Colorado Hwy 50 Monarch pass

tamrock

Gold Member
Jan 16, 2013
14,842
29,484
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I spent this last Monday night in Salida, Colorado. I got on the road at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning and headed west over Monarch pass. The full moon was just setting as I headed up the pass. At the top were low clouds, but the temperature was allot warmer then I expected up there. The last pic is what I think are called the Dillon Pinnacles on the shore of the Blue Mesa Reservoir west of Gunnison Colorado on highway 50. The road were clear all the way, with only a little ice on the top of Monarch pass.
 

Attachments

  • Hwy 50 1.jpg
    Hwy 50 1.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 52
  • hwy 50 2.jpg
    hwy 50 2.jpg
    739.8 KB · Views: 61
  • hwy 50 3.jpg
    hwy 50 3.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 46

Jim in Idaho

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2012
3,313
4,684
Blackfoot, Idaho
Detector(s) used
White's GM2, GM3, DFX, Coinmaster, TDI-SL, GM24K, Falcon MD20, old Garrett Masterhunter BFO
'Way Too Cool' dual 18 Watt UV light
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Nice pics, Tamrock. Back in '73, I was running a condo project at Crested Butte. We had to haul 13' x 50' modular condos over Monarch. This was in late October. It got pretty hairy before we got them all hauled.
Jim
 

OP
OP
tamrock

tamrock

Gold Member
Jan 16, 2013
14,842
29,484
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nice pics, Tamrock. Back in '73, I was running a condo project at Crested Butte. We had to haul 13' x 50' modular condos over Monarch. This was in late October. It got pretty hairy before we got them all hauled.
Jim
I'll bet is was hairy. You probably wouldn't recognize Crested Butte today compared to the 70's. I'd go with my buddies from BV over cottonwood pass to party over that way on our days off. I remember the folks over there putting big tires and drum style breaks and beef'n up their bicycles. I ask a guy around 1978 what the heck he did with that souped-up look'n bike. He said they called themselves the stump jumpers and would ride those bike on rough mountain trails down hill. Those stump jump'n bikes later evolved in to today's mountain bikes. They now have a mountain bike museum in Crested Butte, as they think of it a place where the mountain bike craze all began.
 

Jim in Idaho

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2012
3,313
4,684
Blackfoot, Idaho
Detector(s) used
White's GM2, GM3, DFX, Coinmaster, TDI-SL, GM24K, Falcon MD20, old Garrett Masterhunter BFO
'Way Too Cool' dual 18 Watt UV light
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
LOL...No, I probably wouldn't. I left CB in March of '74. Haven't been back since. Last time I was over Monarch was 10 years ago, and I was driving a dumptruck.
Jim
 

Gold Maven

Bronze Member
Jul 4, 2012
2,286
2,101
Holmes County Ohio
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Lobo
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Dad and I had a hair raising time on Monarch years ago.

We were coming back east after a great Elk hunt in a pickup pulling a loaded utility trailer. Sunny in Gunnison, but BLACK up on the pass.

We got to the bottom, and the chain only lights were flashing, snowing like crazy, so we nosed into a salt shed and chained up the front. We tuned the radio in to the pass weather channel, and about the time we got to the point of no return, it said the pass was closed.

Snowing so hard, and piling up so fast, I couldn't see the road. I was afraid to stop, or try to pull over, because pulling over on that hill when you can't see, could be your last mistake.

We crept up and over, some how, and a mile or so down the other side the sun was shining.

If I ever see it that black again, I will not start up.
 

texasred777

Bronze Member
Nov 21, 2013
1,729
1,461
Mountain Home, Idaho
Detector(s) used
BH Lone Star, BH Tracker IV, BH Tracker 2-D/707, Harbor Freight MD-3005, and 2 BH 840
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Nice pictures, Tamrock.
 

coazon de oro

Bronze Member
May 7, 2010
1,622
3,850
texas
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Howdy Tamrock,

Nice pictures, many are not aware of the meaning of many Spanish named places. Salida translates to exit, I wondered if it was just outside the mountains, then noted that you went up the Monarch Pass from there. So it is named as the exit of an old pass. Now I am wondering what other names that pass had before.

Homar
 

Jim in Idaho

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2012
3,313
4,684
Blackfoot, Idaho
Detector(s) used
White's GM2, GM3, DFX, Coinmaster, TDI-SL, GM24K, Falcon MD20, old Garrett Masterhunter BFO
'Way Too Cool' dual 18 Watt UV light
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Howdy Tamrock,

Nice pictures, many are not aware of the meaning of many Spanish named places. Salida translates to exit, I wondered if it was just outside the mountains, then noted that you went up the Monarch Pass from there. So it is named as the exit of an old pass. Now I am wondering what other names that pass had before.

Homar
Monarch may be the pass the old fur trappers called Buffalo Gate.
Jim
 

OP
OP
tamrock

tamrock

Gold Member
Jan 16, 2013
14,842
29,484
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Monarch may be the pass the old fur trappers called Buffalo Gate.
Jim
I've read in some book about the early mountain men, about the pass they called "Buffalo Gate". That pass is known today as Cochetopa pass today. Cochetopa being the Ute Indian word for "pass of the buffalo". It was a pass that the Buffalo could go traverse the continental divide from the east to west, even in the winter from some of the resources I've read. It was also a candidate for a possible route over the continental divide for the first transcontinental rail road. I enjoy driving over the divide on Cochetopa pass. It's so peaceful and quiet in that region, even in the summer month there isn't all that many folks that head to that part of Colorado. I camped in the area some when I lived in Chaffee county back in the early 1980's. It's a great place to get away and explore. Cochetopa Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... I've also posted some pic'c from my time of going over Cochetopa on the new hwy 114 part of the pass in the fall of 2013. I would head to Questa New Mexico that way after I was done with business in Ouray. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/my-daily-snapshot/381822-cochetopa-pass-colorado.html
 

OP
OP
tamrock

tamrock

Gold Member
Jan 16, 2013
14,842
29,484
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Cool pictures! :thumbsup:
The 3rd pic is a good area to find artifacts along the shore and in the sage. I've not found anything all complete and unbroken yet, but I could fill a bucket in 2 hours of flakes. Almost all the material is different shades of great fracturing fine grain quartzite stone. The stuff make a great edge.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top