Day 26 - Aspen to Crested Butte, CO

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

I woke up around 8:30 and started thinking about where I was going to go today. I went downstairs; Chris was already up after checking on his 3 month old daughter. Had some coffee and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then Chris pulled out his paper maps and laptop and started planning the next few legs of my trip. After Crested Butte, he suggested going to Telluride in the San Juan mountain range, about 2-3 hours southwest of Crested Butte. From there, he had a bunch of places for me to check out in Utah. But first I wanted to head back towards Aspen to see the Maroon Bells peaks.

My annual National Parks pass got me through the entrance without having to pay a fee. The drive up to the Bells was on and off drizzling but it remained sunny. Each mile I got closer to the peaks, the more impressive they became. They almost looked like they could have been shaped by human hands. I was lucky enough to snap off a few pictures because within 10 minutes clouds suddenly swept across the mountains, almost completely making them disappear.

Crystal Lake is a lake formed by glaciers and sits close to the parking lot. There were a few people there taking pictures of the ducks and the Bells in the background. There was another glacial lake up ahead named Crater Lake. Signs pointed to the direction so I started walking. By now it started raining but at least I was wearing a rain jacket. After about 15 minutes, I stopped some passerby’s coming from the opposite direction and asked how far Crater Lake was. I still had an hour’s hike in front of me and due to the now heavy rain and slippery rocks I decided to head back to the parking and save this hike for another time. Back at the parking lot I met someone who had hiked about 10 miles from Crested Butte and was waiting for some friends to pick him up. Crested Butte was where I was headed to next.

Unfortunately, driving to Crested Butte would take 3-4 hours by car and would’ve been faster if I was walking. The only way to get there was to back track through Basalt and Carbondale and then head south from there. I’m not complaining because this drive was one of the most scenic drives of my trip so far. I took Kebler’s Pass which connects Paonia State Park with Crested Butte. Kebler’s pass is almost 30 miles of unpaved road that offered fantastic views of the surrounding West Elk Mountains. The road snaked its way up and around the entire way. Looking downward you could see gorgeous valleys of greens, reds, oranges and yellows. I also passed through amazing deep corridors of dense Aspen trees.

I finally arrived in Crested Butte which I had been anxiously awaiting because I’ve heard so many good things about it. Crested Butte is a small ski town. A lot of the houses were built in the 1800’s. Many of them were well kept but others looked like they were about to fall over. There was, for the most part, one “Main Street” which had a pizza shop, a few bars, an art gallery, a fly fishing shop and a few other stores. Main Street had a really neat vibe; people were out walking around, riding a bike or having a few beers at an outside table. It seems to be very dog friendly and is also small enough that you are bound to know everyone after a while of living there. The parallel streets surrounding Main Street were just houses, none were extravagant but many were tiny and run down. The ski resort is about 5 minutes up the hill by car. The town also had a video store, two gas stations and a small grocery store. Even the run down houses were expensive but there didn’t seem like there was any way to make a living there. I would say the average age of Crested Butte is somewhere in the mid thirties. My friend Chris called the people living there “trustafarians”, kids living off of their parents trust funds. I think that pretty much sums it up. I would also bet that 20% of the inhabitants could quote verbatim, every word to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”.

It would probably be a fun place to live if you didn’t have to worry about making a rent or mortgage payment. Even though I heard so much good stuff about Crested Butte, I don’t’ think it was the place for me.

One cool thing that happened as I was leaving Crested Butte; I happened upon my first wild elk herd. It was a large herd too, almost 30 elk!

Since I didn’t have any plans to stay in Crested Butte, I proceeded to Gunnison, CO to get me a little closer to Telluride for the next day. I could see dark storm clouds in the distance and once I arrived in Gunnison it started to rain, lightly at first and then it poured, and with it lots of thunder and lightning. I wasn’t going to look for a place to pitch a tent tonight. Instead, I rearranged my car, putting everything I could behind the driver’s seat to leave me some room to stretch out. My space was about six inches too short and the same too narrow to really get comfortable, but it would have to do.