Gunnison, CO

Tue 10 - Fri 13 Sep 2013:  Today we traveled to the Gunnison Lakeside Resort (Good SAM) http://www.gunnisonlakeside.com/index.html about 12 miles west of the town of Gunnison.  We are enjoying the beautiful Aspen trees in the campground, though they have not turned yellow yet.  A local said that the trees are 2 weeks behind schedule for turning.  They have had a lot of rain this summer. There are a lot of Hummingbird Moths here around all of the flowers.

The Campground Store

Our Campsite

 

 

Campsite Aspen Two Days Later

(There's hope yet that we will see yellow Aspen!)

Campground Flowers with two Hummingbird Moths

We have enjoyed some really nice eating places in Gunnison too:  The Bean http://www.thebean.com/store_gunnison.aspx for coffee and bagels; Mario's Pizza and Pasta http://mariosgunnison.com/ for pizza one night; Gunnison Brewery http://www.gunnisonbrewery.com/ for their micro brews; The Gunnisack http://www.thegunnisack.com/ for lunch and dinner where we discovered their wonderful bread bowl of Jalapeno Beer Cheese soup, which was just spicy enough.

Patty H Enjoying Soup at the Gunnisack, Gunnison, CO

Jalapeno Beer Cheese Soup at the Gunnisack, Gunnison, CO

We had an off again/on again rainy day, so Patty and I walked the town of Gunnison and did some shopping.  There are a lot of local artists selling their wares, jewelry stores and a lot of consignment shops.  I've been looking for a large photo of Aspen trees to hang in our family room, but haven't found exactly what I'm looking for yet.

 

LarryH took this pic of the sun setting as seen from our campsite in Gunnison, CO

 

Today we drove up to Crested Butte, CO, which is just north of the town of Gunnison.  It's a very artsy town with a ski resort at the top of the mountain.  Patty and I enjoyed all of the art galleries and jewelry stores.  I've been in search of a large photo of a close up of aspen trees but not a fall pic. Didn't find it there.  The guys checked out the local rum distillery - Montanya - and bought some rum.

 

 

 

Beautiful hanging baskets along the street in Crested Butte

 

 

 

Downtown Crested Butte, CO

 

 

Montanya Rum, Crested Butte, CO

 

Montanya Rum Distillery

 

We had a great trip over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison today.  Weather was great too!  Along the way we passed the Blue Mesa Reservoir and took some pics of the beautiful scenery.

 

 



 

Blooming Sage Brush

 

View from a Campground on Blue Mesa Reservoir

 

 

 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

 

 

We had a few guests during our picnic lunch at the Black Canyon

We were bad and fed them nuts and dried fruit!

Salida, CO

Sat 5 Sep 2013:  We headed to Salida, CO this am and drove Rt 50 along the Arkansas River.  It is a very pretty drive.  We are now camped at the Heart of the Rockies RV Campground http://heartoftherockiescamp-rv.com/ in site 1A.  Nice big site with full hookups. 

 

We checked out the local roller blade team "Ark Valley High Rollers" http://arkvalleyhighrollers.com/ as they were competing at home this evening.  We ate at the Fiesta Mexicana Restaurant http://fiestamexicanarestaurants.com/ in town tonight.  Great Mexican food.  We've eaten here back in 2009 when we were here with the Campbells, Halsteads and Coopers.

 

Sun 6 Sep 2013:  Today we drove another "easy" 4-wheel drive trail - the Marshall Pass, Poncha Creek where we climbed up to 10,842.  This route started on 285 south of Poncha Springs and went west to Sargents, which is south of the Monarch Pass.  We drove up and over Monarch Pass and back to our campground.  Beautiful sunny day, great friends, nice tail gate lunch among the aspen (not changed yet, but starting) and beautiful scenery!

 

O-Haver Lake Camping Ground; lots of people camping and fishing here

 

 

Our Aspen View for Our Tailgate Lunch





 

 

Chuck and I at the Continental Divide on Marshall Pass



 

This evening we ate at the Boathouse Cantina http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g33630-d1234454-Reviews-Boathouse_Cantina-Salida_Colorado.html in old town Salida, which is right on the Arkansas River where we ate on the patio.  Great food here!

 

Boathouse Cantina: We ate under the umbrellas

 

Mon 7 Sep 2013:  Today we drove up east of Buena Vista and tried another "Easy" 4-wheel trail in our truck.  It is called the "Fourmile Area" and started near the Trout Creek Pass off 24/285 and continued west to north of Buena Vista.  It turned out to be a little more challenging than the trail we took yesterday.  Terrain had more ups and downs; ruts and rocks.  Not many aspen trees; more Ponderosa Pines and meadows.  Here we are having our wilderness picnic lunch.

 

Lunch Overlooking the Collegiate Peaks 

 

 

Lunch View to Our North of Buena Vista

 

Off to Gunnison, CO tomorrow and cooler weather.

Canon City, CO

Thu 9-5-13: Got into Canon City, CO this afternoon and we are camped at the Royal View Campground www.royalviewcampground.com,  Site #5 next to our friends, Larry and Patty Hellrung from Alton, IL and Crystal Lake, Naples, FL.  It is a beautiful well kept gravel campground back off Hwy 50.  The fire they had here came to the ridge across from the campground and damaged the Royal Gorge Bridge.  So it is closed until next Spring.  We all drove down to Pueblo this evening and took a boat ride on the Arkansas River.  They are creating a River Walk like they have in San Antonio TX.  We ate dinner at the Shamrock Micro Brewery http://www.shamrockbrewing.com/.  It was wonderful!  Patty and I had Boxeys – potato pancakes stuffed with roast beef- and their microbrew beer.  So good!  Now we’re thinking we need to go to Ireland!


Fri 9-6-13:  This am was wash time for us while the Hellrungs took the Royal Gorge Train https://www.royalgorgeroute.com/ .  This afternoon we drove up to Cripple Creek on one of the trails ok for regular vehicles (Phantom Canyon Road). This was Larry's first experience on trails here in CO and they really enjoyed it.  We drove thru the town of Victor where there is a very active strip mining operation going on where they are finding gold.  Then we drove on to Cripple Creek where there are burros roaming the town.

 

Note where the burros hang out in Cripple Creek!

 

DonnaT and PattyH with a Cripple Creek Burro

 

LarryH with the Cripple Creek Burros

We had dinner at McGills Pint & Platter there in Cripple Creek http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g33379-d2451871-Reviews-McGills_Pint_Platter-Cripple_Creek_Colorado.html.  The special was prime rib and it was delicious! Lots of Casinos here in Cripple Creek but we didn't leave any money there! (Sorry KathyR)

It is VERY HOT here during the middle of the day – upper 90’s-but VERY DRY!  Cools off nicely in the evening though.