And the surrounding areas
June 4-8, 2020
The Western Slope of Colorado is a region that contains many counties and much of the water that can be found in the state. Nestled in the Western Slope is Gunnison County, home of Gunnison, Almont and Crested Butte, CO.
Admittedly, I’d never heard of these places before I met Brandy. She’s a fan though and we went on our first major “couples trip” last weekend.
We left Thursday, June 4, after work and checked in to a Hampton Inn in Durango at about 7:30. I left for Chinese food to bring back for dinner and we settled in for the night.
The next morning, we left bright and early, continuing north on Hwy 550. We stopped at Camp-Bell’s Cajun Cuisine in Ouray for breakfast.
I had heard of Ouray, CO, before but had never realized what an idyllic little town it is. Like something out of a storybook. Old west style architecture surrounded by mountains with a waterfall seeming to empty in the town’s back yard.
After a tasty helping of biscuits and gravy, we continued on through Montrose, Cimarron and Gunnison before reaching our destination of Three Rivers Resort in Almont. We were too early to check in to our cabin so we continued on Hwy 135 into Crested Butte, Brandy’s favorite spot in the whole wide world. After a quick drive through the town, we headed back to the resort and checked in to our cabin.
The small two bedroom cabin was situated on the bank of Taylor River with a deck butting right up to the water. The deck held a large hot tub and a gas grill. There was a fully outfitted kitchen that allowed us to cook full meals and not have to eat out the whole time.
After unloading the car, we poured drinks, cooked up some bratwursts and relaxed on the deck, listening to the river run past us and an occasional rafting tour drifting by.
It rained most of the next day. Brandy wanted to take me to a few places so we headed up county road 742, paralleling Taylor River, up to Taylor Park Reservoir. She wanted to keep going but was disinclined due to muddy roads. We turned around and headed back to Crested Butte for lunch at Secret Stash. We were tired after lunch so we went back to the cabin, laid down listening to the rain and promptly fell asleep.
We woke up hours later, made dinner and relaxed on the deck again until bed time.
Sunday we woke up and headed back up to Crested Butte for a small farmer’s market and some light shopping. After that, we headed back up to Taylor Park Reservoir where our views were unimpeded by clouds. We stopped for a couple photo ops and moved on up to Cottonwood Pass where we encountered a couple of small moose drinking right next to the side of the road. They didn’t seem fazed by the throngs of people stopped to take pictures.
After snapping a couple of my own, we moved on, up along Cottonwood pass, in to Buena Vista. We then headed to numerous other places that I have no idea of… Monarch Pass, Gothic, uhhh… I don’t know where else we went but we saw a ton of mountains, blue sky and green trees.
At the end of the day, we went back to the cabin for our last night in Colorado. We had dinner followed by a soak in the hot tub, then off to bed.
We left Monday morning and wound up back in Albuquerque at 1:00 to meet Brandy’s parents.
I was blown away by all the natural beauty we encountered in Colorado. I finally had a chance to relax after breaking quarantine. I very much look forward to returning some day.
Be sure to check my Photo Diary for pictures from the trip.
I leave you with this quote from Indian writer Anita Desai: “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” Crested Butte is now part of me.
-Phil