Final Stop - Maroon Bells

Our final stop was at one of the most photographed places in Colorado - Maroon Bells.  I was so excited to finally get here - but we were still ahead of the color.  

We got our tent set up and went to the lake to look around, the light wasn't right yet, so we headed into Aspen to look around.  Beautiful town - nice people too!  Headed back to camp to get everything ready to hike around the small lake, then get some sunset pictures of the reflecting Bells.

You can see the color is just beginning to change.

More fishing.

Still beautiful - even if the colors weren't really cooperating!

We walked on the short trail past the lake heading towards the mountain to get these shots.

Looking back at the lake.

These show more of the maroon color.

We got set up for some sunset shots - but alas, clouds were on the way so no beautiful colors...still the area is breathtaking.

We headed back to the tent planning on getting up to see if we could get some "star" shots early in the morning, then the sunrise.  I got up about midnight and when I got back to the tent Pepaw asked what the stars looked like.  I told him I couldn't see any stars (I didn't think anything about it at the time) About 4:00 in the morning we woke to POURING rain.  It slacked off just before the predicted sunrise so we thought we would head on over and see if the clouds would break - figured we would be some of the few photographers to go...WRONG!  We got to the parking area and it was PACKED!  Even with rain coming down the photographers were shoulder to shoulder all the way around the lake... We walked around a little and decided to call it.  The cloud cover was too thick and the rain didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.  We broke camp and headed home. Not too disappointed... Hope to come back sometime we aren't on a time limited schedule and can wait for the shots we want - even if we arrive a week before the leaves begin to change!

Grand Mesa

After the disappointment of being early for the color, then rain and not being able to get to the spots that we were planning on we got up at dark-thirty and were headed over to get some sunrise shots, but first we headed to McDonald's for breakfast.  While we were waiting for our food an older gentleman was ordering and said something funny that went right over the head of the poor young lady helping him...of course I got it and giggled.  He looked over at us and grinned really big.  We got our food and headed over to the table, about a minute later here comes this gentleman and asks if he can join us!  Well of course we said yes and he sat down, next thing we know his wife joined us as well!  We ended up spending a little over an hour chatting with them (of course this meant we didn't get any sunrise shots!)  They were a wonderful couple and we enjoyed the visit.

We went to where we had planned to take pictures that morning and once again couldn't get to the spot - we decided you really need a four-wheel drive to take pictures in Colorado!

Sooooo, we looked over our map and decided since we had missed the early shooting AND our preferred spot we would drive over to Grand Mesa and try there...it didn't look to far away and we had heard it was beautiful, so off we went. 

Here are the photos from that little trip.

On our way we stopped at this little pond, it was so pretty!

Couldn't believe there was SNOW!

And FINALLY some COLOR!

These leaves looked so pretty against the darker background.

Conifer with snow and brightly colored aspen make a great combination.

Views from Grand Mesa

The other side of the turnout.

As the sun began to dip to the horizon the mists began to rise below.

We headed toward home.  When we got to the highway our GPS was telling us to go back to Grand Junction and then head around to Gunnison, but we could tell by looking at the little map that it was closer to go the other way.  We couldn't figure out why it wanted us to go this long circuitous route.  Well - we obviously knew best so we turned left instead of right and ignored the GPS.  Well, we found out why pretty quickly.  The sun went down and it was pitch black...there were no other cars on the road very quickly and all of a sudden the picture on the GPS became this serpentine line with curves turning in on themselves like you wouldn't believe!  We would come to a curve and our headlights would be shining out over the tops of trees with nothing between us and the dropoff but a very small guardrail!  I watched the  GPS screen and would call out the turns to Pepaw while he watched the road. Curve right coming up, now curve left, WHOA...here comes a tight right! Can I say SCARY!  We were so glad to get to the intersection with the highway back to Gunnison at the bottom of the mountain!  

We were very glad we went to Grand Mesa, but we did decide that next time we would pay more attention to the GPS!

Colorado - Curecanti National Recreation Area

After a night's rest at the hotel, we got up bright and early to explore. Our map showed a site that didn't seem too far away so we took off .  We drove down the highway to the county road we were to turn on.  We are used to Texas county roads I guess, because we were expecting at least a blacktop road, but what we turned onto was a dirt path!  Wouldn't be too bad - a little rough for the Santa Fe, but doable if it hadn't been raining.  It was pretty much a mud pit.  We drove a bit and it just kept getting worse and worse.  We came to a place in the road where there was a big mud hole, we were debating if I should get out and see how deep it was when we heard a rumble.  Pepaw looked down the road and here came a HUGE (well it looked huge to me) road grader! Now we had no option BUT to turn around!  We were on a little dirt track road on the side of a mountain with a huge drop-off on my side and no where to go on the other side and Pepaw had to do a 3 point turn so we could get back to the highway...EEEEEK!  I kept saying under my breath, don't back up too far, don't back up too far...it was REALLY scary...but of course Pepaw is an amazing driver and made the turn-around look easy.  We headed back to Gunnison and stopped and the Curencanti National Recreation Area right along the highway to get a few shots.  At least the day wasn't a total loss! 

We just pulled off the highway into a small "observation turn out" parking lot close to the river that ran alongside the highway. First I noticed the trees were a little more yellow than they were the day before.

See how yellow they are near the river?

A look at the cliffs beyond the river.

Next we drove a little further and found a turn out where you could pull all the way down and launch a boat, so we walked around there for a bit.

These chained together logs caught my eye.

Of course I can't resist flowers in bloom!

Here is the road to the lake and boat launch area.

We climbed back into the car and drove closer to town where there was another pull out area where you could park and walk around a little so we stopped to see what we might see as we walked the paths.

A little yellow peeking through the trees.

Fishermen!

The River

The drive to the parking area, LOVED the wooden fence.

I climbed up on a little hill for a different perspective.

Just around the corner I saw this... The trees are beginning to turn!

As you may be able to tell, the sky was getting darker and darker, so we headed back to town hoping the rain would pass and we could get back out there later for more pictures.