Owl Creek Pass

Chimney Rock

Headed out this morning around 10ish to find Katie's Meadow, where the big shoot 'em up scene in True Grit was filmed.  We had directions and maps.  We also watched the movie Friday night and paid attention to the landscape in that scene to help with a landmark.  There was a big rock which looked like a chimney behind the bad guys, Ned Pepper  (Robert Duval, in his younger days) and others so we knew to look for that.  Interestingly, it is named Chimney Rock on the map and we spied it from the highway.  We drove the required 14.7 miles on County Road 10, then 8 and watched Chimney Rock on our right, then left, then in front.  We switched back so many times, but it was a beautiful ride.  Then we spied Katie's Meadow on the left....looks just like the movie.

Katie's Meadow from the end-the bad guys lined up there in front of Chimney Rock)

Katie's Meadow from the front (Chimney Rock to left) Rooster rode in from the right

I cannot understand, though, why they chose this particular spot so far from the highway.  We were on a very nice County road, but t his was 40+ years ago--how and why did they go this far out to this particular meadow....there are hundreds around here.

Stream thru Katie's Meadow

Anyway, it was awesome to stand in the same spot John Wayne, Robert Duvall and Glen Campbell made the famous scene from the movie.     I could hear  Rooster Cogburn saying, "Fill your hand, you s-o-b."  And he put the reins in his teeth and came out shooting.  Awesome.

Cimarron Ridge -we drove right into the foothills-surrounded by these mountains.
We recognized this ridge in a few of the movie scenes.

After leaving Katie's Meadow, we continued on up the mountain through Owl Creek Pass towards Silver Jack Lake .  Now, this is a fairly nice, WIDE, road, rough in some spots and rutted up in others, but it is very popular-especially on Sundays.  There were so many cars, trucks, jeeps, atv's going and coming.  Very, very dusty.  We were constantly rolling the windows up and down.

But the views and wildflowers....

When we got to Silver Jack Reservoir, you could see campers nestled down in the woods beside the
Cimarron River...even saw two older motorhomes.  It would be a beautiful place to camp in a tent trailer or something small (for a couple of nights).  The County road goes on towards Montrose so I'm sure that's how all the fifth wheels and larger campers come in.  As a matter of fact, lots were leaving out by that road.

Silver Jack Reservoir

 We could find no other way out and knew we didn't want to be in that dust, so we turned around and came back the way we went up.  Still met traffic, but not so much.  Saw one deer.

Courthouse Mountain from Cow Creek Trail

Cow Creek Trail

Courthouse Creek

Finally found a trail that we could access in the jeep off the beaten path--Cow Creek Trail.  We took  it and meandered up and down through the beautiful forest til we came to Courthouse Creek....

Courthouse Creek Crossing

....decided to NOT cross it and turned around and came back.

Cow Creek Trail--going home

We didn't DO much, just rode and looked and the gorgeous scenery.  Chimney Rock and Cimarron Ridge (which we can actually see from our campsite) was beautiful.  We drove some little trails just at the foot of the Ridge.


Six hours in a jeep can be tiring, tho, even  if you just sit.  So we came back to motorhome around 4:30.


Ate leftovers, I rode my bike a bit and that's all, folks.

Tomorrow we plan to go south to Ouray by the backroads.


A.