Today we took a day trip up to Crested Butte. It’s about a 45 minute drive north from Gunnison into the mountains. The temperature was about 15 degrees cooler than Gunnison… no complaining here!
Originally a coal mining town of the late 1800’s, Crested Butte is a quaint ski town in the winter and a mountain biking paradise in the summer. In fact they claim to be one of the places mountain biking was started (as recorded in their Mountain Bike Hall of Fame). The bikers load their bikes onto the chair lift, get off at the top, and ride down the mountain. That would be fun… maybe next time when the kids are a little older.
We discovered the Sunday farmers market in the morning then had fun walking through all the shops and photography galleries. The main street is full of historic buildings constructed in the 1880’s. Look at the building on the top right. Can you imagine building a retail store ten feet wide today??
The girls walked their “pets” all over town. Summer is short here & the people really celebrate the season. The wild flowers were everywhere and last week there was actually a wildflower festival.
(above) This bench is made from car parts–functional artwork.
(above) We rode the lift up to Mt. Crested Butte. From where the lift dropped us off we hike 45 minutes up an amazing steep & rocky trail to the summit.
Riding the Silver Queen Express Lift to the Summit Trail…
(above) These Alpine hikers aren’t worried about the weather one bit despite the warning sign.
Chipmunk eating a cherry pit Carlye handed him (left) & a Pika–kind of like a rather large hamster (right)
Jordan & Carlye sticking their heads in the snow to cool down.
We finally make it to the lookout near the peak. It was super windy, but we were quite heated from the strenuous hike–Alyssa yelled skyward, “Thank you God for this wind!” Felt like we were in the Austrian Alps. Anyone feel like yodeling?
We headed south back to Gunnison and ended the day at American Legion Park where about 400 people had gathered on the lawn to enjoy a live blue grass concert. Alyssa spent most of her time there making friends with all the dogs in the park. It started to rain (cold front coming through) as we departed . . . perfect timing. Tomorrow we will head futher south, and higher into the mountains, to Silverton, CO.
Crested Butte looks like a very quaint, fun town. I think that it is always fun when you can take the ski lift in the summer–a whole new perspective on the mountain. A special thanks to Carlye for the pronunciation lesson! I had been wondering how to say the name…