Crested Butte, Colorado

Crested Butte July 6-9
"A lovelier setting could not be imagined". That's what the Fodors Guide says about Crested Butte. And we both agree that of all the mountain towns we visited in Colorado, it's easily in the top four with Aspen, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge. It might even get our #1 vote.
But Crested Butte is unique. It used to be a coal-mining town, and it's historical downtown has maintained the Victorian gingerbread house look, of course now all nicely restored and brightly painted. In spite of its popularity, it feels really down-to-earth and charming. Large mountains loom over the town, and the valley above the town is incredibly beautiful, very reminiscent of photos you'd see of high mountain meadows in Switzerland. Yet the mountains here don't crowd or enclose the town, like they do in Teluride, another lovely mountain town in a beautiful setting. It's a wide, sunny valley, full of wild-flowers in the summer. I read somewhere a claim to be America's wildflower capital.
Our visit started out very nicely for us. We got there late on a Friday afternoon with no camping reservation. The map showed a campground on a lake several km past Crested Butte. It was named Lake Irwin! Sounded like a place we needed to check out. It was a ways up a gravel road, and as we approached and saw the throngs of people and cars and stand-up-paddle-boards, we pretty much gave up hope of getting a site. The campground had only 32 altogether. Anyway, as we drove around, Frank spotted one with no tag on it, and sure enough, we had somehow managed to grab the very last spot! I'm sure it was some sort of karma thing because of my name being Irwin ( and for anyone not in the know, Irwin is my maiden name which I went back to using just this year).

View from our campsite

Of course another thing drawing us to this part of Colorado is its reputation as a mountain biking mecca. The hiking would be amazing too. We did a couple of rides. The one we will remember was simply named 401. It's well documented, and it's appeal is the long, downhill ride from a high pass at over 11,000 ft down through flowy single track amongst a miriad varieties of tall wildflowers. It was incredibly beautiful and fun. However, that pleasure had to be worked hard for! We rode uphill for about 9km on a gravel road to Schofield Pass, then another couple on a steeper single track to the summit. There was some huffing and puffing happening, but at this elevation, we weren't alone! Only after all that did the fun begin!


on the descent



At Schofield pass,
 the official start of 401
 but not the end of the climb!

Comments

  1. Iveta bxJuly 25, 2018 at 2:40 PM

    You've visited some spectacular places. Makes me want to go there to check it all out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaphneJuly 28, 2018 at 4:30 PM

    You're right Iveta. And Crested Butte is a pkace I'm sure you'd enjoy too

    ReplyDelete

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