MINI TOUR: Finding gold on the Silver Thread Byway

By Jeff Miller

Aspens on the way to Slumgullion Pass.
© Jeff Miller.

The road trip got off to a late start. They didn’t pack everything needed. The route wasn’t well marked and no one wanted to ask locals for directions. Then it started snowing. After getting stuck, the group huddled around a fire and realized they might be there all winter. One person wasn’t too worried: Alfred Packer pulled out his knife and wondered who he was going to have for dinner.

Road trips can certainly have their ups and downs.

The Silver Thread Scenic Byway, which passes the infamous scene of Packer’s 1874 cannibal campfire, is a walk in the park compared with those days. Paved road all the way, good signage, friendly locals, and the scenery—especially in autumn—is definitely worth it.

Running 117 miles on State Highway 149 from Gunnison to South Fork, the byway packs a lot into a few miles. Starting in the expansive Gunnison Valley, the narrow pavement scampers up in elevation as it skirts the Uncompahgre Wilderness Area, passes through Lake City, climbs the rugged San Juan Mountains, then tracks the course of the Rio Grande River past Creede before tumbling down into South Fork. It’s a mighty journey for a little road that wasn’t even fully paved until 1984.

The lack of traffic belies the highway’s designation as a Forest Service National Scenic Byway and Colorado State Scenic Historic Byway. You might feel you’re alone on such a trip, but that isn’t the case. All those who have treaded the same path—be it wildlife, Native Americans, miners, pioneers or even the odd cannibal—are there as well, if you only have the historical vision to see them.

To gain that perspective, first visit the Pioneer Museum in laidback, welcoming Gunnison. The museum’s 18 buildings—including a school house, the area’s first post office and a log cabin chapel—evocatively recreate much of what life was like.

The San Juan Mountains were the key to all that came after. As the most mineral-rich mountains in the state, the San Juans were prime territory for gold and silver miners. The only problem: They were already occupied by the Utes, a fierce and proud people led by Chief Ouray. In 1873, after years of negotiations, the tribe was given a large parcel of land near Montrose so the San Juans could be free for mining.

Unfortunately, Indian footpaths were not enough to bring in the miners and haul out the ore. After numerous construction hardships through the nearly impenetrable mountains, a toll road was opened. Stagecoaches with six horses took two or more back-breaking days to travel from Del Norte to Lake City. The fee was $16.50, not including overnight accommodation and a 75-cent meal.

Today, the trail is a lot easier. Just west of Gunnison, the Silver Thread Highway starts with a turn onto Highway 149 beside the serene waters of Blue Mesa Reservoir. With 96 miles of shoreline, the reservoir is Colorado’s largest body of water and contains the largest kokanee salmon fishery in the United States.

Climbing away from the reservoir, the road scurries south up fuzzy hillsides that look like the backs of cuddly schnauzers. This countryside wasn’t that friendly back in the mid-1870s, when many prospectors never found riches, just cold and death. The occasional abandoned shack, crumbling by the side of the road, bears mute testimony to their lack of success.

Further on, a dirt road (CR 27 or Cebolla Creek Road) to the left tracks the northern rim of Powderhorn Valley. The scenery on this road is straight out of pioneer Colorado, accented by small ranches, grazing cattle and meandering Cebolla Creek. Here is where you should stop your car, turn off the engine and let the quiet settle in.

Back on the Silver Thread Byway—which now seems like a superhighway—the road follows the lake fork of the Gunnison River before entering Lake City.

North Clear Creek Falls.
© Jeff Miller.

Founded in 1874, this town has one of the state’s largest concentrations of Victorian buildings, including the Hinsdale County Courthouse, where Alfred Packer was tried for murder in 1883 and suffragette Susan B. Anthony spoke in 1877. It’s worth a stroll along the wooden sidewalks, where the old buildings now house various shops, galleries, cafes and restaurants.

Continuing on Highway 149, just out of town is a marker on the unassuming spot where the Packer buffet took place. To take your mind off such things, you think about the trip so far: Where’s the autumn color? You wonder—like the miners of old—if you’ll ever strike it rich.

Have no fear. Lake City marks the start of a spectacular stretch of aspen gold. Just past the Packer site, the road starts a stiff climb up toward Slumgullion Pass (reportedly named after a miners’ stew that matched the surrounding mountains’ color). Before the summit, you reach the must-see Windy Point Lookout where five mountain peaks over 14,000 feet are visible (Uncompahgre, Handies, Redcloud, Wetterhorn and Sunshine) along with the massive Slumgullion earth flow (a National Natural Landmark) that has been sliding down a mountainside for 700 years.

Continuing over Slumgullion Pass (11,361 feet) and the nearby Continental Divide and Spring Creek Pass (10,901 feet), travelers can’t help but think of how difficult this route must have been. In 1885 George Crofutt, author of a popular tourist book called Gripsack Guide, wrote that Slumgullion Pass was “a villainous mountain road.” The ascent from Lake City was so steep that a nine-mile section was “corduroyed” with logs. Traveling the road in a wagon must have felt as bad as it sounds.

Once over Spring Creek Pass, the road wanders through relatively flat, dry terrain, which makes it all the more surprising when you turn off for North Clear Creek Falls. Expecting a dribble over a couple of boulders, you find instead Victoria-like falls rumbling down a sheer cliff. Adding drama are thin rock spires that lean precariously into the canyon. You can step out on them to photograph the falls, but many don’t because it’s too easy to imagine a false step becoming your last.

The side road that leads to the falls is a four-mile dirt lane that weaves through stellar stands of fluttering aspens. Adding a dramatic backdrop is the distinctively shaped and massive Bristol Head mesa and a big stretch of valley that’s home to the headwaters of the mighty Rio Grande River.

After such a grand display of nature, it’s time for a shopping stop, and Creede is the spot. It not only offers some unique stores such as “Rare Things: A Gallery of Treasures,” but one of the most picturesque settings—the town is crammed into a narrow box canyon with razor-edge cliff walls. Founded in 1890 after a silver strike, Creede boomed for only three years. At one point, 300 people a day poured into town (today there are less than 600 people in all of Mineral County). Because of the narrow box canyon, Creede had a two-mile long main street overflowing with saloons that attracted the likes of Calamity Jane and Bat Masterson.

The town’s a lot less rowdy today, but no less interesting, boasting the Creede Repertory Theater (May through September), the Underground Mining Museum, the train depot museum and 17-mile long Bachelor Loop dirt road that’s good for experienced four-wheelers.

Leaving Creede, you realize the aspens have stayed behind. Happily, dramatic rock palisades of multicolored cliffs and spirals make up for the loss on the left side of the road, while the Rio Grande River tumbles along on the right. As the road flattens out on its final run toward South Fork, it cuts through Coller State Wildlife Area, which gives travelers the opportunity to see some of the area’s 1,000 elk, as well as deer, bighorn sheep, golden and bald eagles.

Arriving in South Fork, you find it’s a town with the primary function of servicing the junction of highways 149 and 160. It does have a variety of accommodations, shops and restaurants that can provide a base for exploring this area. You do have another option, however—turn around and run the route again! By driving the other way, you’ll see everything with a new perspective, stop at different sites and create a wholly new adventure.

And best of all, you won’t run into the same problems the Packer road trip experienced all those years ago.

Jeff Miller is a Denver-based freelance writer and past editor of EnCompass.

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