Wed Aug 28th - CARSON GHOST TOWN

Charles & Jane or we had never been to Carson Ghost Town in Wager Gulch until today.  It is off Cinnamon Trail, almost to Lake City.  It was a bumMmMpPy ride -- lots and lots of big rocks and holes in the trails.  It seemed like most of the difficult rocks were located at the switchbacks.  We reached an elevation over 12,000 feet today.  It was a long day.  We left around ten and didn't get back to the RVs until about five - probably drove less than 60 miles roundtrip . . . hard miles. 

On the Animas Trail going towards Cinnamon.  I think this might be the boardinghouse built in 1907 for the Tom Moore Mine.  The old car has been sitting there all the years we have been coming out here:

Animas River has lots of interesting view:

On Cinnamon, following Charles and Jane (their Jeep behind the Aspens on the left side of picture):

 

The cutoff towards Carson starts in Aspens:

 Then, changes to a mix of evergreens & Aspens

Carson Mine was one of the most remote mines in Colorado.  The original town was built in 1881, but the silver crash of 1893 spelled the end of this camp.  In 1896, prospectors discovered gold and a new town was built at a lower elevation, only to be abandoned in 1903.  This is the site of the Ghost town today where many of the buildings are still in fairly decent shape.  At one time the town was so large, it straddled the Continental Divide. 

Looking down on the ghost town:

Up close:

 

Jane & Charles checking out the Continental Divide:

Looking toward Lake City:

The west end of Castle Lakes;

 It started pouring rain on the way home.  This waterfall along Animas was hardly running this morning:

Once again, there were moose sightings near Carson, but we never saw them.  The only critters we saw all day were these two deer: 

 A young one: