Gunnison, CO Trip Part II

And now onto day 3 and 4 of our Gunnison trip! We got up on Tuesday morning and headed to Crested Butte, CO. It was a nice drive, about 25 minutes, with a very interesting surprise. Joyce - you're going to love this one! We rounded a corner and ran smack-dab into a cattle drive!!! 

The guy on the left carrying a flag is the start (there was another one at the very end).

I thought the dogs were going to go nuts! Todd (our ferocious Pomeranian) went nuts growling and barking, and we had to put the window up because we thought for sure Kira was going to jump out the window.

And as quickly as it started it was gone. What a cool experience!!! I think Chris about died when one of them went to the bathroom - ha, ha, ha - city men! :)

It wasn't too long after the cattle drive that we arrived in Crested Butte. It was a very quaint mountain town. We had an excellent lunch at a BBQ place where the owner was prior military so they gave us a 20% discount!!!

I thought this sign was pretty funny especially with all the cars parked in front of it and the warm weather - I'm sure that snow dumped on someones car!

Pacita's youngest daughter Leilani fell asleep in the backpack (we went hiking for 6 hours with Katelynn in ours and she never fell asleep - some of us are just lucky I guess!).

They had lots of snow in this town. It was as high as some of the picket fences surrounding the houses. It even spewed between the buildings.

Some of the cool shops on Main Street.

We found this cool little bench between two shops, so of course I had to put Katelynn on it!

On our last day there we drove to Taylor Reservoir. It was about 35 minutes - mostly because of the windy, snow packed roads. Like Blue Mesa Reservoir, it was completely frozen over and just beautiful!

You can barely make out the dam on the left hand side...

Katelynn passed out on the way back to town - must've been all that fresh mountain air.

Me and ToddDog on the trip...

On the way back to Denver we stopped at the top of Monarch Pass (the one we didn't make it over because of the avalanche). It was beautiful up there!

And yes, there is lots of snow, but it's not cold. I think it was in the 60's that day. Of course that was before the snow storm yesterday that dumped another foot up there! Good thing we're back home again! Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Gunnison, CO Trip

We went on a little mini-vacation this week, and it was wonderful to get away for a few days. Our friends Mike, Pacita, and their 3 kids came down for a "sleepover" Saturday night. The kids all played while the adults had a few fierce games of Uno! LOL. It was a nice relaxing evening. Sunday morning we all got up, got some gas and McDonald's and than headed up into the mountains. They were calling for some snow, but nothing that was supposed to amount to anything (1 to 3 inches depending on the area - unlike this upcoming weekend where they're calling for a foot in many areas). It was not a fun drive to say the least! The roads were slick and required chains for commerical vehicles in many areas. It was supposed to take us about 4 hours to get to Gunnison. We made it to Monarch Pass after about 6 hours (should've been able to do it in about 3). We made the long ascent to the top, and when we were about 2 miles from the top we got turned around because of an avalanche!!!! These photos are of what the top of the pass looked like...white out conditions at times!

Chris was driving...

And this was Katelynn's look for most of the trip - doesn't she look thrilled?!?

So we turned around and went back down the pass. We stopped at a gas station to figure out where we should go next. We decided to head south and take 114 up over Cochetopa Pass, but as luck would have it that's the same way everyone else decided to go, and yep, you guessed it, we got turned around because this time a bus overturned and caused a 30 car pile up. I guess we were just not meant to make it to Gunnison on Sunday, so we headed about 20 miles further south to Monte Vista, CO, where we got a hotel room for the night. Monday morning we got up and set out again. This time Cochetopa Pass was clear - minus a few patchy spots along the very windy road.

Mike and Pacita's car behind us...

Katelynn was much happier! Plus she had Vinson to keep her company.

Once we got to Gunnison on Monday, we checked into our hotel and then headed into town to a park for the kids to burn off some energy! Katelynn had a blast on all the "rides."

She loved the see-saw.

She liked climbing up the slide, and loved going down it too, but couldn't figure out how to keep from falling backwards while slidding down. 

And one of her favorites has always been the swings. This is her and Leilani swinging together.

And a family shot...

We headed over to Blue Mesa Reservoir after lunch and took a bunch of photos. It was completely frozen, and very beautiful.

 People actually walked out on it! So, I figured, why not? :)

 I caught you taking a picture of me, taking a picture of you. :)

A picture of the 3 of us.

There was a little beach area that was really pretty and easy to access so we got out and took a bunch of photos of Katelynn. I'm sure someday she's going to be annoyed by all the crazy places we sat her!

The beach area.

Pics of us and Katelynn...

I love this one!

Okay, well I've got a gazillion more photos to upload, so I will blog about day 2 and 3 another time. Hope you enjoyed the photos!