Crested Butte, Salida/BV, Colorado Springs

July 8-16, 2021

TL;DR: Crested Butte certainly stole our heart, what with its charming Main Street, wildflower hikes, and insane sourdough bread. We hit up quite a few smaller mountain towns, found some red rocks, soaked in a smoky view from 14,000 feet, and were reminded that a city with 500,000 is just not for us.

The stats

Hikes: 3
Hiking miles: 10.34 (1,598 elevation)
Miles in Eric: 690
Miles in Layla: 320
Wildflowers: 1MM+
Rescued wolves seen: 9

The sights

Crested Butte

Our visit to Crested Butte started with the most gorgeous hike along the 403 Trail, which is a bit of a drive to get to but oh, so worth it, with wildflowers in literally every direction, rolling green mountains, and the valley below.

We saw red, orange, white, purple, lupine, and sunflower-type flowers, Colorado honeysuckle, Columbine, and many more.

We even saw a marmot picturesquely perched on the edge of a rock eating a flower, and a deer galloping through the meadow.

Walked Elk Avenue in town, which was just adorable. Stopped at Eldo’s, a “sunny place for shady people” for a beer on the patio, and then ran into The Breadery (Roadfood), which was just about the most delightful experience.

Drove up to Kebler Pass and took a peek at Lake Erwin, but didn’t have time (or energy) to do much exploring.

Exploration near Shavano

Drove up to Leadville, which is pronounced like the chemical element, not as in when you lead a horse to water. Pretty cute, and at 10,200 feet, quite thin in the oxygen department. Good mix of stores and restaurants, bar/saloons. We stopped at Bichi, a Cuban place, for Caiparinhas, which immediately took us back to our honeymoon in Rio. Also got bichi, which is apparently espresso with raw sugar—delightful!

Also drove past Nathrop and Granite, which looked bigger on the map, but were really just residential with a few run-down buildings. Covid likely was not kind to business. Also stopped in Twin Lakes briefly, which had a nice lake and a mini Main Street, and is halfway between Leadville and Buena Vista, which was super cute. Felt bustling but not overcrowded.

Our final stop on our driving tour was Elevation Brewery in Poncha Springs, which was really great and had a very interesting mix of people. Nice outdoor space and got an amazing cheeseburger from the food truck. Lots of doggos, too. Unfortunately, most of Salida’s downtown was under construction but it looked like it was pretty cute!

Colorado Springs area

Drove up Pike’s Peak, which had a very pretty 16-mile ascent. Unfortunately it was really smoky when we went, so the views weren’t as insane as they could have been, but still really impressive. Definitely had sweaty palms on the way up, and certain switchbacks—even though we knew the road was below—gave the illusion of being extremely steep.

You have to park about four miles to the top and take a bus the rest of the way, which was actually easier/faster than we thought. Saw a few marmots and scraggly goats.

Stopped in at the Garden of the Gods, but it was so packed that we didn’t really do much exploring besides driving around. It’s really nice that it’s free. We did, however, have a nice hike at Red Rock Canyon Open Space, which is across the road and there was hardly anyone there. We got a little lost, but ended up on Mesa Trail, with lovely views of red rock and canyons, and a really lush valley.

While we were at Meuller State Park, we went on the Cahill Pond Hike, with a plethora of trees and flowers (which we could identify with our new app!). Passed by the rather decrepit Cahill homestead, saw lots of butterflies, lots of quartz, and tons of Aspens with their bottoms chewed up by elk.

Also went to the Wolf and Wildlife Rescue Center, which we just happened to see on one of our drives. The one-hour tour was pretty amazing, and we learned all about the wolves in America, and the world, that are sometimes hunted and killed and very misunderstood. Saw a swift fox, two red foxes, timber/grey wolves, an Arctic wolf, New Guinea singing dogs, and more. All were pretty cute and very sleepy/taking naps.

Drove through Colorado Springs and stopped at a few spots, including an amazing sandwich at Beasts and Brews with 100+ beers on tap and 85 types of beer, wine, and cider (all self-serve), as well as an amazing reuben with house-made pastrami and this great buttery broccolini.

Swung by the Air Force Academy Overlook and saw a bunch of cadettes practicing in gliders and parachuting.

Had lunch at Ivywild, formerly an elementary school, which is now home to a brewery, restaurants, coffee shop, and bar, aptly called The Principal’s Office, with an extremely delightful bartendress who shook up some rather delicious cocktails. A little quiet, and the chicken sandwich we got was shockingly small, but very cool space.

Made one last stop at the underwhelming Frozen Gold for frozen yogurt, which only means we need to redeem ourselves at another ice cream place soon.

Details, details, details

Rosey Campground’s hosts, Don and Tracy, were on a trip similar to ours when they started hosting about 1-2 weeks ago. They were in Pennsylvania when they got a call to pack up and get to Colorado (!). Were absolutely adorable and said so far, so good, and that they were “rule-breakers” since they let us move into the campsite early : )

Our waiter at The Breadery, Jonah, was an absolute delight. Originally from Albuquerque, he moved to Crested Butte 3 days after seeing it in an ad, and has been here for four years. Not a bad endorsement.

And then this happened…

When we stopped in Meuller State Park to dump and get water, it seemed like the toilet was leaking which would have been just awful… but it appears to be caused by the fact that we were so tilted and hasn’t leaked since then. Phew.

Coming down from Pike’s Peak, they have a break check about halfway down because it’s so steep. The max for brake temperature is 300 degrees, and Eric clocked in at 299… so we definitely let him cool off a bit before we kept going down the mountain.

When we drove into Colorado Springs the first time, we didn’t realize quite how big it was at 500,000 people and were very overwhelmed to be back in a big city!

At the end of our Wolf Tour, we did a group “howl” and all the wolves started howling with us. It seemed sort of cheesy at first, and it definitely was, but it was also really amazing.

We lost power our last night in Montrose, but assumed it was the RV park. We later realized that it was Layla when we tried to run the generator and the microwave wouldn’t turn on… then we plugged in at Mueller State Park and still didn’t get power. After confirming it wasn’t our surge protector, Brian found a loose connection! Thankfully, an easy fix to what could have been a much bigger problem.

Now we know

Past Crested Butte and into the Washington Gulch area are some great boondocking spots. Pretty busy but gorgeous.

For our second and third nights, we originally stopped at Hendrick’s Flat to boondock, but could not for the life of us find a good spot. Luckily, Shavano had plenty of spots, it was only a matter of how far back we needed to go.

In Leadville, we discovered the sport of “skijoring,” which is when a skiier gets towed through town by a rider on a horse. Still happens the first week in March, every year. We’ll be back.

Totally forgot (or perhaps never knew) that Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd were in One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest. Also forgot how sad it was.

Didn’t realize that Pike’s Peak would have a $24 fee, but once we saw all the upkeep and the fact that there’s a bus to the top, it was worth it.

We got a new plant app, “Picture This” that shows us what all the plants are and it’s amazing. Not sure how we lived without it before.

Fun fact: The total weight of all the ants in the world is greater than the total weight of any other “animal” species.

Roadfood

We sat outside on Crested Butte’s Elk Avenue at The Breadery for warm sourdough with black garlic butter, flatbread, and the world’s most amazing chocolate budino with olive oil and sea salt.

Our favorites at Salida’s charming Little Red Hen Bakery were the warm, whole-wheat cinnamon bun and a savory sausage spiral with roasted organic veggies and sharp cheddar.

Where we stayed

Nights one and two: Spot 18, Rosey Campground

Tried our luck with North Bank and One Mile Campgrounds but struck out, and finally got to Rosey and were greeted by Don and Tracy who were absolutely wonderful and told us they would have a few spots open up if we could come back in 45 minutes (we were on the very early side).