You will note on the map that Hinsdale County borders Saguache County for a relatively short distance at the midpoint of Saguache County. The La Garita ("the lookout") Mountains dominate this area, and the Continental Divide touches on the range. It's part of the La Garita Wilderness, if that gives you a sense of how remote they are. Population density is 0.75 people per square mile, if that completes the picture. Good place to hide a body, I guess, but from Salida you'll spend 3 hours just getting to the Hinsdale County line. Then, there's the trail to the mine. If the remains are SM's, the timeline as we understand it needs major adjustment.
If you ever get to Hinsdale County, be sure to visit the Alferd Packer Massacre site. Packer, the only convicted cannibal in U.S. history, was initially tried in a local "courtroom." At his sentencing, it was said, the judge declared: “Stand up, you voracious, man-eating son of a *****, stand up! There was seven democrats in Hinsdale County and you up and ate five of them. God damn you, I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead, as a warning against reducing the democratic population of our state!”