08/21/01:
I spotted a female elk that went bounding away at the sight of me. Must be my lack of makeup early in the morning. Back on CO-149, I soon came to Slumgullion Pass. 700 years ago half the mountain let go and slid down into the valley. This blocked the Gunnison River and formed Lake San Cristobal. The mass still moves 20 feet a year. Fortunately it didn't do it while I was there.
I was being offered great peeks at wonderful mountain peaks surrounded my moving, swirling clouds. I had just complained to myself there was nowhere to stop for pictures when I happened on a scenic overview. Good timin'.
I picked up Country Road 76 10-12 miles west of Gunnison off CO 50. The paved road gave way to dirt at Pitkin and rose up to 12000 feet at Cumberland Pass (the highest I've ever been, I think). More great views of peaks and ridges with clouds swirling about the tops.
On the down side of the pass the road, which had been pretty good, with the exception of a few washer board sections, became very rough because of baseball size rocks embedded in the roadway. I saw lots of old, decaying log cabins along the way. I don't know if they were from mining, farming, vacations or what.
I also passed a section with several beaver lodges, ponds and dams. Didn't see any critters though. All I saw was pine trees so I dunno what they ate. I thought they needed hardwoods such as aspen for their diet.
On the other side of Tin Cup, a little tiny community, probably without electricity unless they use generators, the road smoothed out to paved consistency and I saw more camping opportunities. About 25 miles into the drive I came to Taylor Reservoir. It's only a half mile long or so surrounded by mud flats but with wonderfully rugged mountain peaks in the background.
Camping is limited to designated areas here and in Taylor Canyon which is where the road took me. This is a 20 mile stretch of paved road along Taylor Creek and through the canyon. A really scenic drive with rough canyon walls rising several hundred feet above the fast moving creek. Lots of fly fishermen, inflatable kayaks, as well as dirt bikes in the area.
I followed CO 135 north past Crested Butte. This is a pretty area in a deep, wide valley with mountains surrounding it. For some reason (ski resort), 100's of pretty expensive homes have built out in the valley with no trees, no nothing around them. Further up is Mt. Crested Butte which is nothing but condos. Beyond that, the road petered out. Aspen is only 20 miles or so north but you can't get there from here except, I think by 4WD.
So back down CO 135 I go. It's pushing 2pm and I'm tired of driving and don't want to hunt for a campsite. So I head back towards Tin Cup where I'd seen some nice camping possibilities earlier. Now I'm camped in a big group of conifers at 10100. We'll see how well I sleep at this altitude tonight.
08/22/01:
Last night I was entertained by a couple of mule deer as they grazed around the campsite. One was a 4 point buck and the other a young, velvety pronger. Making breakfast was a little difficult this morning. My hands were pretty cold. Driving out, I could see a large cloud bank hovering over Taylor Reservoir. Not on the water but 20-30 feet over it as cold air met much warmer air coming off the water. Interesting.
Looking at the map yesterday I found FR 730 just over the Gunnison River outside of Gunnison. It would knock a couple of hours off the Montrose/Delta/Aspen route. I had a little trouble finding it. After 8 miles or so it turned into a dirt road as could be expected. I passed 40-50 dirt bikers. They seemed to be more on tour than racing since they were spread out over many miles and didn't seem to be in any great hurry.
Eventually the washer boards, muds and ever deepening ruts seemed more like 4WD country and proved too much for me. Especially since there were some ominous looking clouds overhead that would make the road even worse. So I headed back to Gunnison to regroup. Here I decided to go the other way, out CO 50 towards Salida and maybe pick up CO 24 towards Aspen.
I found a free campsite at Monarch Pass past the Monarch Ski Resort at the National Forest campground turnoff (I forgot the name) at 10400 feet. That's close to the highest I've ever camped.