Smelling the coffee – Part 2

Labor day looong weekend – day 2-3: Crested Butte

After a night of restless sleep in a tent glowing with moonlight, we woke up to a beautiful morning in the Sand Dunes. We did a short hike to the dunes overlook and sat on a log bench taking in the morning for a while. It was lovely. 

Then it was back to the car for the three-hour drive to Crested Butte.

When we arrived at the Crested Butte Hostel it started raining, which was perfect for a nap! Friday was turning into a wonderfully lazy day. Post-nap, we showered and walked to town for dinner. We stopped in at The Dogwood while mulling over the dinner options and had some fabulous cocktails, including the Bee Sting (tequila + habanero + honey + mint + lemon). We took our cocktail-refreshed selves next door to the Sherpa Café for dinner. We shared some momos and other Nepalese and Indian dishes and enjoyed the people watching in this very small restaurant that was full of authenticity and character.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast at the Bacchanale, then headed out on Kebler Pass Road to start our hike to Swampy Pass. The hike was beautiful. The path was lined with mushrooms in spots through large clumps of  Aspen trees. Every so often the trail would spit us out onto these big, gorgeous meadows and then dive back into the Aspens. I highly recommend it. Here are some photos:

The green Aspen leaves were turning golden on some trees but I thought this leaf in transition was pretty interesting:

The hike went through the West Elk Wilderness and there is open grazing for cattle there. We didn’t see any cows, but, well, we did see some cow remains:

Also, someone placed this deer skull portion in a small tree beside the trail:

Although we apparently missed a bear (a strange guy at the trailhead told us it was behind us for a while), we did see a wee snake:

The views in general were amazing:

With our many stops to snack and just enjoy the surroundings, the hike took up the better part of the day. So, once back to the car we headed out for our next destination – Salida!