A few days with my son
Day 2: Mayflower gulch
I have written of this place before:
(g)Old Mines of the Rockies
Gold is a beautiful metal. And the old saying is true: gold does not glitter (but iron pyrite, Fools’s Gold, does). It glows. Anyone who has ever mined it, panned for it, held bullion-grade gold in his hands, can tell you that. It has been treasured for thousands of years. Two thousand years ago, a man could buy a fine toga, a belt, and a pair of good sandals for one ounce of gold. Today, it still buys a good tailored suit, a belt, and a pair of dress shoes. When I was a kid, an ounce of gold would pay a months’ rent and electricity. It still does, in most places.
As mentioned in my previous post, we had made base camp at Fairplay. Mayflower Gulch is on the other side of the Mosquito Range (part of the Rockies) from there. We went south down around the end of the Mosquitoes, then north through Buena Vista and Leadville, and parked near the mouth of Mayflower Gulch at the gate.
On the way, we stopped at those castle thingies between South Park and Buena Vista to photograph them.
There was also a lovely evening-primrose there:
Mayflower Gulch is lovely in the summer. At the fork in the road, I went right and he went left. My road went up a little rise with a view of the whole gulch.
You can see him down there on the road, walking up it. See him down there? He’s just a little black speck.
It’s a big place. An empty place. The mountains encircling the gulch are steep, rugged and high. No one lives there, and few people ever go there. It’s very quiet.
Here’s a view looking back down the gulch:
I set up to take a photosphere. Here it is (you have to click on a link to see it because Substack is not set up to handle photospheres):
Photosphere of Mayflower Gulch
And that was it for Day 2.
[As per last post] And your found GOLD! The gold panning results are in! ........ eventually. I wanted to see the panning results, Dude! Oh, and I notice you too some pictures too.
o(*￣▽￣*)ブ