The official travel journal of Jerry & Ann Linebarger
www.linebloggers.com
We played a little and worked a lot while we were at Junction Creek Campground near Durango. We had a number of maintenance issues with Bubba and this was a good place to get supplies and work on the problems. Here, Jerry is packing up the old refrigerator cooling unit (which died) to be shipped back to the company from which we bought a replacement unit.
From Sunshine Campground, near Telluride, we took a couple of high-country trips. Here, we are at Alta Lakes.
Mine ruins near Alta.
Another pristine alpine lake - there are thousands of these in Colorado.
A little pika sunning on the rocks. Pikas are cousins to the rabbit.
Everywhere we looked we could see that God's paintbrush had been at work.
Help, help! Get that little brown dog outta' here!
The old ghost town of Alta was the company town for the Gold King Mine which was discovered in 1878 and operated as recently as the 1940s. Gold, silver, copper and lead were mined here. In 1881, L.L. Nunn organized a contract with the Westinghouse company to construct an electrical plant in Ames, less than 3 miles away. This became the first alternating current plant in the country and harnessed the power of the San Miguel River to transmit 3,000 volts to the Gold King Mine. Nunn expanded his venture to include Telluride and, subsequently, electricity became widely used in Colorado and the world.
