I’d been through Creede a couple times, but always when on my way some place else. I’d never taken the time to hang out and explore. So I loaded up my camping gear and Moki and we headed to the hills. My goal was to check out some mining ruins, take some photos and get a little closer view with the drone.

I arrived in the early afternoon and stumbled upon the Bachelor Loop, an interpertive road up into the hills above Creede. The route winds past a dozen or so historical sites, including mines, mills and the meadow where the town of Bachelor once stood, the loop’s namesake. Right out of Creede I was stunned my some amazing mining ruins. A terraced hillside up impossibly steeps canyon slopes contains the remnants of an old mill where the ore brought to the surface was crushed and processed to help reveal the gold, silver and other valuable minerals inside.

A little further up the canyon is an enormous still intact timber stamping mill (the photo on this page shows the scale next to my truck). More mining ruins are found along this route, but the first few are by far the best. The rest of the route provides beautiful views and a cool respite from the heat of the valley.

After checking out the mines it was time to find a camping site. This is always an anxious time for me. The thought of not having a place to relax, make dinner and lay my head causes great stress when in reality if I had to make dinner on my tailgate on the side of the road and sleep in my truck, I’d be just fine. Fortunately I didn’t need to do that. I put the truck in 4-wheel low, crawled through some deep muddy puddles and found an amazing empty meadow surrounded by spectacular rock cliffs on all sides, and no one was withing a half mile of us. Mission complete.