{"id":1904,"date":"2011-09-14T09:01:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T15:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2017-07-31T19:30:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T01:30:55","slug":"tr-riding-snow-mesa-4-sept-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/tr-riding-snow-mesa-4-sept-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"TR: Riding Snow Mesa (4 Sept 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a long day on <a href=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/return-to-cataract-ridge-9-3-11\/\">Cataract Ridge<\/a>, we decided to do yet another section of the Colorado Trail, east of where we were the day before.  This section takes you on Snow Mesa outside of Creede all the way to the Wilderness Boundary.  We headed up a shuttle, leaving a car at the end of Miner&#8217;s Creek Road and then drove up to the top of Spring Creek Pass where we began our ride.<\/p>\n<p>After about an hour of riding\/walking we found ourselves on top of the mesa.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030192wildrnessboundary.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The views of the San Juans were fantastic.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030132sanjuans.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Wetterhorn, Matterhorn, and Uncompahgre.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030127sanjuans.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more READ MORE!--><\/p>\n<p>The Rio Grande Pyramid, the mountain that forms the headwaters of the Rio Grande itself, the third longest river in the United States.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7252riograndepyramid.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7271coloradotrail.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Although rolling, the mesa was largely downhill, with the wind at our backs.  Riding was fairly easy and enjoyable after the previous long day in the saddle.  Me.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7276brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7258brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chris and Frank.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030178endofsnowmesa.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chris.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7293chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030153chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Frank.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030145snowmesa.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Me.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/IMG_7290brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the eastern end of Snow Mesa we reached the Wilderness Boundary.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030192wildrnessboundary.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There, we headed south on a thin trail to Miner&#8217;s Creek.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030193brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chris.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030200chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Miner&#8217;s Creek valley on the left.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030206minerscreek.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Upper Miner&#8217;s Creek was beautiful.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030213brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chris.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030214chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But the middle was interrupted by several stream crossings.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030219streamcrossing.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once past that, the trail had great flow for quite some time.  We loved this section through the boulder field.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030223brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030224brit.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030232chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lower down, we found ourselves again in forest.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030254chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A large aspen forest enveloped us for the end of our ride.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030250chris.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030258frank.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After our ride, we headed into Creede for some Mexican food.  We then completed the shuttle and enjoyed this view of the Rio Grande Valley on the way back up to Spring Creek Pass.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030273riograndevalley.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030271riograndevalley.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From there, we continued on our way back home over Slumgullion Pass, where we again were greeted with fantastic views of the San Juans.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/snowmesa_4sept2011\/P1030286uncompahgre.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain biking Snow Mesa\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While we have some excellent riding here in Crested Butte, it&#8217;s still nice to venture to other areas.  The Creede area delivered, serving us up a great weekend of scenic and epic riding on the Colorado Trail!  For more info, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/new-page-the-colorado-trail-mountain-bike-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Trail Mountain biking guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although not a section of the Colorado Trail Race, Snow Mesa is another portion of the CT that makes for a fantastic mountain bike ride you should not miss!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biking","category-san-juans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428707,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions\/428707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}