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Crested Butte

During our stay in Moab, we mustered the troops for a visit to Canyonlands National Park. I had always heard great things about it, and so we made the short drive to go take a look. I can’t tell you what a great decision that was. Truly amazing. I’ll let Alison tell you THE REST.

I should mention that while we were in Moab we were joined by another longtime Seattle friend, Jermaine. These days, she lives in Turkey where she is pursing her doctorate, so a visit with her – no matter how brief – was a real gift.

So with Jermaine in tow, we woke up one morning, said our goodbyes to the Peterson’s and headed back across the border to Colorado to meet up with Alison’s parents. But we weren’t just returning to Colorado. In route, we figured out that due to circumstances outside our control, we were going to be headed back to Crested Butte. This news was met with joyful ‘whoops’ by every Chino, because you see, Crested Butte is our very favorite. I anticipate that Alison will do more of the sharing here as well, but I leave you with just a couple photos.

This is taken from the Oh-Be-Joyful Campground and over the years I have had the pleasure of staring up this valley repeatedly. Coming to Crested Butte in many ways feels like coming home. We camp. We hike. We bike. We visit town. We go to Camp 4 Coffee. We go to The Alpineer. We go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (yes, another one). We go to Teocalli Tamale. We go to the park. We ride the “bus that costs no money.” It always very familiar, very good, and we never get tired of going back – again and again.Who knows? Maybe sometime we could show you around.

 

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odds and ends

I’m hoping that this will be the last time I bring up Colorado this month, but there were a few notable pictures that I left out.

These are the world-famous Maroon Bells.  Their beauty, symmetry, and accessibility are reasons for these being among the most photographed mountains in Colorado.  More specifically, they are North (the one in front) and South (the one in back) Maroon.  They are both fourteeners, and yes…  I’ve climbed them.  In fact, when you do the traverse from one peak to the next, it is called “Ringing the Bells.”

This is the Crested Butte-famous Camp 4 Coffee.  I haven’t tried all the coffee spots in town, but I would be surprised if any were better than this.  Whenever we stay in the Butte, a trip here is mandatory.  Usually, several.

This should-be-famous puzzle provided a distraction and respite when the Chino kids had gotten their fill of outside for the day.  The pieces were annoyingly uniform.  As often happens with puzzle-making in our family, there comes a time when most everyone loses interest, save one.  And that One labors long into the night becoming increasingly frustrated as each hour passes.  Eventually though, I… I mean, the One utters, “It is finished!”

Posing with the moose are the someday-famous Ben and Simon.

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biking the butte

Alison pretty much covered our time at Crested Butte, but I’ve got a few pics on the phone that she didn’t necessarily have.  So…  here’s my contribution to remembering it.  Since I was a small child, a bike has been synonymous with freedom.  Loved seeing my kids experience that same joy.

Notice the snow on some of the mountains.  Just looking at it can cool me off a bit.