A New Mexico Mountain Club car camp to Colorado the last weekend of August 2017.  Stayed at the Alvarado Campground on the East side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, West of Westcliffe CO.  No peaks this weekend, just lots of lakes and great weather.

The Pass Creek Road (dirt) on the way up and back had some great wildlife encounters!  Two black bears crossed the road right in front of us, a few minutes apart!  They both stopped a little ways after crossing, looking at us as we looked at them!  Got some good pics of the second bear.  Took the same road on the way home, hoping for another bear sighting, but got a big flock of wild turkeys instead, both large and small!  That was a pretty rare sighting too.

Both weekend hikes were in the 10+ miles, 2500+ foot vertical range.  Saturday's Lake of the Clouds hike had a very rocky trail, hard on the feet!  Visited all three of the lakes.  Sunday's hike to the Goodwin Lakes was a bit easier on the feet, though a few really steep sections.  The waterfall and cascades between the lower and upper lakes were outstanding.  And there were still loads of wildflowers, much more than expected for late August.  Of course, lot of fungus (mushrooms) too.

The long Sunday hike led to a later than normal drive back to ABQ, arriving around 9:15pm.  Drove through one heavy rainstorm in Northern New Mexico, which nicely cleaned off the truck!