This fall’s colors took awhile to get going, likely due to the late-summer moisture and warm days and nights experienced in the high country. Having just gotten home from our two-week travel trailer trip that started with the Telluride Blues’n’Brews Festival, I immediately headed to Crested Butte to see how things were progressing, since nothing was happening around Telluride a few days prior. I camped with a herd of cows (literally) at the Washington Gulch dispersed camping area, which is now fully regulated with defined campsites. The cows made the experience less pleasant than it should have been, and being able to truly ‘dispersed’ camp would have allowed me to get away from them. Domesticated (along with wild) animals also seem to frequent areas where humans hang out, and every morning they’d come through and lick the firepit grills clean. Among other even less-sundry things.
My second destination was the Sneffels Range near Ridgway, and I finally got to drive both Dallas Creek and West Dallas Creek roads. The area is every bit as spectacular as I’d hoped and imagined, and I can’t wait to return. The leaves were just getting going, with certain areas on fire, while other large swaths of aspen were still decidedly green. I camped near the Blue Lakes Trailhead, and although somewhat cloudy at night, I did get a break where I was able to catch some stunning airglow over Mt. Sneffels.
The next morning I headed out early to drive West Dallas Creek, and arrived at the terminus of the road, a large meadow called Box Factory Park, where two hunters were huddled around a fire ring. Had I arrived a mere one day before, there would have been a dozen or so campers, as bow season had ended at midnight. Lucky me!
