Conejos River, Colorado

Friday, Sep. 14, 2012. I drove up into south central Colorado to the South San Juan Wilderness for 3 days of camping and hiking with my brother Ted.  We set up camp along the shores of the Conejos river.  Not far from here is were the last Grizzly Bear was killed in Colorado.  There have been several unconfirmed sightings since then. Hopefully we won't have an encounter with one.

Just a short walk from our camp is an excellent place for bird watching. One of my favorite birds, the American Dipper, hung around all weekend.  We also saw Belted Kingfishers, Common Mergansers, Blue Winged Teals, Magpies, Red Tailed Hawks, Stellers Jays, Red Shafted Flickers and a Rough Legged Hawk.

On Saturday we started hiking up this trail with Duck Lake as our destination.  It would be 3 1/2 miles one way with an elevation gain of more than 1,100 ft. to 10,200 ft.

Along the way we would pass many meadows like this one.

This mountain would be to the south for the first half of the hike.

There would be several ponds to sit beside while taking a break. I liked this one because of the green water.

Another mile up the trail we came to this pond and the scenery around it was spectacular.

Just over the next ridge we reached our destination, Duck Lake.

It had been such a tough hike that I was exhausted so I took off my pack and relaxed on the shore near a beaver hut.

After relaxing we hiked the 3 1/2 miles back and it was much easier going down the mountain.