Gunnison, CO
Aug 6 - Sept 6, 2003
We moved on to Gunnison to get into the midst of the tallest mountains
in the Rockies. We'd planned only to stay a week here but when we found
that it was an ideal base for riding to Crested Butte, Ouray, and Silverton,
we extended this to a month. The main activities here are off-roading
(bikes, ATVs and jeeps), hiking and fishing so we've pretty much stuck
with bike rides. Gunnison's weather is similar to our last stopover
- sunny mornings and scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon - some days
you get lucky, others you get soaked!
Crested Butte and nearby trails
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Crested Butte mountain, 12162',
in the background, and lunch at the Paradise Cafe
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Views from Gunsight Pass
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Slate River Road
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A well known ride is the Alpine Loop - it's only suitable for 4x4's,
ATVs and trail bikes. It lies between Silverton, Ouray and Lake City
- the latter being about 50 miles from here. The weather turned bad
with violent thunderstorms when we went so we'll need to go back for another
visit.
The Alpine Loop - Starting
at Lake City, the southern loop crosses Cinnamon Pass, goes to Animas Forks
and then Back to lake City Via Engineer Pass
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Cinnamon Pass is over 12,000'
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Engineer Pass, going up, the
top and going down
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In the 1880's gold mining was very active in this area and a railway
was built from Pitkin to Buena Vista and included the first tunnel
through the Continental Divide. The tunnel collapsed long ago and
the railway is no longer in use but is open to off-road vehicles to see
the incredible terrain the tracks covered.
The Alpine Tunnel Road
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The 1890 railway went across
almost vertical rock faces
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The road from Ouray to Silverton is known as the Million Dollar Highway
- it goes over the 11,018' Red Mountain Pass and is a major highway suitable
for trucks and RV's. In many places it's just carved out of the rock
face and doesn't often bother with guard rails!
The Million Dollar Highway
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Ouray, at 7811', is nestled
in the mountains
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$M Highway
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Silverton, 9305'.
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While at Silverton, we took a side trip up Stony Pass - great views!
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Stony Pass, near Silverton
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To get to Ouray, we passed through Ridgway and stopped for lunch.
Turns out John Wayne's "True Grit" movie was shot here.
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True Grit Cafe, Ridgway
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Another week in Gunnison and then next stop Lake Tahoe ....
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