Last Dollar Rd. and Telluride CO.

Aug. 29, 2022

The first evening saw this wonderful sunset.

Looking southeast toward Telluride.

Looking west with the cresent moon. We had similar colorful western skies most evening during our stay.

***

After a day at the campsite to relax and enjoy the views, we headed into Telluride, 11 miles away.

We didn't know the upcoming Labor Day weekend was also the Telluride Film Festival. 

We didn't see any films! Seating

was limited to holders of passes purchased months before. If there were extra seats they were sold at $40 each. Wow, movies have really gone up!  There were some free screening (mostly documentaries) outdoors in parks, obviously after dark.  The thought of driving 11 miles mostly on windy gravel mountain roads in the dark wasn't appealing. 

I checked into the Blues and Brews

festival comming up in a few weeks. Tickets start at $250 and go up to $3,750 for the 3 days, all sold out!

View from the city park.

A residential street with Bridal Veil Fall in the distance. 

*** A little history...

This remnant of the mining era is at a crossroads of modern Telluride. To the right is the Gondola station, a little to the left is a ski lift and behind me is the start of the farmers market on Oak St.

***

On Friday morning we went back into town for the farmers market.  This time we parked at Mountain Village

and took the gondola into Telluride.

Decending 1,800 ft. Into Telluride. 

A little closer.

***

While looking for the laundromat, we stumbled on the  Telluride Brewing Co. 

***

While on our walks near the campsite, we came across some old homestead cabins.

This one's in pretty good shape with a relativly modern asphalt shingle roof.

Some early fall color.

Looks like there was a visitor on this road the night before.

***

When we arrived the moon was in the western sky. After about a week, it's in the southern sky.

More sunsets.

More from Black Canyon NP

Aug. 28, 2022

Morning haze.

Painted wall on a sunnier day.

Day trip to Cimmiron

Morrow point dam, the middle of 3 on the Gunnison river prior to it entering the national park.

The (muddy) Cimmiron river, coming in from the left, joins the Gunnison before flowing deeper into the canyon.

More Black Canyon...

This is hard to read because of sun exposure but it's a good comparison with other canyons.  Top left - Black Canyon at the narrows (40' wide), top center - Zion Canyon, top right - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Center - Hells Canyon of the Snake river.  Bottom - Grand Canyon.

View into the valley (Montrose)  from the Warner Point trail.

View into the canyon from Warner Point.  West Elk mountains in the background.

Our last day in Black Canyon gave us the best sunset of the whole 2 weeks.

Black Cannyon of the Gunnison NP

Aug. 15, 2022

The original plan was to stay in a BLM area just outside the park.  We found a spot, setup and started relaxing. 

After a while a National Park service law enforcement ranger came driving through and we asked if there was anything we should know about the area.  He told us there was a breakin the previous weekend.  We would have rather stayed in the park anyway but thought all the sites were reserve only. He said all of loop "C" was first-come first- serve.  We drove the 2 miles to the park, found a spot, came back, hooked up, went back to the park and set up in our new site.

(Picture from a few days later, after the rain!)

It was a tight fit but we made it work.

The first full day in the park started out rainy but cleared after a few hours so we did some sight seeing.

Closer view of the river.

As we got to the Painted Wall overlook, it started raining again.

This overlook is named "Sunset view", with rain.

More to come...