Daniel & Krista asked if we still wanted to go out driving Saturday to see more leaves changing colors. Caleb & I said, "Of course!" Well, none of us knew what we were getting into. We ended up being in the car for the next 5 hours or so but it was all well worth it. We had incredible snow capped mountain views and views of the largest Aspen grove in all of Colorado.
We drove northwest from Crested Butte up towards where Daniel knew we'd get on a mountain pass to see some more incredible colors. Well, here was our first attempt over one of the passes, Ohio Pass. Within a minute we went from driving on clear dirt roads to this hill covered in snow. It didn't seem all that steep but Krista's car definitely wasn't making it even with Daniel's expertise in driving in the snow. As he put the car in reverse the wheels started sliding and the car somehow made a 90 degree turn so we were perpendicular to the road. As the car continued to slide down while Daniel is working on trying to complete the turn that the car had voluntarily decided to take us into, we went forward into the ditch and tiny snow bank on the side of the road. I managed to say something not too intelligent like "We definitely don't have an emergency winter kit in this car. No warm blankets. No metal cans with candles to burn in them to stay warm." Daniel and Krista were saying, "What are you talking about?!?" and Caleb was cracking up at me. I guess that wasn't the most intelligent thing to say considering this was no major snow and there were people standing about 50 feet away so we weren't in the middle of nowhere stranded. I was just saying it's always good to be prepared! :) After this short little exchange we realized we weren't going anywhere really and the tires were starting to spin so Caleb got out to give the car a little push to get it turned facing down hill.
As you can see, we made it out fine and thankfully we weren't stranded in some big snow bank with no cell phone service, no warm emergency blankets, and miles and miles from the nearest civilization. (Of course, we were no where close to being in this situation, but it made for some good laughs when everyone thought that's what I was thinking because I made a comment about an emergency winter car kit).
After this experience, we thought we'd try another pass and see if there was any snow or if it was drive-able. Kebler Pass was clear of snow at the beginning and just a bit muddy, so we decided to go for it and see how far we'd get. As I wrote earlier, we ended up driving for over 5 hours so that tells you that we made it quite far! Here are some views along our drive of Kebler Pass looking at the largest Aspen grove.
We saw a sign for the town of Paonia which Krista had read earlier is known for their apple orchards, so we decided to make our way over the pass to pick some apples. We had a grand time trying to figure out which trees were Fuji apple trees as nothing was labeled. The owner gave us directions to walk out into the orchard to pick Fuji's and as we all walked off, we kind of got lost. We each remembered different things from the directions like "turn right after the garden" "they are just past the nectarines not the peaches" "there are ten trees in a row which are Fuji and they might not be quite ripe." Yeah, we did some searching and think we found what were the Fuji trees. No other trees seemed to really have any apples on them. It was getting late in the season for this part of Colorado for apples. We still had such a fun time searching the apple orchard and being amazed by the beauty of the mountains as our backdrop. Since we had gone so far down Kebler Pass to get to Paonia, Daniel decided it was best to make a loop back to Gunnison rather than backtracking the way we'd come. He knows the Western Slope of Colorado well! It's always great fun to go out exploring with Krista & Daniel. They've taken us to many parts of Colorado we otherwise may not have made it too. I've written blog posts on these places we've visited with them such as Lake City, Ouray, Crested Butte and Gothic, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Lake Irwin, Kebler Pass & Paonia all thanks to Krista & Daniel's adventurous fun spirits! And yet there are still many more places we want to visit and explore in Colorado with these two. The Great Sand Dunes and Durango are two of many places we want to see.
Town of Gunnison
As always my favorite part of our long weekend going to and being in Gunnison was spending time with this guy.
Is that a golf course in your picture of the "Town of Gunnison?"
ReplyDeleteUncle Scott