Weminuche Wilderness

This is i believe the largest wilderness area in Colorado. It covers a whole lot of the higher elevations of the San Juan Mountains. We were aiming to make a five day trip up there, but could not get a dog sitter for more than 3. See, Willie (pictured above) is about 2 and real full of energy. Cassidy (pictured in an earlier entry) is about 7, and has a bad hip. So we thought we maybe could leave her at home while we tromped up the mountain.
So the parking lot was at about 8000 feet, just on the east end of Vallecito Reservoir, which in itself is a pretty nice place, if you like man-made mountain lakes. Maybe even if you don't. I really dug the clusters of cabins, saloons, shops, lodges, RVs etc around the lake. It sort of reminded me of the Black Hills in mid-summer. Really rustic and mellow, not all glitzy like some mountain resort areas are prone to become.
We did about ten miles the first day to Emerald Lake. DeAnn and i have not been back- packing since we met, and so this was quite a workout--ten miles up to about 10,000 elevation. But it was worth it. No camping was allowed within a quarter mile of the lake, so we stopped short, pitched tent, and went to the lake to cook dinner. REAL NICE! The next day, it was another five miles up to moon lake at about 11,000 feet. Amazing. I've never seen a mountain lake so remote and high with still lakes more remote an high above, surrounded by peaks even higher.
We made another five miles back to camp, again dog-tired. The next day was just ten miles out to the parking lot--in the rain! It rained for about an hour, straight out of camp. We were getting pretty soggy, when it secided to stop. We stopped, too--had a snack and some lemonade, then headed out again. We'd got off the raincoats and were starting to dry out when rain came again for another hour. But we were dry (if our gearwasn't) by the time we made it to the truck. Then we discovered we had a flat tire. That's the proper way to end a trip. But we were fixed up in a jiffy, and made it into Durango for a very large late lunch. Washed down with a pale ale for me and a brown for DeAnn. AHH-HAAAAH!