Adventure Series Locale 8: Cinnamon Pass, CO

GPS Coordinates: 37.93444, -10.751117
Elevation: 11,147 ft
Date Visited: June 19, 2024
Wood Species: Spruce

This adventure was a truly special one - and rare - because it was a trip with just my wife, Tricia, and me.  To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, we loaded up the truck and drove to my favorite place in the world, the southwestern corner of Colorado. 

On our way through Oklahoma, we dropped our son off with my in-laws, and continued west. We stopped and set up a quick camp at Santa Rosa State Park in New Mexico, where we were treated to an amazing sunset. The next morning we headed west through Pecos, to Santa Fe, Pagosa Springs, and finally to Durango.

We spent a few nights (in a great little hotel) in Durango, enjoying the town, and visiting breweries. We also rode the Durango - Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway up to my favorite town in America, Silverton, Colorado. The views were insane and I can't recommend this enough. We stayed one more night in Durango, and got ready for the adventure proper.

We woke up early the next day and set our sights on Silverton - going by truck instead of train this time. Silverton is situated along the famous Alpine Loop, a series of trails and mountain passes that connect Telluride, Silverton, Ouray, and Lake City. On previous adventures on the Alpine Loop we had backup (the Williams family of Grizzly Bay), in case we got into trouble. This time we were alone, so we chose to avoid the more treacherous passes and stuck to a few that we were familiar with. Even a seasoned off-roader with a capable rig has to respect his limits when he's alone, a thousand miles from home.

We started up Hurricane Pass, an incredible road that had just been cleared of snow. It terminates at the otherworldly Lake Como, a tiny alpine lake that is impossibly blue. We crossed over to California Pass and worked our way up its zig-zagging switchbacks, to a peak that is comically narrow. On the way down the other side we stopped at the Frisco Mill, an impressive structure built to mill ore before sending it down the mountain. Each piece of the building is numbered because it was prefabricated , disassembled, and reconstructed on site. Too cool.

We then worked our way over to Cinnamon Pass, a much milder route than the other options, but it affrded us the chance to visit American Basin, a little valley surrounded by mountain peaks, graced by dozen of waterfalls, and exploding with colorful wildflowers. I couldn't believe how lovely this place was, and e had it all to ourselves.

After a picnic in the basin, we headed back up the pass, where I found the jackpot: a deadfall spruce, right next to the road! I collected a sizable chunk of the wood and hoped that it had absorbed in its grain the beauty of that place.

We camped on the mountain that night, and drove out to Lake City (gorgeous town, by the way). We made our way to Gunnison, and Salida, before turning south toward Alamosa, and the bizarre Great Sand Dunes National Park - a place where you can stand in a marsh, with towering sand dunes to your left, and rocky peaks to your right. We walked the dunes, and drove up Medano Pass before coming back down to the campground for dinner. As incredible as the place was, the mosquitos here are no joke! Be prepared.

Our trip was at an end, so we headed back home, stopping along the way in tiny mountain towns, eating our weight in burritos, and seeing New Mexico from atop a massive extinct volcano (Capulin Volcano - definitely worth a stop).

Once I got home, I allowed the wood that makes up your shave brush to dry for nearly two years, before cutting it into blanks. The spruce was much to soft to turn without stabilizing, so I saturated it, under vacuum, with a resin called Cactus Juice. Once it was heated in an oven, the wood was now sufficiently hard enough for turning. I was delighted to see that the high altitude and cold conditions had caused the tree to grow very slowly, with very tight growth rings. I hope you enjoy it for years to come.