June 18, 2014 - Snowing on Cumberland Pass

We left camp around 10:00 a.m. to go out to Taylor Reservoir to look around.  The area is very popular for folks that like to ride ATVs and side by side units.  Lots of dirt roads and all in all, very flat.   But................we were at 9,400 feet so we were in the mountains.  Huge plateau.

Sort of boring to us so after a couple of hours checking things out, we headed towards Tin Cup.  We actually didn't start taking pictures until we got over to Tin Cup. 

 

Cute little café.

 

Everything in Tin Cup is really old.

 

We came onto a sign pointing to the cemetery.  Apparently, they have a sense of humor.  We didn't find in grave markers in the "Jewish Knoll".  Or.....maybe they were just being mean.

 

This is the parking area at the cemetery and one has to walk a ways to get to the grave sites.

 

I didn't realize my silly grin would show so well.  The three crosses behind me and one other were the only grave sites in the Catholic Knoll.

 

This is one of several bridges and walkways to get to the grave sites.  Carrying caskets must be sort of challenging.

 

The Protestant Knoll has a lot of grave sites.

 

Long walk way to the sites and we never saw an alternative way to get there.  Several of them are recent so folks are still using this little cemetery.

 

After exploring the cemetery, we headed out for the Cumberland Pass.

 

Question of the day:  Why would someone build this in the middle of the bog or was it washed there by floods??!!

 

 

 

We were lucky that these mule deer hung around long enough for me to install our telephoto lens or they would have just been a little spot!

 

As we neared the pass, we saw more evidence of mining.  This was a good distance down the mountain from the road with the telephoto on.

 

That isn't fog in the distance, it's snow.

 

We weren't to the summit yet and were getting a little worried that the pass might be closed.

 

More snowing.

 

 

Yay!  We made it and it was open!

 

Going down now.

 

The snow flakes were huge and very pretty!  A winter wonderland in June!!

More remains of an old mine.

 

The telephoto lens is heavy so I removed it and installed the regular lens for this shot.  We saw several deer on this trip.

This was about the sixth one.  We saw others but weren't always able to get a picture.

This is at Pitkin were we ate dinner about 5:30.  We like to have froze to death.  Toni had on shorts and neither of us had a coat.  There were four other folks eating there and they all had coats on!!

 



 

From here, it is 28 miles back to Gunnison.  Pitkin is a cute little town with cabin rentals.

 

 

June 14 - Lake Irwin & Wine Tasting

We went on an 8 hour loop out of Crested Butte, over Kebler Pass and went up to Lake Irwin.

 

There is still ice out on this lake!

 

While on the loop, we noticed that a lot of the Lambs Ear plants were blooming.

 

 

Lots of coal mining going on!!

 

We came onto this little winery at Paonia so we stopped and did a little tasting!  We liked the wine so much that we purchased a couple of bottles!

 

 

 

 

This is a really cute winery with lot of food samples along with the wine.   

 

About 26 miles from Gunnison, we crossed the Blue Mesa dam, where they were generating electricity.

After about 8 hours in the Jeep, we finally arrived back at the motor home, sort of tired.