July 31 – August 7, 2026
After spending an entire Summer month at home (which is unheard of for us,) we made our way back out for the first of many disjointed, disconnected and disparate trips for the remainder of this Accidental World Tour.
This stop would see us on the Western Slope of Colorado.
The trip started as it almost always does: packing, prepping and heading out on Thursday after work. We stopped for the night in Kearney, NE, before making the rest of the drive over Cottonwood Pass and into Almont Friday.
We checked in to our cabin at Three Rivers Resort, got Ash settled then headed in to Gunnison for Brandy to do a little shopping. We stopped at the Six Points Thrift Store then headed down the road to the Toggery and Sugar Bee’s.
We headed back to the resort and had dinner at the restaurant before making our way back to the cabin and calling it a quick night.
The next morning, we headed up to Crested Butte, of course, where they were having their annual Arts Festival that weekend. We only found out about it the day we arrived at Three Rivers, but with a day’s advanced notice, we went early to secure parking.
When we arrived, none of the booths were open yet, so we popped into McGill’s for breakfast where I had a biscuits and gravy with green chile.
Stuffed to the gills, we walked down the remainder of Elk St. as the vendors started opening their tents.
As we got to the end of Elk St, we decided it might be a good idea if we had our wagon with us. I walked the length of the street back up to the truck and towed the folding wagon back down to the other end. As soon as I got there, we started making our way back up the street, stopping in at various booths along the way.
Much of the pieces on display were very high-end. Thousand-dollar price tags were common on many of the large original art pieces and sculptures, and even the giclee prints made available were $100+.
Brandy did find a piece that spoke to her though, so she picked up a print that turned out to be numbered 1/100, she was giddy at that, and included a poem inspired by the piece written by the artist’s husband.
Further on down the line, I saw a couple of pieces that caught my eye, one of which was a couple of drinks and a lit cigar, and another of an astronaut riding a dinosaur through a portal.
Yeah, totally ‘me’. 🤣
After acquiring these prints, we somehow found ourselves at Secret Stash, which is odd, we never go there when in Crested Butte. *wink*
But we did this time. We secured a spot on their patio and shortly after being seated, Christy and her new beau joined us.
One of the weight-loss goals I had at this point was to lose enough weight to be able to buy and fit into a Secret Stash t-shirt. The largest size they sell is a 2XL, I am now in a 2XL so this was the time!
Can you see why I wanted it so badly?
Anyway, with Christy and her man in tow, we had some food and drink, chit-chatted, and then headed back out to continue our trek up the row of vendors.
As we reached the top end of Elk St, where Brandy and I had parked, we said our “see ya in a little bits” to Christy and Kevin as they made their way back down to the booths they had missed, and the ones we’d already seen before making it up to The Stash. We hopped into Clyde, headed back to Almont and waited until Christy and Kevin showed up.
Almost as soon as they did, a quick bout of exhaustion kicked in. I was only able to maintain socialization for a little while before I crashed and went to sleep.
I woke up as they were leaving, stayed up for a little bit then went back to sleep for the night.
Montrose
The next day, we left Almont and, after a stop at the Gunnison Coffee Trader, made our way to Montrose where we would spend the next week.
We got into town too early to check in so we went to a Chinese restaurant, got lunch and went to a nearby park where we parked in the shade of a large tree and ate until our AirBnB host messaged us and told us we were able to check in.
We checked in to the AirBnB, I unloaded and got us set up for work, and the rest of the week was pretty much just that, working. We took some walks on a nearby walking path (paved, through residential neighborhoods, nothing to write home about), went thrifting (shocking, I know) and Thursday morning, I got the Mexican mocha from one of the Montrose Coffee Traders locations.
That was it for our time in Montrose.
On August 7, we packed up, stopped at Coffee Traders again, and headed out for the next leg of our trip in Arizona, with a night’s stop in Sedona where, sneak peek, we did more in our 18 hours in Sedona than we did in our week in Montrose. But that will have to wait for the next post now, won’t it?
Conclusion
Despite the alarmingly low water levels at Taylor Reservoir and Blue Mesa, the Western Slope of Colorado is always beautiful, if a little hot this time around.
The Arts Festival in Crested Butte was nice, I enjoyed seeing the beautiful art for sale (even if much of it was outside of my budget) and the week in Montrose was fine, just a little boring, but that’s OK, we only spent a work week there.
Photos (pretty much all of which were taken at the Arts Festival) are in their usual location, in the Photo Diary.
And watch out for my next post that will discuss our too-brief stay in beautiful Sedona, Arizona.
Until then!
-Phil