Southwestern Colorado

Hello y'all Steph and I took a bit of a road trip down to the SW corner of our great state and we had a blast!  I didn't get to do much pannin' but I did get a little bit of fishing in and was able to soak up a lot of Colorado's mining history.

This was a fun trip because I was able to show Steph some cool places that I really love and was able to see some places I had never been to before.  One such place was Crested Butte.  We took a dirt road that starts just south of Redstone and goes to CB.  The road is well maintained so it is do-able by a two wheel drive car.  On the way we went through an aspen grove and it was beautiful!  Most aspens I have seen are in clusters, this area was like a ten mile wide aspen canopy it was unbelievable!  Below is a picture of the aspens.

I wish I would have brought my camera into the town of CB but I didn't.  I figured it would be just like all the other ski towns in Colorado (fancy shmancy and full of richy rich condos and other such development).  Not that I'm knocking on ski resorts (I happen to spend a lot of time at them snowboarding) but I kind of have the viewpoint "if you seen one fancy resort you've seen them all."  I am happy to report that CB does not fit this description.  Unlike Breckenridge, Telluride or Aspen, CB still looks like an old mining town.  In 1974 the entire town was designated 'National Historic District' and I imagine that saved the town from the bulldozers and the aggressive development that changed other mining towns turned ski areas.

After CB we hung out in Gunnison for a day and then cruized on to Silverton via the "Silver Thread" and "Alpine Loop" scenic byways.  I love Silverton as I have visited it a few times over the years.  I drug Mom and Dad out there when they came out to Colorado for their 25 th wedding anniversary.  This time around I drug Steph out there and like Mom and Dad I think Steph liked the area too.  After graduating with my bachelors degree I took a five day backpacking trip where I wound up in Silverton.  I had the best meal of my life there.  After five days of freeze dried food and trail mix (and the occasional trout soup whenever I was able to land a fish) it was really really nice to sink my teeth into a cheeseburger.  Anyway, Silverton is a cool town and they really get into their mining history.  In the hills outside of town you can see all kinds of old mining relics such as this tram used to haul ore from the mine to the processing mill.

We started the long drive back home via Ouray (another neat mountain town) and on one of the pull-offs I snapped the picture shown below.  This is the kind of road where you had better follow the speed signs or you may be taking a bit of a tumble.  Notice that there are no guard rails.