampshire, and we were having trouble imagining that. Too bad Curtis’ topographic map is packed away and we can’t see it to compare for who knows how long.
Our first stop along the drive came soon after leaving the valley and entering Rio Grande National Forest and the San Juan Mountains. We turned off the highway and followed forest roads back to Big Meadows Reservoir. I had saved this with the idea that we could either kayak or hike around the lake. Because it was cold and windy, and presumably even colder and windier on the water, we decided to walk the 3 mile trail circling the lake. The trail was mostly flat and the views were excellent. It rained a little on us halfway through, but the trees above us helped to shield us from getting too wet. This his was all in the “Aspen zone” and the golden trees were all around and reflected in the water.
Next, it was time to cross over Wolf Creek Pass — and yes, we had the song stuck in our heads the entire way. At the continental divide, we turned off on forest roads once again and drove up to Lobo Overlook on the North side of the pass. Curtis had a peak hike in mind on the South side of the highway, but the clouds were engulfing what we assumed to be that peak, and it was COLD! So we did the easy thing and just drove up to see what we could. The road was narrow as it wound its way up to the overlook, and as we neared the top we started seeing big patches of snow. Thankfully it wasn’t a complete white out of clouds, and we stayed there as long as we could tolerate the cold.
Back on the highway, we crossed the continental divide and began our drive down. We made one more stop to hike to Treasure Falls. This one was the most popular of the trails we visited today, which is understandable seeing as it’s right off the highway and an easier mile-long hike to different lookouts. We hiked up to both viewpoints of the falls, then to an overlook of the highway before returning to our car.
It’s a good thing we didn’t have our hearts set on any more hikes in the San Juan mountains, because after our stop at Treasure Falls, we ran into heavier rain off and on for the rest of our drive on US-160. We drove West until we came to CO-184, then drove to Dolores and to the visitor center for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.
We didn’t know a whole lot about this park before visiting today — it was just starred on my map because years ago it had been recommended to us by some friends. I believe it was for our Spring Break trip in 2015, when we had considered visiting Mesa Verde National Park after Canyonlands, and some friends told us to skip that one and go to Canyon of the Ancients instead. We ended up not going that direction after all and just went to Petrified Forest in AZ before returning home. Then in the fall of 2015 we visited Mesa Verde as our last stop in CO. As it turned out, we didn’t enjoy Mesa Verde that much, so I’ve always wondered if visiting Canyon of the Ancients would have been a better experience.
Curtis went in to the museum to inquire about what we could do and what the camping situation was. He learned that there was so much to see, and that this area holds the second most amount of Ancestral Puebloan sites in all the US. However, they had just received a lot of the rain we had been driving through, so they cautioned us that some of the dirt roads would be impassable. We ended up planning our route around the roads that would be in better condition, and what would be the most direct way to continue with tomorrow’s plans.
We were told that Lowry pueblo would be both easy to reach and well worth our time, as well as along the way to our campsite, so we made that our main stop for our short visit this afternoon. The Lowry Pueblo dates from 700-1300 CE as do most of the Ancestral Puebloan sites. But this particular site was rather sprawling in nature with lots of rooms and walls, including some that we were able to walk down and into.
After touring the pueblo, we continued driving through the park until we came to where there was supposedly dispersed camping on the Colorado side. A short drive down the muddy road confirmed that we weren’t comfortable going that way, so we instead crossed into Utah and found a more passable road on BLM land. There were some other designated camping areas within Canyon of the Ancients, but they would have taken much more driving around the canyons to reach, and we wanted to stay on this route so we could visit Hovenweep National Monument first thing in the morning.
We ended up finding the perfect spot for the night overlooking a canyon. We spent most of our waking time here sitting near the edge, reading and admiring the canyon view, the Abajo Mountains in the distance to the Northwest, and the way the colors changed as the sun set. Just like every other time we’ve returned to the desert/Southwest/Utah, we were reminded of how much we love this area, and we knew right away we had made the right decision coming back.
