Crested Butte, CO

Sunday, September 12

After a full morning ATV riding in Taylor Park, CO, Andi, Tory, Aden and I drove one-hour west to Crested Butte, CO. It was a beautiful Sunday drive along the Taylor River. We saw lots of fishermen and hikers at various trailheads along the way.

In Crested Butte, Andi found a big public parking lot near the Chamber of Commerce building which was the perfect place to leave the RV while we checked out the town. In fact, there were several RVs and vans already parked in the lot.

The weather was perfect in Crested Butte that afternoon — 70 degrees and sunny. The Main Street in town was lively with people participating in a bike race (costumes and all!) and others filling restaurant patios and shops. It didn’t feel too busy though, which we liked.

None of us had eaten since breakfast, so we decided to stop for a late lunch at a restaurant called Bonez Mexican. It was practically empty inside, so we found ourselves a big, private booth toward the back. Andi ordered chips & queso for the table (my favorite!) and steak & shrimp fajitas for he and Aden to share. Tory ordered the “boring tacos” with just meat, cheese and beans which is right up her alley and I had a chicken burrito bowl. Yum!

After lunch, we wandered through a few shops in downtown Crested Butte and then stopped for ice cream and mini donuts at Niky’s. Andi promised the kids ice cream today, and they hadn’t forgotten. Niky’s was a neat place because they served specialized mini donuts decorated with all kinds of toppings. Andi ordered a 4-pack of mini donuts for he and the kids to share and three small kids-sized cones. I passed on the sweets — I was still too full from lunch.

Around 5:00pm, we wandered back to the RV to find a camping spot for the night. There’s lots of free dispersed camping on the outskirts of Crested Butte and one RV Park in town. Andi and I preferred the free dispersed camping if we could find a spot. We drove outside of town toward the Washington Gulch area and found lots of campers already parked there for the night. We love dispersed camping because it’s free and typically in some pretty beautiful nature spots. If the air temperature outside is cool enough and we don’t need to run our RV’s air conditioner, we don’t really need to be hooked up to electricity. The downside of dispersed camping is that forest service roads to get the camping are usually in pretty bad shape with lots of ruts and bumps. Our RV isn’t really meant for “off-roading” which means there’s lots of jostling around of everything inside our cupboards and a pretty good chance of scraping or hitting something on the undercarriage of our RV. We have to drive very carefully and take it slow.

The first two dispersed camping areas were busy, so Andi wanted to keep going up the mountain toward Washington Gulch to check out other camping spots. Each spot we came to was either occupied or too rutted for our RV to enter the site. Eventually, we came to a crossroads with a sign that said 4x4 only ahead. “You saw that sign, right?” I asked Andi as he blew on by. “Yeah, we’ll be fine” he responded. Will we though, I wondered? Our RV is not made for 4x4-ing.

We still hadn’t found camping a few miles down the bumpy dirt road, so Andi decided to turn around. He found a big enough spot to make a three-point turn and continue back the direction we came. All the while I’m sweating bullets hoping we don’t break something on the RV.

Eventually we found a camping spot at the first camping area we saw at the beginning of the road. Yes, we had a few camping neighbors but it was still a gorgeous spot.

We also had lots of free-ranging cows all around grazing on grass and whatever else people left outside at the campsites.

Our night was quiet and cool at the Washington Gulch dispersed camping spot. We all slept well.

Monday, September 13

This morning we left Washington Gulch around 8:30am and drove back into the town of Crested Butte. We found a spot in the same oversized parking lot for the RV. I did my workout in the parking lot while Andi fed and showered the kids. Yes - we did take showers in a parking lot! There’s a RV dump station in Crested Butte so it was a good place for us all to shower and then dump our tanks and fill up with water again.

Next, I did school with Tory and Aden in the RV while Andi walked to a coffee shop in town to work for the morning. When he returned, we re-heated some leftovers in the RV for lunch and then the four of us walked to the Crested Butte Museum to learn about the history of the town. Andi challenged both Tory and Aden to learn three facts about the town in order to earn their iPads on today’s drive to the next town. They did it! Tory learned that Crested Butte started as a mining town in the late 1800’s and has a rich history of skiing here. Aden reported that the 2nd ever X-Games was held here in Crested Butte and that in the early days of the city getting around on skies was the best mode of transportation.

Around 2:00pm, we left Crested Butte for Paonia, CO. The roadway connecting the two towns, Kebler’s Pass, is one of the largest aspen groves in Colorado so it was beautiful to drive through this time of year. Unfortunately, the entire roadway is dirt which made for a bumpy ride. We were also stuck behind a semi truck the entire way which made the two-hour drive on the one-lane road slow going.

Neither Andi or I had even heard of the town Paonia before, but Andi’s friend Claire just moved here and we thought we’d stop for a visit while we were in the area. The minute we pulled into town, we noticed how hot it is in Paonia — 90 degrees vs. Crested Butte’s 70 degrees. Paonia is quite a bit lower in elevation at 5,600 ft. This area is known as the “region of abundance” because most of the state’s fruit is grown here. Andi had planned for us to camp at a place called Big B’s Orchard tonight, but now we weren’t so sure we wanted to camp in a field without any hook-ups if it was this hot outside. We also had terrible cell service in this area which is a problem since Andi has to work remotely Tuesday and Wednesday. After cruising around downtown Paonia for a bit, we decided to check out Big B’s Orchard and re-assess our camping options for the night. And’s friend Claire met us there.

Andi, Claire and I sat outside in a beautiful, shaded outdoor courtyard and caught up about life over dinner and drinks while Tory and Aden entertaining themselves on the giant tree swings nearby. In the end, we decided to camp in Claire’s drive-way tonight so Andi could use her house & internet tomorrow for his work calls.

Tomorrow, we’ll work, do school and hang out with Claire in Paonia and then see where the wind takes us next.