A Quick Trip to Breckenridge

In these days of "safer at home," due to the novel coronavirus still being very active, my husband and I have not been going out too frequently, except for food shopping every week or quick visits with our immediate family using social distancing. It has been a strange beginning of the summer for that reason, as we would have traveled quite a few places already if there had been no restrictions. Honestly, we both worry quite a bit about not having a good outcome if we were to get ill with COVID, so staying home seems a better alternative right now.

But that fact doesn't mean we can't relive some wonderful memories that I never had a chance to blog about! In August 2019, my husband's sister and brother-in-law visited us for a week from their home in Arizona, and we drove them to some of our favorite places while they were visiting.  We were excited to drive to the ski resort town of Breckenridge one day, which is about an hour and a half drive from our home.  Since Breckenridge is so close to where we live we've visited it many times in the seven years we've lived in Colorado.  We've seen it in all seasons,  We saw the winter ice castles, took a sleigh ride, saw the snow sculpture competition, and enjoyed the summer fun park and hiking on the mountains top when my older brother and sister-in-law visited, which included a thrilling ride down a mountain on a snowcat during a thunder and lightning storm!  If you want to see those posts you can scroll through all them all on this search label on my blog: Breckenridge.

The view in the photo above is the iconic first view of the Rocky Mountains from Interstate 70 going west.  It never fails to take my breath away!

Traveling west we cut through the Colorado foothills.

Every now and then we could see tall peaks peeking through on the horizon.

Mountain driving is always an adventure! We drive through the continental divide through the Eisenhower Tunnel.  At an elevation of 11,158 feet, (3,401m), it is the highest vehicular tunnel in the US, and the longest mountain tunnel and the highest point on the US Interstate Highway System.  The downward grade is rather steep on exiting the tunnel, so there are quite a few "runaway truck ramps" on the side of the road in case a truck loses its brakes.

We soon begin to see ski runs on the mountain slopes as we approach Breckenridge.

 As soon as we drove into town we decided to take the gondola ride up to the ski resort village.

The mountains of Breckenridge have 5 peaks, 187 trails, 2,908 acres, and the highest lift-served terrain in North America. The resort village has dining, an alpine slide, and other rides, a ski chair lift, horseback riding, rafting, golf, fishing, etc. We had lunch at the grill and had hoped to take the chair lift to the top of the mountain to see the views and hike a bit, but, unfortunately, our brother-in-law began to experience some altitude sickness.   Since we were over 12,000 feet elevation we knew we had to go back down to the town's lower elevation where he would feel better, and took the gondola ride back down.

We gave our brother-in-law water and he rested at the Breckenridge Welcome Center, where he felt much better. He told us to go on and enjoy the town so we took a quick walk up and down the main street to show my sister-in-law the sights.

The Victorian core of this former mining town is preserved as the Breckenridge National Historic District, running primarily along Main Street, with colorfully painted buildings from the 1880s and '90s housing shops, galleries, and restaurants.

A vintage wagon

The town is very scenic!

A couple of interesting sculptures--click on the photo to enlarge it and read about "Tom's Baby"

Since we did not want to leave our brother-in-law sitting alone at the Welcome Center for too long we soon returned and drove back to our home which is at a lower elevation of around 6,000 feet on the front range. He was fine--except for a slight lingering headache.

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Back to our house and feeling 100% better!

My sister-in-law found the funny t-shirt for him in a Breckenridge shop and we all had a good laugh about our dizzy high altitude adventure!

Happy 4th of July!

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Crested Butte to Monarch Pass--an Oh Be Joyful Route!

In my last post--click here-- my husband and I drove from Buena Vista, Colorado, over Cottonwood Pass to Almont and then Crested Butte, Colorado, where we decided to stop for lunch before continuing back to Buena Vista, using Monarch Pass for the return trip.

When we entered Crested Butte, the skies opened up and it began to rain heavily.  We parked about midway on Elk Avenue, which is the main street in town and had delicious sandwiches at The Last Steep Cafe,  named after the Owners’ favorite North Face ski run at Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Ski Area.

This was our second visit to this colorful and bohemian style Colorado ski town.  On our first visit, we happened to arrive in town on the day of "Vinotok," which is a storytelling and fall harvest festival with ancient roots and is a long-standing annual event in Crested Butte, that takes place on the autumnal equinox.  If you missed that post you can read it here.  It is a really very colorful and raucous celebration!   More about the town of Crested Butte and our visit can be read here.

The rain had decreased to a light drizzle so we walked along Elk Ave. a bit after lunch enjoying the sights...

...and all the beautiful flowers that were everywhere in town.

The name "Oh Be Joyful" is common in Crested Butte. There is a gallery, a church, a creek, a trail, and a recreation area with that name. From what I could find after doing some research is that the Oh-be-Joyful name was first applied to the creek in the 19th century after valuable ore was discovered in the gulch.  I think it is the perfect description for the entire joyful town!

 As we drove out of Crested Butte we passed beautiful scenery...

...and drove towards the Sawatch Mountains and scenic Monarch Pass.

Monarch Pass is located on the Continental Divide at the southern end of the Sawatch Range along the border between Gunnison and Chaffee counties, approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of the town of Salida.

During the summer, an aerial tram from the parking lot at the summit carries visitors to the top of Monarch Ridge above the pass (at approximately 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above sea level), allowing a wider view of the surrounding peaks. During the winter, visitors enjoy skiing at Monarch Ski Area. Monarch Mountain Lodge is located about 5 miles from the summit of the pass.

The pass can be traversed by all vehicles under most conditions and is generally open year-round; however, 7% grades exist, and the area is prone to heavy winter snowfall, often resulting in temporary closures during severe winter storms.

An automated weather station (AWOS), provided by the Federal Aviation Administration, is located atop Monarch Pass, providing pilots of small aircraft access to real-time weather conditions near the summit.

There are many curves and downhill grades on Monarch pass but the views are spectacular!  If you'd like to see some photos of how it looks in winter on a ride we made to Telluride. Colorado, click here.

As we descended out of Monarch pass we passed the remnants of the Madonna Mine, a lead, zinc, and silver mine located at an elevation of 10,751 feet which was mined from 1883 until 1953.

Soon, we were back on the Collegiate Peaks Scenic and Historic Byway on our way back to our hotel in Buena Vista, Colorado.  We were not finished exploring the area and would head the next day towards some mining ghost towns near Leadville--more in a future post.

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The Historic Town of Crested Butte, Part Two

My husband and I were away for a week on Long Island, New York, celebrating our anniversary and a special milestone anniversary of my oldest brother and sister-in-law. It was hot and humid while we were in New York and there were just the beginnings of autumn color. When we returned to Colorado autumn was happily still in full bloom and today we even added a little snow to the mix! I am continuing on this post with our early autumn trip to Crested Butte, Colorado. You can see its famous 12,168-foot (3,709 m) mountain, for which it is named, in the photo above.  (All photos and photo collages will enlarge if clicked on)

There was lots of beautiful autumn color and signs directing us as we approached the historic district in the town of Crested Butte. The park bench we passed in town made me smile--this indeed, was the place!

The East River Valley, where Crested Butte is located, was once used as a summer residence by the Ute people. However, they were quickly displaced when European-Americans first entered the area. The first white people to explore the valley were beaver trappers, shortly followed by surveyors. Captain John Gunnison, after whom Gunnison County is named, was one of the early explorers to enter the area. In the 1860s and 1870s coal and silver mines began to open in the surrounding area, and many little mining towns formed. However, when silver mining began to decline, many of these towns failed. Crested Butte, however, was in a better position to survive because it served as a supply town to the surrounding area. There were proposals in the early 1970's to open molybdenum mines on Mount Emmons (also known as the "Red Lady") near Crested Butte, but the town opted to continue to develop its ski industry instead. 

Crested Butte's Mountain Resort began in the 1960's and its popularity grew.  Hotels and resorts opened on Crested Butte Mountian. The annual snowfall average in the area is 198.4 inches (504 cm) with January recording the highest average snowfall at 40 inches (100 cm), so skiing and snowboarding are full winter activities.

The ski area base is at 9,375 feet (2,858 m). 14 lifts serve 1,058 acres (4.28 km2) of terrain. 448 acres (1.81 km2) of the terrain are double black diamond runs. A large amount of extreme skiing terrain at Crested Butte has attracted the US Extreme Skiing Championships. The longest run on Mount Crested Butte is 2.6 miles (4.2 km). The town of Crested Butte has a Nordic Center which has an ice skating rink as well as many miles of groomed cross-country skiing trails. Recently, Vail Resorts purchased Crested Butte Resorts.  I hope they will retain their nickname as "The Last Great Ski Town" even as part of this resort conglomerate!

When we visited Crested Butte on the first day of autumn, we were surprised and excited to see an annual "Vinotok Festival" in the town.  If you did not read my Crested Butte--Part One blog post--click here-- you may want to see what this fun bohemian Autumn Festival is all about!

The town of Crested Butte is a charming place.  Who wouldn't want to live in this cute little purple house seen in town?

I enjoyed walking around the town taking photos of the historical buildings. The town boasts fabulous restaurants, galleries, and shops

The Victorian era homes and businesses were colorful and well kept.

Real estate has become expensive as Crested Butte's popularity has grown. I was quite surprised at the prices of small houses such as these!

Crested Butte also has the nickname as "The Wildflower Capital of Colorado" as its surrounding mountains are filled with wildflowers in the late spring and summer, and there is an annual Wildflower Festival in July. It also hosts an annual Arts Festival. Film Festival and Music Festival.

Bicycling, camping, hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and kayaking, four wheeling, disc golf, horeseback riding and fishing are all popular summer activities.

The Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum, located at 331 Elk Ave is worth a visit to learn about the history of the town and area. It is housed in what was once a blacksmith's shop and then went on to be a hardware shop that had the first gasoline pump in town.

Ranching has also been a major industry in the surrounding Crested Butte area. We passed many a scenic ranch on our drives.

We also saw such amazing autumn foliage! 

One of the drives we made in the area was on the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway, over Kebler Pass, where there were the largest and highest aspen trees I ever saw and wonderful wilderness!  More about that on my next post.

To read part one of the Crested Butte, Vinotok Autumn Festival click here.

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Crested Butte--Part One--Vinotok Autumn Festival

I was away last weekend visiting Crested Butte, Colorado, with my husband, for an early anniversary getaway. Since moving to Colorado six years ago we have been trying to take trips to all its four corners and in-betweens of this beautiful state. Crested Butte has been on our list to visit and we felt that the autumn season would be a good time to visit the town as well as see some beautiful fall foliage along the way. We were not disappointed! (All photos will enlarge if clicked on)

Crested Butte has been fondly referred to as "The Gateway to the Elk Mountains," "Colorado's Last Great Ski Town. " and "The Wildflower Capital of Colorado." It sits at an elevation of 8,885 feet (2708 meters) and is located 28 miles north of the city of Gunnison, and a 228-mile distance from Denver, which was a 4-hour car trip for us.

We were impressed by the size of the 12,162-foot (3,707 m) Mt Crested Butte summit that is the site of the Crested Butte Mountian Ski Resort.

We stayed on Mount Crested Butte in the Elevation Hotel and Spa.

We could see the ski resort chairlifts close to our hotel.  Vail Resorts has recently bought the family-owned Crested Butte Mountain Resort and locals hope this won't change the ambiance of the town.

It was late afternoon by the time we checked into our hotel room and we heard from the front desk that the town was going to have a Fall Harvest Festival that evening that they called "Vinotok," which is a storytelling and fall harvest festival with ancient roots, and is a long-standing annual event in Crested Butte, that takes place on the autumnal equinox. You can read an interesting story about how this festival originated on this Colorado Public Radio link.

We had noticed some of the streets in town were closed off when we drove by and now we knew the reason. We had dinner reservations so instead of driving to town we took the free shuttle bus service that the town provides from the mountain into the historic district.

When we exited the bus the sun was on the horizon, soon to set. We heard the beat of a drum and people wearing costumes and aspen leaves in their hair walking towards the center of town. We followed the crowd and soon saw free-form dancing in the street.

All of the costumes and dancing were very colorful! We watched for quite a while as we waited for our dinner reservations.

As you can see by the video above--make sure to turn on the sound--or watch the video on this link on my Mille Fiori Favoriti Facebook page, Vinotek is a fun and happy celebration for all ages!

Around 8 pm, the Vinotok Tribe presents the "Trial of the Grump." The community puts The Grump on trial with harvest maidens dancing and a play of the Harvest Mother, Dragon, Knight, and Green Man. The performance is amplified and lit so the community can hear and see the tale take place on the stage.

The Vinotok Fall Harvest celebration then ends with the "Burning of the Gump" bonfire. You can also watch this video on my Mille Fiori Facebook page on this link.

We dined at Marchitelli's Gourmet Noodle where we had the specials--Osso Bucco for my husband and Rainbow Trout over risotto for me, and since it was an anniversary celebration we indulged in desserts--spumoni with cannoli and tiramisu. Everything was very delicious!

The National Historic town of Crested Butte is so pretty.

Many of its buildings date back to its early history as a coal mining town from the 1880s.  We went back to explore more of the town on another day and that will be on my next blog post.

After dinner, we returned on the shuttle bus back to Mt Crested Butte and our hotel. 

We had driven part of the beautiful West Elk Loop Scenic Byway over Kebler pass earlier in the day to see the autumn colors--more on that in a future post-- and we were tired from our long and festive day.

We were happy to spend this full moon and the first day of the autumn night in Crested Butte!  Come back soon to see more!

See my Part Two blog post about the Historic Town of Crested Butte here.

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