A Winter Storm Over Electra Lake

A cold winter storm closes in on Hermosa Cliffs overlooking Electra Lake under darkening skies. 

Circled by the Colorado Rocky Mountains, San Juan Range; from the left side on the horizon, beginning with Mt. Wilson then moving to the right are El Diente Peak, Gladstone Peak and Wilson Peak. Sitting below Mt. Wilson closer to us in this image is Graysill Mountain. Following the chain of mountain peaks on the horizon moving right we  see Sunshine Mountain, Grizzly Peak, San Miguel Peak, Rolling Mountain, Engineer Peak, The Twin Sisters Peaks, and Bear Mountain. In the  immediate bottom foreground lays Baldy Mountain and Spud Hill.  

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Here is a link to google maps for the location of this beautiful place.   

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I lensed this winter image while flying directly above Missionary Ridge while shooting to the north. Durango, Colorado is behind me to the south a ways back and down in the valley below flows the Animus River, fed by numerous small creeks and washes and Electra Lake ( the white spot in the center of the valley). Above on the horizon to the upper right of  Electra Lake are the West Needle Mountains in the Weminuche Wilderness. 

This valley and river was used seasonally for over two thousand years by the First Nations Utes, who lived and ranged in the mountains and desert over much of the Colorado Plateau: much of present-day eastern  Utah, western Colorado, northern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The Ute people were hunters and gatherers who moved on foot to hunting grounds and gathering land based upon the season. 

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The Story of Electra Lake

Located 25 miles north of Durango, Electra Lake is reservoir fed by waters from Cascade Creek, Little  Cascade Creek and Elbert Creek. The original Electra Lake dam was a 400-foot rock and timber crib with a wooden face, constructed from  1905-06. It was upgraded to the current structure in 1980. 

Originally called Ignacio Lakes, it was renamed Electra, a character in Greek  mythology, because the water was used downstream to create electricity. Water is channeled from the lake 18 miles downstream to the Tacoma Hydro-Generating Station via a 4400-foot open wooden flume, one of the only two remaining wooden flumes still operating on hydro projects in the U.S. 

In the bottom  of the valley here in this photo you can see the old train track from the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge railroad (D&SNG), a 3ft / 914mm narrow gauge heritage-railroad that still operates 45.2 miles / 72.7 km  of track between Durango and Silverton, Colorado. 

The route was opened in 1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway  (D&RG) to transport silver and gold mined up in the San Juan  Mountains. The railway is a federally designated National Historic  Landmark and has operated continuously since 1881, although it is now a  tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few  places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives.
(Research Source)  

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 This image is from my ongoing project in which I am trying to raise awareness of the 47% of the USA and 90% of Canada that remain unpopulated wilderness.  

Where Eagles Fly - The American Wilderness Expedition is my personal mission to introduce people to these amazing locations that surround us.  

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Yehaw!!