Colotado Trip - Day 6 - Independence Pass

 

We left Crested Butte in the fog and rain and made our way back over the Kebler Pass Road to CO 133 and headed northeast.  We drove up along Bull Mountain, across the Gunnison National Forest, and took a detour to Marble.  We ran into a huge flock of sheep being driven down the road to Marble and had to slowly make our way through them while the drovers tried to move them down to their new grazing pasture.  We tried to drive up the 4 mile dirt road to the mine, but with the wet weather we decided that we should turn around about half way and not risk getting stuck.

There were huge chunks of marble everywhere and apparently there are many sculptors that live in the town as there was statuary on every corner.  All the way down the river we followed there were piles of marble, stark white blocks in contrast to the red and gray mountains.  We guessed that maybe some rail cars had derailed and dumped their loads there was so much in several places.


We stopped in Redstone for a bathroom break and to stretch our legs.  Chuck and Leigh had camped there before and hiked the trails before they had kids.  The general store had pieces of marble for a dollar, and everyone bought one except for me.

We drove past Mt. Sopris then up to Carbondale, where we turned east on CO 82 and drove to Basalt instead of heading north to Glenwood Springs again.  We basically completed half of our Colorado Figure 8 driving tour.  We had lunch in Basalt at the Two Rivers Café, directly next to the river, where I had a bowl of smoked trout chowder that was out of this world!

From Basalt we drove into Aspen, and stopped to walk around, see the city, and get a Starbucks. 

Just down the road was Independence Pass, which is above the treeline, so it was incredible!  From there we drove by Mt. Elbert and then turned north on CO 24 and passed through Leadville.  

Forest looking for the "Beaver Slide"

 

 

It was starting to get late in the afternoon, so we jumped on I-70 East.  We stopped for dinner in Silverthorne at El Jalisco Mexican restaurant, which was pretty good.

When we left the restaurant it was getting dark, and we still had a ways to go.  We kept our eyes peeled for deer, elk, or moose as we drove the last 2 hours on these dark back country roads, but fortunately didn't see any wildlife.  We turned east onto US 40 at Kremmling and headed for Granby, then turned north on US 34 to Grand Lake, where we stopped for the night.  It was a very long day in the car, but once again we saw amazing sights - not much wildlife, but grand mountains, beautiful valleys, raging rivers, and lots of interesting small towns.