Photos: Shopping in Creede, & North Clear Creek Falls

Today we made another trip to the True Value Hardware Store in Creede, this time for some sort of spring that Larry could put into the refrigerator latch to make it work again.  The rough roads we've been traveling on are hard on campers!  

They didn't have exactly what he needed, but he bought a couple of little springs that, along with his handy-dandy all-purpose pliers/pocket knife tool, he bent and cut into a shape that worked.  As Lydia once said calmly when she was just two years old and we were stranded atop MacDonald Pass in Montana, "My Daddy can fix anything."  And, more often than not, she's right.

Before leaving town, we did a bit of shopping, buying an LED lantern/flashlight for Caleb, who will be 25 October 13, and a couple of cookbooks for anniversary gifts -- Caleb and Maria will be married 5 years October 13, and Teddy and Amy will be married 16 years on the same day.

Then we drove to a picnic spot beside the Rio Grande River, and Larry fixed the latch at a picnic table while I trotted around and took pictures.  On north a ways we went, stopping at North Clear Creek Falls.

At the entrance of our campground, Mountain Views at River's Edge

Prairie dog

Casey -- big friendly dog belonging to the store owner.  He had own light brown eye and one pale blue eye.

Upper loft of store

Banister made of the gnarled wood found high on the mountains. The wind twists the trunks round and round and round... yet they grow!

A 'selfie' in an antique mirror. 😁😁

Hand-carved.

Aspen leaf dipped in gold.

Creede Library

He was barking furociously... I lifted my camera and took a picture... and he fled for his life! 😆 Maybe he thought I had one of those trick squirting cameras? 😂

One of the old silver mines near Creede

Lichen

Squirrel

Rio Grande Headwaters.  We've stopped at this overlook three times now, and every time, the trees are a more brilliant color than they were before.

North Clear Creek Falls

Five years ago this mountain range southwest of Creede was ravaged by the Papoose Fire, a part of the West Fork Complex fire.  49,056 acres (76.650 square miles, or 198.52 square kilometers) were burned.  Together with the West Fork Fire and the Windy Pass fire, a total of 109,615 acres (171.27 square miles, or 443.6 square kilometers) burned.  The fires burned with great intensity in dead trees killed by the spruce beetle.  The first fire was sparked by lightning June 5, 2013.  Strong and erratic winds stimulated the fires, and some were too intense to allow firefighters to get close.  An incidence update on July 19, 2013, reported the fires were creeping and smoldering and 66% contained.  Humidity and rainstorms helped put them out.

Now, aspens are four and five feet tall on these mountains, and from a distance, the dead timber cannot be seen at all.  The multitudes of colorful aspens were beautiful this autumn.