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aving grown weary of Texas heat in July and August, we
decided to spend six weeks of those two months in the cooler climes of
Colorado. This is not new for us as
Colorado was our home for many decades, but what was new was our location. Since Crested Butte (a sublime little ski
town north of Gunnison) was infrequently visited by us because it didn’t have
an RV park, we decided since we are now RV-less that we would give it a try.
We rented a two bedroom condo at Mt Crested Butte (the
actual ski area and about three miles above the town of Crested Butte). We found it online at VRBO (Vacation Rental by
Owner). This was our second experience
with VRBO folks, and we have been happy with our rentals both times. Anyway, this condo was a perfect vacation
spot for our six weeks in Paradise (CB’s nickname). Fortunately, CB lives up to its name of
Paradise given its location.
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| Downtown with a view of Mt Crested Butte |
No matter which direction you go from town for a ride or a
hike, you find stunning scenery as CB sits in a basin surrounded by dozens of
magnificent mountains such as the Maroon Bells, Capitol Peak, Castle Peak, Mt
Baldy, Avery Peak, Gothic Mountain, and Mt Crested Butte to name just a
few. During the month of July, there are
meadows abundant with wild flowers of every description everywhere. This year CB really out did itself living up
to its brag of being the “Wild Flower Capitol of Colorado.” We were bowled over with the sheer number and
varieties of flowers. Unfortunately, all
good things come to an end and by early August the first hints of fall were in
the air, and at the lower elevations the flowers were spent. One needed to get above 10,000 feet for there
to be any serious displays remaining.
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| Colorado's State Flower the Columbine |
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| Schofield Pass Trail |
Others have found CB to be a desirable place to visit this
summer, too. The hotel and rental occupancy
rate hovered around 98%. It sure meant
that town and its plethora of restaurants were nearly over run with people
every night. We wisely booked each
night we wanted to eat out several days in advance and that tactic really paid
off as there were folks clamoring for every available table.
The nearest grocery store that has any stock at all is 30
miles away in Gunnison. Fortunately, the
City Market is a good store and usually had the items we needed. It is also owned by Kroger, so we save on
gasoline there, too. It is a trip we made four times, and we always took the opportunity to
wash the mud off the Jeep while we were there.
Near the end of July, rain started to dominate the afternoon weather. Monsoons are not uncommon in Colorado; indeed
July is oft visited by them. However,
this year the monsoon was accompanied by the subtle hint of seasonal change
at our condo situated at 9400 feet. The
grasses turned color and the fireweed bloomed in profusion…a common outcome of
the shift in seasons. Also, the sun
seemed to have dramatically changed position and began arriving later and later in the
morning.
Any stay in Colorado is frequently adorned with
visitors. We had our share (all of them
good friends graciously invited and enjoyed).
We had three different couples spend a total of eight days with us. They were excellent house guests and we were
gracious hosts ;-). We only mention it
because they represent more visitors than we have had stay at our home in eight
and a half years. That must say
something about where we live.
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hat does one do in Crested Butte you are probably asking
yourselves. Well, different people
likely do different things, but we can only speak for ourselves. We drove Kebler and Ohio Passes, hiked, biked,
took steep and rocky 4-wheel drive roads (Did we mention that this place is
lousy with old mining roads and abandoned mines?), prowled the streets of
downtown CB with lots of other touristas during the three-day CB Arts Festival,
attended lectures sponsored by the CB Public Policy Forum (hearing talks by
Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA covert officer, her husband, Ambassador Joe
Wilson, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, Steve
Schmidt, a Republican political strategist who worked on George W. Bush’s 2004
re-election campaign, among other top GOP jobs, and Wes Jackson, President of
The Land Institute, a Salinas, KS, based agricultural research and education
organization which is creating new perennial-based sustainable agriculture). As you can see, we fed our need and love of
the out-of-doors with a lot of mental and cultural fulfillment, too. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
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| Castle Mtn from Ohio Pass |
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| The Raggeds from Kebler Pass |
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| Aspen Stand on Ohio Pass |
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| View up Cement Creek drainage |
Every drainage (that’s where streams depart the mountains
for the inexperienced) has numerous trails, both hiking and biking (mountain
biking is nearly a religion here). We
prefer to hike, so we tried many trails suitable for that activity. We generally hiked three to six miles or more depending
on the terrain and weather. We
experienced a variety of topographies that ran from easy meadow and forested
walks to seriously steep and rocky high altitude hikes with mind-blowing 360 ̊ vistas. We also had our share of wet and muddy hikes
in afternoon squalls.
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| Horse Camp Trail |
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| Kebler Pass |
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| Gothic Gulch from Washington Gulch Overlook |
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| Water Fall on Crystal River |
Our 4-wheel drive rides ranged from just gravel roads like
Kebler and Ohio Passes to dangerously steep and rocky roads with numerable
stream crossings suitable only for mountain goats and Jeepers. On one of the latter, we blew out the
sidewall on our left front tire, which resulted in a two-hour trip the next day
to Montrose for a replacement. We have
never had to spend more than $300 for a tire before, but that’s what happens
when you have no choice and someone else holds all of the cards, well, tires. That aside, we really enjoy getting way off
the beaten path, both on foot and in our Jeep.
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| Purple Mtn on Oh Be Joyful Trail |
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| Schofield Pass |
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| Avery Peak from Gothic Gulch |
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| Twin Lakes Trail off Brush Creek Road |
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| Schofield Pass |
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| Water Fall on Oh Be Joyful Creek |
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| View from Schofield Pass |
We took our last hike in this area yesterday. It was a nearly 7-mile round trip up Oh Be
Joyful trail to the pass of the same name.
It was a beautiful day making up for the persistent rain we have had on
our last two hikes this week. We
followed Oh Be Joyful creek up the drainage to a spectacular basin surrounded
by a half dozen 12,500’+ peaks. It was a
fitting way to end our stay here as tomorrow we return to the Texas heat.
