2016 Western Trip – Days 53-54 – Santa Fe & Taos

The day after a six hour drive and setting up camp, I usually just want to hang around Sweetie and relax and since it was football Saturday, that made it easy.  There weren’t really any games on early that interested me so we drove into Santa Fe to see where the farmers market was located and pick up some groceries.  The campground owner advised that this was Santa Fe Fiesta weekend and the plaza area would be packed so we decided to wait until it was over to visit that area.

On Sunday, the weather forecast was for warm and sunny so we decided it would be a good day to head up into the mountains for  a visit to Taos and the ski valley.  Sometime back in the 90’s we came to Taos for a week of skiing and looked forward to a summertime re-visit and Mexican lunch.

2016 Western Trip – Days 51-52 – Our Last Day In Buena Vista & Snowy Peaks Review

I began our last day in BV by getting a shot of a patch of Aspens changing color on the mountain across the road from us.  They are supposed to peak next week so we’ll miss them but got to see them in all their glory the last two trips to Colorado.

2016 Western Trip – Days 49-50 – Leadville & Hair Day

The last time we were in Buena Vista the girls went up (2200’) to Leadville and I did not go so I didn’t want to miss the trip this time, but we started the day on the patio of  the Evergreen Café in Buena Vista for breakfast.

I didn’t get any food shots but everything was very good and at a decent price.

2016 Western Trip – Days 47-48 – St. Elmo & Salida Winery

Even though it was a holiday weekend, we decided to make the drive up to the ghost town of St Elmo and as expected many others had decided to do the same thing – lots of traffic on the road and little to no parking when we got there.

Rather than do a big write up, I’ll just post a few of our thoughts and comments and refer you to Trekking With The B’s who just made a great post with lots of pics on the same trip we took but without the throngs of people.  These are the white “chalk” cliffs at the base of Mt Princeton followed by a look approaching St Elmo.

2016 Western Trip – Days 44-46 – Buena Vista

September first was moving day so we packed up and departed Gunnison around 11am and headed east to Buena Vista, located about 85 miles away but just across the Central Sawatch Range from Gunnison – about 60 miles as the crow flies.

The drive was uneventful but crossing Monarch Pass required my undivided attention as the 7 mile upgrade and 10 mile downgrade was on a very curvy 6% grade with very few guardrails.  I put Sweetie in 3^rd gear and she made the climb at a respectable 35-40 mph to the 11,312 foot pass. 

2016 Western Trip – Days 33-43 – Mesa Campground

Mesa Campground is located about three miles west of Gunnison on US-50 and we had booked 11 nights so we would have 10 full days in the area.  It bills itself as the nicest campground in the area and has spaces for everything from tents to big rigs.  The trailers in the fourth shot are privately owned.

2016 Western Trip – Days 42-43 – Lake City & Hartman Rocks

The final thing on my Gunnison to-do list was make a day trip down to Lake City and, based upon our Montrose neighbors recommendations, eat at Southern Vittles – it seemed like a good trip for our next to last day.

The drive down was mostly through the vast western Colorado hilly desert with the lush green of the irrigated valleys.  It’s about 50 miles from the campground with little civilization once you turn off of US-50 and on to CO-149.  The road was in decent shape and while there were no mountains, there were some big hills to cross (mtns. back in TN) and plenty of curves.  We saw several coaches and trailers on the road, but I’d have to want to camp in Lake City really bad to drive Sweetie there.

After a quick tour of town, we drove up to Lake San Cristobal and after taking a few photos we began looking for the dam and were surprised to see the water going over the top.  After researching, I discovered that it is the second largest natural lake in the state having been formed by a rock slide about 700 years ago – so no man made dam was there.  

When I got ready to upload my photos, I discovered my SIM card was still in the computer so no shots to upload – here are a couple of the lake, which is gorgeous, from the web.