We woke up this morning to 40 degree temperatures, which we haven’t been used to on this trip. We took the scenic route out of Rocky Mountain National Park and our campsite at Moraine Park campground (highly recommended). We drove on Trailridge road, which is the highest continuously paved road in the entire nation at 12,180ft above sea level!
As we drove up the mountain, the valley ground got further and further away from us, and the roads became narrower…I was kind of freaking out, but I held it together for the adventure! We took another scenic route to get to Crested Butte, CO where we are staying with our high school friend, Alex. Cottonwood Pass gave us amazing views of the mountain, but again I was freaking out about how high up we were…I think I’m learning that I have a fear of heights.
We got to Crested Butte around 1:30PM, which was a cute little mountain town that brings many skiers from all over the world to its mountain and neighboring backcountry. We stopped for lunch at a local sandwich place, and brought our lunch to Totem Pole park where we enjoyed the sunny weather and flowing creek next to us. After lunch, Alex brought us off-roading to the peaks of some of the mountains that surrounded the town of Crested Butte. During this off-road drive we saw Emerald Lake, Paradise Basin, Washington Gulch, and looped around Baldy and Gothic mountains.
If I thought those first two roads this morning were crazy, they had nothing on this single lane dirt road that winded up the side of the mountains that went through a narrow stretch called “the squeeze.” You must have an AWD car with pretty high clearance to even attempt to drive these roads. At one point in “the squeeze” we had to back up about a 100 ft because a car had come down the narrow passageway once we had already entered.
The snow capped mountains and valleys of wildflowers were absolutely breathtaking. Alex brought us all the way to the “top of the world”, where we truly felt on top of the world.
We had dinner with old and new friends at Ryce, where they had great Asian cuisine! It was such an awesome opportunity to catch up with friends..what more could we ask for!?
For dessert, we stopped at a local donut shop next to the restaurant. We definitely did not regret our decision because they were absolutely delicious!
The next stretch of days will be totally committed to National Parks and camping, so we had to take advantage of our last night in a real bed! Tomorrow’s adventure will take us to Mesa Verde, Four Corners Monument, and Monument Valley, so stay posted for more!