Colorado Adventures - Grand Mesa and Paradise Basin (Near Crested Butte)

[DVD]

My wife and I work from home and took advantage of that arrangement to escape the summer heat in Arizona and rent an AirBnB in Montrose, CO, for a part of the summer. Then we followed that with a week of camping and adventure in the Rockies.

For the camping, we - or rather I - usually like to do backcountry routes, camping along the way at different spots. For this trip, we took Laurie's favored approach and had a couple base camps, staying in one place for 2-3 days and returning to a nice camp after the adventures/explorations of the day.

For the first part, we met up with an "overland" friend, Ace, with whom we camped in Baja a few years ago. He lives near Montrose, at the foot of the Grand Mesa - a 10,000- 11,000-ft flat mountain with beautiful alpine lakes and topography, lots of dispersed camping, and great mountain biking. Ace asked if it was OK if a friend joined, and we readily agreed. Anybody who enjoys camping and hiking and biking and hanging out with Ace must be OK. It was good to meet Richard, and we really enjoyed his company. Ace and Richard have a few years on Laurie and me, but they are both seasoned backcountry enthusiasts, and they were involved in the infancy of the mountain bike scene. Ace got us a nice campsite, and they indulged us by taking us on easy bike trails suited to our beginner status.

Ace found a great campsite!


Beautiful sunset looking down the trail by our campsite


Biking on the Grand Mesa!


Richard took us on a trail that went past an abandoned cowboy house - super cool!


Rustic construction detail on the cowboy cabin


Interior of the cabin with brand marks - imagine the cowboys hanging around the fire in the evening and testing the branding irons



The upstairs is a single big room with an intact (but out of tune) piano! Richard said that according to local lore, the cowboys would hold weekend dances here.


Nice view from the upstairs


Another day, another bike ride - this time with Ace


Not bad for MTB newbies
​

To be continued - on to Crested Butte​

​

 

[Ace Brown]

Good to see you and Laurie again after five years. Last time in Baja of course. Your report is welcome and accurate. But i would like to give a plug to my little mountain town of Cedaredge.

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[DVD]

Love the campfire photo. Thanks Ace! I'm getting nostalgic and it's only been a few weeks. It was great to renew and make new friendships around the fire and out on the trail.

 

[DVD]

Continuing with the Colorado adventure...

After a few days on the Grand Mesa, we said our farewells to Ace and Richard and took off for the Paradise Basin area, in the Elk Mountains just west of Crested Butte. We usually try to stay in a hotel (hot showers, dinner out) after a few nights camping, so we stayed at a lodge in Crested Butte and then headed out to find a nice base camp for the remainder of the trip. That night in the lodge, we checked the extended forecast: near 100% chance of rain every afternoon/evening for the next 4 days. We considered driving elsewhere to find good weather, but the forecast was the same for probably a 100-mile radius. Also, we had to return to Montrose to pick up our stuff before returning to Arizona, so we couldn't roam too far in search of good weather. We stuck to our plan, got some extra books to read on rainy days, and hoped for the best. Weather forecasting must be challenging in the mountains, or we just got lucky, because the rain was barely an issue, and we enjoyed mostly beautiful weather.

Charming downtown Crested Butte-but it's still a resort town: $9 for a loaf of bread!​

As we headed into the mountains, I was initially concerned about finding dispersed camping because all the sites were taken, but after a few miles, the trail got a bit rougher (4WD-only sign), and after that, we found a great site for a basecamp, where we stayed for 3 nights. The bikes allowed us to explore the extended area around camp. I have to admit, the basecamp concept has merit.

Camp is set; it's a good place


Playing cards in the tent while a monsoon blew through


In the morning, we'd bring our chairs down to our "morning terrace" in the sun.


Ahh, this is why we do this!


Bear-aware camping - hanging up the trash bag every night


We took a little bike ride to check out the Slate River, near our camp


Another view of the Slate river, near our camp​

Continued. I'm pacing these to conform to the 10-image restriction. Schofield Pass / Devil's Punchbowl trail next.

 

[DVD]

Continuing with the Colorado adventure...
The horse that brought us there - and back. This was our first adventure trip in our new to us (5+ yrs old) Land Rover Discovery. It was the platform for the trip - from finding beautiful, secluded spots for camping and hiking, to providing shelter with secure and safe camping (sleeping in the vehicle), to inducing adrenaline when traversing challenging offroad trails.

We previously had a Land Rover LR3 for 10+ years and had taken it on a lot of offroad adventures. So I was eager to test the Discovery 5 on a tough trail to see how it compared. Laurie isn't too enthused about tough trails where you can walk faster than drive, but she indulged me and we ran the Schofield Pass / Devil's Punchbowl trail.

The warning is legit - at the Start of Devil's Punchbowl trail


Beautiful scenery as the trail follows the river


Although it is a narrow shelf trail, traffic goes both ways, so a big concern is what to do if you meet oncoming traffic


Payoff for doing this trail - at the Devil's Punchbowl waterfall, approx. halfway through the difficult trail​

The shelf road continued, with a cliff wall on one side and steep drop-off on the other. I watched many videos with lots of "spotter required" sections, but due to the concern about oncoming traffic, Laurie walked ahead a few hundred yards, staying at least one corner ahead and keeping an eye out for oncoming vehicles but leaving me spotterless. I'm not sure how much benefit I would have gotten from a spotter anyhow, because there is only a foot or 2 on either side to maneuver, so I pretty much had to "take it on the chin." The vehicle really impressed me: traction galore, good clearance (in rock-crawl mode). I put the rock sliders to the test a couple times, and I'm glad to say that they are sturdy and did their job.

A little over halfway through the narrow part, Laurie hailed me from the portable HAM she was carrying to alert to an oncoming vehicle. Everything turned out fine, but the incident added to the adventure. We all got out to assess the situation, and walked up and down to find the widest part of the trail. We found a corner that I paced to 14+ feet width and determined that would be our best bet.

Uh-oh, oncoming vehicle. We decided to try to make a pass at the bend where the downhill vehicle is parked. I am parked uphill and we both walked a quarter mile or so to asses the situation. (I had to hold onto the sliders when getting out of the vehicle to avoid slipping down the embankment).


Making the pass


We had a foot to spare 🙂. After this, I spotted him to reverse from the edge, so he could proceed.


And we're on our merry way.


Toward the end of the trail, we arrived at the beautiful Crystal Mill and then proceeded to the little town of Marble for some good Barbecue!​

...continued​

 

[DVD]

It goes without saying, but we camp in these areas rather than a KOA to see the the natural beauty and experience wilderness. The trip afforded plenty of both, with many short trips and hikes to see waterfalls and the beauty of the area.

Emerald Lake - a mile or 2 from our campsite.


The appropriately named Oh-Be-Joyful creek with scads of waterfalls. As we were retuning to the trailhead, we overheard somebody saying: "Let's keep going, maybe there will be more waterfalls." I replied, "There are hundreds!"



Glacier-fed waterfall at Daisy Pass, from a distance


Glacier-fed waterfall at Daisy Pass, up close


It wasn't prime time for wildflowers, but they were still abundant


Wildflowers covering the entire mountainside
​

If you spend a week in the Rockies, you are bound to see some wildlife.

Moose near Crested Butte


Marmot near our campsite; we called this area marmot valley - so cute!


Small wildlife


Deer checking out our vehicle in Ouray - probably not too wild​

Then it was back to Montrose to pick up our stuff in storage and head back to Arizona. Another great summer get-away in the books!

 

[XJLI]

Just came from the LR section, nice trip! Enjoy the D5.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ace Brown]

Good report.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Howski]

Great trip report. Love to see a Disco 5 getting put to good use

 

[DieselRanger]

Best part of Colorado, in my opinion. Great trip report! We hiked from above Devil's Punchbowl down to Crystal Mill a couple falls ago - wasn't sure our D5 could squeeze through a couple spots, and there was a TON of vehicle and moto traffic, with drivers who were less than patient with each other. Glad you had a sparsely populated day, and good to see the D5 handled that trail with ease.

 

[the deputy]

Great report!