Travel with Sherpa

The plan this morning was to hike Sulphur Creek Trail. It is about 6 miles one way with waterfalls along the way. I didn’t want to mess with a one-way hike, so I decided to start at the bottom and see how far up I could get. You more or less walk along and through the creek the entire way, which was really neat. Very shallow, rarely above ankle deep.

A bit over 1.5 miles in is the lower waterfalls, about 7 or 8’ tall. It took a little stretching to get up and over using a ledge to the side, but nothing too crazy.

The amazing scenery and serene atmosphere continued above the lower falls, with very comfortable temperatures and lots of shade.

About 2 miles into the hike I turned a bend in the canyon and saw some rather darkish looking clouds.

Once I did get below the lower falls I was far more confident in my circumstances, so I did take some time to just shut in a rock next to the creek. I even closed my eyes and meditated for a while. I can’t tell you the last time I did that. Listening to the creek, feeling the cooling wind and holding a flake of the sandstone was an incredibly relaxing experience.

Shortly after I made it to the RV the temp dropped a good 15 degrees, the wind picked up significantly and there was a few raindrops here and there. No torrential storms blew through, but there was clearly rain near by, and as I said in the video, I don’t know nearly enough about the weather or how that canyon is impacted by rain anywhere in the area, so getting back out was definitely the right choice.

The weather was still pretty sketchy, and I didn’t like the idea of being on any of the trails off the deeper clouds headed my way, so I headed into Torrey for a chai and a cinnamon role from Dark Sky Coffee. The chai was too sweet for me, but the cinnamon roll was legit, and it was nice sitting with that and listening to the wind whip by, rocking the RV.

I also caught up on social media and ended up changing my remaining itinerary thanks to the ever-thoughtful and helpful Leah. I have cancelled my stay at Gunnison and am heading down to Mesa Verde instead to visit the cliff dwellings for a few days before heading up to Rocky Mountain National Park for the last couple of days.

I am still not sure what to do with the rest of today, as driving the RV in this wind is… interesting. This morning I had the experience of taking a curve in the road when a gust caught me from the inside, causing a significant understeer and moving me uncomfortably close to the non-existent shoulder. So maybe I will just stay out for a while. There is a 9 PM ranger-led activity at the visitor center and a 10 PM night sky activity, so if the weather cooperates I will head down for those.