Crested Butte, Colorado...a walk through town.

July 19, 2010 Gunnison, Colorado.
Last night, we went to dinner at the Twisted Fork restaurant in Gunnison with Paul and Mary and Jo and Fred. Each of the couples are avid RV bloggers. We had a good if not expensive meal. Be sure to click on their names to check out their blogs.

Today we took a ride back up to Crested Butte to do a walking tour of the town. 

First stop was the visitor center. We picked up a complimentary map of the town and left the Jeep in the free parking lot.

The mountain Crested Butte rises behind the visitor center.

The flowers were in bloom and abundant at nearly every street corner and patch of ground on Elk Ave. the main street in the historic shopping district.
The Colorado General Assembly has designated Crested Butte the wildflower capital of Colorado.

Joyce surrounded by flowers.

Crested Butte is a Home Rule Municipality in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. A former coal mining town now called "the last great Colorado ski town," Crested Butte is a destination for skiing, mountain biking, and a variety of other outdoor activities. The population was 1,529 at the 2000 census.

In the 1860s and 1870s coal and silver mines began to open in the surrounding area and many little mining towns formed. However, when silver mining hit on hard times, many of these towns failed. Crested Butte was in a better position to survive because it served as a supply town to the surrounding area.

The other industry that supported Crested Butte was ranching.

When the coal mines closed, the town began to shrink, and eventually the local high school was closed. Students had to travel to Gunnison to go to high school. The town did not revive until a ski area was built on Crested Butte Mountain in the 1960s. From the 1960's to 1990, the Crested Butte public school only facilitated K-5 students, 6th grade and higher attended school in Gunnison, CO. In 1990 Crested Butte offered middle school in the railroad depot building. In 1992 a new middle school was completed which allowed the public school to facilitate grades K through 8. Finally in 1997, a new facility for the Crested Butte Community School was completed. This included the addition of a public high school.

Elk Ave. Crested Butte

Winter

The primary winter activity in Crested Butte is skiing or snowboarding at nearby Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Mount Crested Butte, Colorado. Backcountry skiing in the surrounding mountains is some of the best in Colorado. The mountain, Crested Butte, rises to 12,162 feet (3,700 m) above sea level. The ski area base is at 9,375 feet (2,860 m). 14 lifts serve 1,058 acres (4.2 km²) of terrain. 448 acres (1.8 km²) of the terrain are double black runs. The large amount of extreme skiing terrain at Crested Butte has attracted the US Extreme Skiing Championships and the X Games. The longest run on Mount Crested Butte is 2.6 miles (4.2 km) long.

Elk Ave. Crested Butte

Summer

Crested Butte is one of the locations where mountain biking is claimed to have started. The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is located in Crested Butte. Other popular summer activities in Crested Butte include hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and kayaking, 4 wheeling, disc golfing and fishing

Former City Hall

Crested Butte is in my opinion a beautiful town with historic charm and style surrounded by modern yet rustic million dollar homes and condos. Below is a historic home on Elk Ave. that is rented as a vacation home.

We eventually grew hungry as it approached lunch time. So we happened to come across a public works employee working on a flower garden. He was very kind and told us how to get to Slogar Bar and Restaurant a place that was recommended even by the visitor center. The city employee told us how to get Slogar but also added that it is closed for lunch and only open for dinner. We were disappointed but the city employee quickly suggested a couple of alternatives one of which, was The Last Steep. We stopped there for lunch and were glad we did. I had a taco salad and Joyce had a sandwich meal and both were excellent.

The Last Steep Restaurant

Distant Mountains outside of Crested Butte

Before long the clouds began to roll in over the mountains and we began to feel the occasional cold drop of rain. The timing was perfect as we had completed our walking tour and were ready to head back to Gunnison and do some shopping before heading home to Maggie and Rico.

We had a wonderful day and look forward to the opportunity to spend more time in Gunnison and Crested Butte in the future. 

Tomorrow we will stay home and prepare to move on towards Salt Lake City Utah.

Crested Butte and Schofield Pass

July 17, 2011 Gunnison, Co.
Today we met with Paul and Mary at our campsite at 10:00. The plan was to take both of our Jeeps up to Crested Butte and pick-up Nicky D. and her roommate Nick whom live in Mount Crested Butte just north of the town. But, we weren't going for a walking tour of the town nope, we were searching for scenic vistas and an easy off-road tour of the Colorado wild flowers. Nicky D. and Nick would be our tour guides!
Driving toward Crested Butte we couldn't help but be amazed by the mountains in the distance.

We picked up Nicky D. and Nick after getting a quick tour of their rented condo. The condo was very impressive with a creek in the back. Then they took us north out of town up a dirt road towards the old mining town of Gothic and Schofield Pass.

GOTHIC

Once a mining boom town, Gothic, Colorado has faded into ghost town status like many early mining communities. While vivid stories of the old days abound and historic buildings dot the landscape, Gothic also is rich in science and summer activities due to the longtime presence of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). Gothic brings together Colorado's mining history with cutting-edge, modern-day science.

Located eight miles north of Crested Butte at 9,500 feet, Gothic is situated at the confluence of Copper Creek and the East River in the shadow of the 12,625-foot Gothic Mountain. In 1879, two prospector brothers, John and David Jennings, discovered silver high above Copper Creek and the rush was on.

We continued to climb before descending into the old mining town. The scenery was just breathtaking. Everywhere we turned was a photo opportunity.

Joyce and I

Rubi and Rocky

Paul and Mary

We traveled as far up the road as we could reaching over 10000 ft. until we came across a barricade stating the road was closed. So we parked our Jeeps and hoofed it. 

Road Closed

Nicky D.

The reason the road was closed was due to the fact that the snow pack was still blocking the narrow shelf road.

Snow packed shelf road leading to Schofield Pass and Emerald Lake

Our guides, Nick and Nicky D.

Before getting loaded back up in the Jeeps, we put the cameras on timers and posed on this fallen log.

All together now!

Joyce

On the way back down to the valley, we stopped at one of the many stream crossings to test the water's temperature...

 and tip toe through the beautiful and lush flowers. 

Joyce and Nicky D.

We thoroughly enjoyed our wild flower excursion. Our thanks to Nicky D. and Nick for being our guides. We dropped them back off at their rented condo and wished we had more time to spend but we had to get back to Gunnison for a pot luck dinner and we also needed to stop along the way to visit another blogging couple the Wishnies whom were staying in a NFS campsite near Almont.

Joyce and I both reflected that the trip to Crested Butte and the off-road drive were perhaps the most beautiful scenery we've seen to date in our travels. Absolutely beautiful!

Enjoying Gunnison and the 111th Gunnison Cattleman's Parade

July 16, 2011, Palisades RV Park, Gunnison, Co.
It's been beautiful here in Gunnison with the lows in the 40's and highs in the lower 80's. A couple days ago Joyce and I stopped at the visitor center and were overwhelmed by all the outdoor activity options, from fishing, hiking, Jeeping to rodeos and music festivals. In the park behind the visitor center are a number of sculptured tree stumps like the one below.
That evening we went to Paul and Mary's campsite at the nearby KOA and enjoyed another happy hour. We made plans to meet the next morning to watch the parade in Gunnison. Paul and Mary (Mary specifically) are the writers of: Bullwinkle's Travels another blog that we have enjoyed reading since we met them this past January in Kerrville Texas.

Today Paul and Mary rode over to our park on their bikes and Joyce and I joined them on ours. We rode into town and found a good spot to watch the 111th annual Gunnison Cattleman Days Parade.

One of the floats advertised the upcoming Pro-Series bike races that will race over some of the major mountain passes beginning in August.

Nicky D. and her friend from college and roommate, Nick both met us at the parade. We enjoyed the parade together. Nicky and Nick live in Crested Butte about 26 miles north of Gunnison.

Nicky D. and Nick

After the parade was over we strolled around downtown on Mainstreet. 

Joyce, Nicky D., Mary, Paul and Nick

We rode our bikes back home and then we all met at our campsite before taking off for downtown again and lunch at The Ol Miner's Steakhouse. We all enjoyed a tasty meal of various burgers. Afterwards we lounged around our rig as the cottonwood trees for reasons unknown suddenly erupted in unison with their cottonwood tree seeds. It looked like it was snowing for a while.

Hanging out in the cottonwood blizzard

Before long it was time to break it up! We made plans to get together tomorrow and check out the Colorado Wild Flowers in Crested Butte tomorrow.

Travel Day to Gunnison, Co. Palisades RV Park via Monarch Pass

July 13, 2011 Buena Vista to Gunnison.
We were up and I was out the door with the dogs by 7:30 a.m. Today was a travel day but not a long one.  Yesterday I had lowered my fifth wheel hitch and I wasn't sure how it was going to work out once it was actually hitched to our Carriage fifth wheel. So I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time to change it back to the higher setting if needed. 
We got hitched about 8:30 and there was no problem with clearance as I still had about 7 inches of clearance (I didn't measure it). However, for some reason it was harder to get the jaws on the hitch to engage. Hopefully just a one time fluke. Naturally I did a pull test and everything was fine and appeared to be closer to level than before.
As we pulled out of the park onto Hwy 285 it seemed as though the rig was handling differently but by the time we had a few miles on it all seemed normal. Perhaps it was just my imagination.

View Larger Map

The trip up and over Monarch Pass was absolutely beautiful and as I reached for my camera, I quickly realized I had forgotten to replace the batteries. We traveled over Monarch Pass last year.
This year it seemed to me to be steeper and curvier than I had recalled. Perhaps because last year CDOT was doing road construction on the pass and we were escorted by flag trucks during much of the descent. Anyhow, it seemed to be very similar to Wolf Creek Pass only higher at 11000 ft. and with only two lanes. There were some passing lanes. In fact we got stuck going up behind a slow box truck but I was able to get around it in a passing lane. Again I climbed at only 35-37 mph. Descending I kept it in 3rd gear in Tow Haul with exhaust brake and descended between 35-40 mph.
We pulled into Palisades Senior RV Park at the West end of the city limits of Gunnison about 11:30.  The park is a non-profit 55plus park. We have friends staying at the KOA which is only two miles away from Palisades so when I called Palisades last week I inquired about the 55 age requirement and was told that we were "close enough". Not sure if that was a good or bad thing!
So anyway, we selected a nice back in site with a densely wooded view of Cottonwood Trees. We paid $190 for the week with full hook-ups and very good Wi-Fi.

Site 12

The sites are a little tight but not bad. The park is only a few years old. The managers are very cordial and the park is very clean.

After setting up Joyce ran into town to pickup some groceries. The Cottonwoods were releasing their cotton and the sky was filled with the cottony puffs. So much so that it looked like it was snowing at times. 
Our friends Paul and Mary, that we had met in Kerrville, Tx camping at Buckhorn RV Resort, stopped by for a quick visit just as Joyce got back. Later they returned for our little happy hour outside our rig.  We were interrupted for a moment as a young deer buck with velvety horns passed by the rear of our rig. We enjoyed catching up, making plans, snacking and swatting the occasional mosquito before it was time to call it a night. 
The highs for the week are expected be in the low to mid 80's with the occasional afternoon shower. Lows in the upper 40's! We plan to do some biking around town and see what else we can get into.

Doing some off-road Jeeping and Big Horn Sheep

July 13, 2011 Buena Vista, Co.
This morning we made some preparations to move on to Gunnison, Co. tomorrow. One of those preparations involved lowering the fifth wheel hitch in the truck. Lately, I've noticed that the rear tires on the trailer are wearing slightly faster than the front. They are wearing evenly so I don't suspect an alignment issue. However, I've been reading of similar problems in the forums related to fifth wheels that are towed while not level, specifically with the front too high. I've noticed that my front is also high although, I never thought it was too high. Anyway, I lowered my hitch today 2 inches. I wish it had an inch increment but it doesn't. I haven't hitched it up to check it out so, I'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if it's going to work in terms of truck bed clearance and leveling. If it's not a good fit, I'll have to reset the hitch tomorrow (moving day) which may take an hour.
Our neighbors hear at the park are avid Jeepers and ATV riders. They convinced me that I should take Joyce out for a ride that they did yesterday in their Jeep. We generally don't do much of anything the day before moving but we decided to try the recommended Jeep trail just outside of Buena Vista known as the Four Mile Trail System. The name is misleading as it's much longer than four miles.

Our 2010 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

Now to be clear, we are not experienced 4-wheelers and we are really not into doing anything that would potentially damage our Jeep.  That being said we do like to ride off-road but we carefully select routes whenever possible. I think we would enjoy it more if we had the opportunity to caravan with other Jeeps.

A River Runs Through It as we are entering the area.

Sign at the start of the Trail.

Looking Up the Road 

Beautiful Views as we climbed.

The road was narrow and banked in many areas probably from ATV use.

Easy going on the high plain.

Aspens

Climbing to over 9400 ft.

We thought the Jeep road was pretty gnarly in many spots and steep or rocky in others. I used 4-Low in several places because of the steep ascents and descents. Of course we didn't get good pictures of the rougher spots as we were both busy hanging on!
We came around a curve and found these three Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road eating leaves and grazing!

We stopped to take pictures and watched all of them cross the road in front of us. All three were rams (males) and didn't seem to be concerned with us.

Rocky Mountain Bighorns inhabit the mountains from Canada south to New Mexico. They are relatives of goats, and have balance-aiding split hooves and rough hoof bottoms for natural grip. These attributes, along with keen vision, help them move easily about rocky, rugged mountain terrain.

Wild sheep live in social groups, but rams and ewes typically meet only to mate. Rams live in bachelor groups and females live in herds with other females and their young rams. When fall mating arrives, rams gather in larger groups and ram fighting escalates. Usually only stronger, older rams (with bigger horns) are able to mate.

In winter, bighorn herds move to lower-elevation mountain pastures. In all seasons, these animals eat available grass, seeds, and plants. They regurgitate their food to chew it as cud before swallowing it for final digestion.

It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed venturing off-road again. Seeing the Rocky Mountain Big Horns was priceless!

End of the Jeep Road.