the States: colorado: mt crested butte

My flight from Chicago to Colorado Springs was delayed by nearly two hours, argh. At least I had just one flight, I didn't have to worry about a connection. The airport in Colorado Springs is fairly small, it didn't take long for me to get through. Thankfully they have free wifi, (I'm not sure what I would've done without it,) so it was easy to order an uber to take me to the place to pick up my rental car. (Yes, I could've rented from the airport, but the fees are higher, which I find ridiculous - especially since they get sll the cars from the same places, give or take.)

Picking up the rental car in the city was annoying, since the guy insisted I give two American phone numbers, even though I was using an American credit card and Indiana drivers license. He insisted, something about the possibility of needing to reach me, even though that would never happen. I had to give my home phone number (which is rarely, if ever, actually answered by a human being,) and the phone number of my first host in Colorado. Argh. I should've made up random phone numbers.

When my friends Matt and Anita (friends from when we all lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen; those friendships last a lifetime no matter where we are) moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, they posted pictures of their hiking routes, (and surrounding natural beauty everywhere they looked,) I immediately knew I wanted to visit. When I found out they were moving to New Zealand in the middle of this US summer, I knew my chances to visit would be limited. The chance to see them in Crested Butte was one of the reasons I came back to the States this summer.

The drive from Colorado Springs to Crested Butte was beautiful. There were valleys and mountains and curving roads and ranches and more. There were quite a few places I was tempted to pull over the car and take photos, but that would've made the drive last even longer than the four hours it was supposed to take.

The weather wasn't great, and several times I could tell the clouds were blocking even more stunning views.The best part of the weather not being so great was the giant rainbow that came out just a few minutes before I got to Crested Butte.

I could see it in my rearview mirror, it took up the whole mirror at one point. I did pull over and take a photo of that, but I"m pretty sure the photo doesn't didn't do it justice.

Anita and Matt actually lived in Mt Crested Butte, which is the ski resort area just above Crested Butte. Basically this means they had ski lifts in their backyard.

I arrived around 1900, they helped me move the car to the free parking lot, and bring my stuff up to their flat. I got to meet their dog Oli, who has all kinds of energy and loves to play. Except for taking Oli for a walk, we stayed inside the rest of the evening.

I was actually cold, which was quite a change from the last week and some in the Midwest. I'd completely forgotten that Mt Crested Butte sits at 9000 some feet, so it's always a bit colder. In my head I always equate summer with heat, which was definitely not the case.

It was really nice to sit around and have a catch up with people I've known for years. I hadn't seen Matt since I lived in Garmisch, and I hadn't seen Anita since the summer of 2014 I think. Heaps has happened to all of us since then. Dinner was homemade by Anita, a slow cooked meal. YUM.

I slept on the pull out couch, and slept well. Oli woke me up around 0600 by making sure I was still alive (she gets really close to your face, which is a bit creepy unless you've been warned ahead of time,) before going for her morning walk. I officially woke up around 0800, I think.

Breakfast was a smoothie, yum. Then all three of us got hiking stuff ready, and were out the door a wee bit later than intended, but oh well. They'd given me options for hiking trails, but since I didn't know anything about the trails, I said I just wanted pretty views. They chose a trail called Painter Boy, which ended up being amazing.

I basically took pictures every thirty seconds or so, at least that's how it felt. Every time I turned my head I thought 'oh wow' to myself. If you live surrounded by this beauty all the time do you ever take it for granted? I hope not. We walked through aspen groves, through fields, and more. I got to see mountains in the distance, wildflowers, the 'eyes' on aspen trunks, and more. Matt and Anita seemed to know the names of everything.

If the trail had been more than double the length I would've been a happy camper. Oli seems to like being in photos, so more than a few times I got out the camera she would sit and pose, it was quite funny.

During the hike sometimes the three of us chatted, and sometimes we stayed quiet. I really enjoyed not hearing the sounds of modern human life. That is, I loved hearing birds and the wind, not cars and music. It was a great few hours.

We got back to the flat in time to decide we were hungry.

When they asked me what kind of food I wanted I said I'd be happy with anything, but if I had to choose, it would be Indian/Asian. (Yes, I know, Asian food is not just one type.) They were happy with this, as they knew of an Indian/Thai place that their other friends probably wouldn't want to visit. (I like spicy food, many people don't.)

The food was good, and plenty hot, but not in the way I think of Indian hot. It was hot, but not the kind that sticks with you and has you breathing fire hours later.

From there we walked the main street of Crested Butte. It is not a big town, and the downtown area basically consists of one street. The other streets are nearly all residential, there isn't much to the town. There are shops selling everything from outdoor gear to Turkish rugs. Why would anyone come to Crested Butte to buy a Turkish rug?

I gave in to temptation and ended up buying ice cream. Basil black raspberry or something along those lines. Not bad. Matt almost bought mini donuts, but didn't want to wait in the queue. We also stopped at the grocery store, where I might have gone a little overboard by buying chewy chips ahoy cookies, tortilla chips and hummus, yogurt, and ice cream.

Instead of going home, we drove out the other side of Mt Crested Butte, following the road to another valley area. Another set of 'oh my goodness, WOW' moments. The clouds were what Anita called "moody," and were rolling through really fast. I could see the colours of the layers of the mountains, the green of the trees and grass, the colours of all the wildflowers, etc... If there had been a trailhead there, I would've been gone for days.

Unfortunately, the moody clouds brought rain all too fast, so we hopped back in the car and drove home.

The rest of the evening was spent continuing to chat about anything and everything. It's nice to have relationships that grow up: that is, we met when there was a lot of partying and not much responsibility; now we're 'adults' and are aware of a whole lot more. Of course there was reminiscing about events in Garmisch, and we were all thankful social media did not exist back then. What happens in GaP stays in GaP.

The next morning we had smoothies again, then hopped in the car. Anita and Matt were paying attention to the weather, and knew we'd probably only have hiking weather in the morning, so we had to get going.

I have no idea how long the drive was, but it was gorgeous. They pulled into a National Park (or is it a forest? I don't know.) and found the parking lot. This trail was called Three Lakes, for obvious reasons.

The first lake was called Lost Lake. It definitely wasn't lost, nor were we. Maybe the person who named it was lost? I have no idea.

It had clear water, and since there was no wind at the moment I was able to take a couple photos with great reflections of the mountains behind the lake. Oli really wanted to go in the water, but settled for posing for a photo with us instead.

To continue on the trail we had to cross a bunch of logs, I was a bit worried about falling. I'm not known for my great levels of balance. I survived! The next nifty spot was a waterfall. There wasn't a lot of water, but when we looked up we could see that it actually started pretty high up. Beautiful. If we'd been sure the weather would hold out for longer we probably would've climbed up the waterfall a bit higher. 

From there we crossed on a sort of plateau-weg, basically a flat trail section across one part of a mountain. The views of the last lake we'd see were amazing from here. If this area of Colorado isn't heaven, it's pretty close.

The second lake on the trail was called Dollar Lake. It wasn't big, but was still pretty. The fish were hopping, and Matt wished he'd remembered his fishing pole. I was okay with not standing around for too long, because there were heaps of mozzies too.

The last lake was apparently not an actual lake. At least, that's how I understood it. It was Lost Lake Slough, which means it is the drainage for Lost Lake. Except that the way I saw it, it was a completely separate body of water. Just as gorgous as everything else I'd seen on this trail, of course. More moody clouds made for some pretty photos.

The trail ended all too soon, but the weather was visibly coming in so we hopped in the car and drove home. I'm sooo jealous Matt and Anita have been surrounded by so much beauty. 

Again, after hiking we were hungry. Instead of going down the mountain to the town of Crested Butte we simply walked out the door and around the corner to a burger place. They were huge, I was proud of myself for cleaning my plate.

Even though we had food for dinner, none of us was hungry at any point during the evening. Well, not for a meal anywho. I ate more than half the bag of chewy chips ahoy cookies, hee hee.

The next morning it was time for me to go. I was sad to say goodbye, but I know I'll see them again, hopefully next time in New Zealand!!

I wouldn't mind returning to the Crested Butte area of Colorado, not at all.