Day 50, (September 12, 2021)
From Carbondale, we drove over towards Crested Butte. After spending the night at a dispersed camping site on Kebler Pass, we drove into the Butte itself. We decided to hike up to Green Lake, and discovered that the lake lives up to its name.
And of course we wouldn't miss a chance to hop in a mountain lake on a sunny(ish) day.
We dried off, and decided to head off trail a bit in order to make it to the top of the ridge.
The off-trail excursion ended up being quite a steep climb and exciting scramble. It was an excellent choice as we were rewarded a wonderful spot to enjoy views of valleys on either side, a lake, and many mountains in the distance.
On the way back down we took a slightly more on-trail route along the ridge.
That afternoon, Nolan worked out in the park, and Monisha strolled through town to find something to eat. In rather classic Monisha form, she couldn’t decide, so she ended up not getting anything and ate lunch back at the car.
We got quite lucky and found an open site at the Oh Be Joyful campground near Crested Butte. We cooked up spaghetti with our free Ozo plant-based meatballs, then made some hot cocoa with milk - yum!
We've been enjoying watching an episode of a TV show in Blue after it gets dark and before going to sleep. We've now finished Bridgerton, so we've now started a new show: Downton Abbey! We're already hooked.
Day 51, (September 13, 2021)
Today we drove from Crested Butte to Telluride, passing by lots of pretty sights.
Because of a road closure on Highway 50, we were re-routed right past the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
We found yet another fantastic campsite. This time a free spot near Priest Lake.
In the evening we cooked up our best Ramen dinner yet, and curled up in Blue to watch a movie (The Disaster Artist).
Day 52, (September 14, 2021)
Breakfast at Priest Lake, featuring some pastries from Baked in Telluride:
Another hiking day! This time to up to Hope Lake. Yesterday, we didn't have any service so Nolan looked on his phone and spotted the trailhead on his downloaded maps. We thought it would be pretty cool to just find a trail and hike it without any more knowledge, but Monisha ended up getting some cell service and finding that it's one of the best hikes in the area :)
Spot the Nolan!
And of course we took a very cold swim. This time skinny dipping since we didn't bring our swimsuits.
On the way down, it started to hail! Luckily this didn't last long and we made it back to Blue safely. We decided to head back to the same place we camped last night since we enjoyed it so much. One more night in Colorado, and then it's back to Utah!
Looks like you've done some pretty incredible hikes! It's encouraging to know that there are still so many beautiful places to explore in the US. Absolutely beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIncredible hiking is indeed a prominent theme of this trip! And yep, we can attest that there most certainly are plenty of beautiful places in the U.S. :)
Delete