Gunnison, Colorado

Escaping the heat

We cut our time in Ridgway State Park short by a few days because of the heat and headed east.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

We hiked the trail along the south rim with steep drop offs into the deep gorge that are shorter than we usually take. The trails to the river were over my head getting back out. It's a long way down and further up.

Cycling Gunnison's back roads

When we started our bike ride through the farms towards Crested Butte, we had no idea where we would end up or how much we would enjoy it. Fifteen miles into the ride I didn't think Mike was going to want to turn around and suggested that he carry on. I knew the way home and knew he would eventually catch up with me.

He did turn around and catch up with me while I was having a drink in the shade. We thought a return trip might be in order.

 

Crested Butte's Oh Be Joyful Trail

It was the last day of Crested Butte's Wild Flower Festival. In past years the flowers were huge and amazing. This year we were catching the end of the bloom but still very nice. The Oh Be Joyful Trail is a nice trail through a glacial valley which becomes greener and more lush as we climbed. The waterfalls were flowing down the mountainsides. We passed a few hikers returning from their weekend camping trip at Blue Lake seven miles up the trail.

 

Slate River was running too high to walk through. I wasn't thrilled about hiking six miles in wet boots. Besides, we have a 4x4.

We are heading in.

Coming out the other side.

 

Our visit to Gunnison and Crested Butte were a little shorter than we could have wanted but the high altitude was calling.

 

 

Peralta Trail and Weaver's Needle

It had been a while since we had hiked the Peralta Trail to Fremont Saddle with a view of Weaver's Needle. This day seemed perfect since it was a cool 55 degrees when we started the climb. The parking lot on Saturdays can be packed since there are a couple of trails that start here so we got a early start. We didn't see many hikers until we were almost done.

Fremont Saddle

A young lady with a small boy in her backpack asked how much further and then told Joe, the baby, 30 more minutes and continued to tell him stories as she walked by. This reminded me of times that I would load Krista and Michael into their wagon and take them for a walk down the river path near our home when they were small. I would have to pad it with a quilt to reduce the bouncing and pack a lunch. They enjoyed spending the day playing by the river and eventually in the river and a picnic.

I find hiking helps me get lost in my thoughts and go back to times that I don't think about often but are my real treasures of life.

This hike is not only up hill 1900 feet in 2.2 miles but plenty of obstacles to step over and around.

Balancing Rock

There were a couple of opportunities to bag a couple of virtual geocaches on this hike.

Superstition Mountains

Amazing spires along the path

Glad we had a cold drink waiting for us in the Jeep when we returned to the trailhead.