This beautiful drive in the mountains of western Colorado is the circle in the middle of the map involving a drive going west on the north side of the canyon of the Gunnison River, and circling clockwise north to Crawford, Paonia and Somerset, and continuing on to the east toward Crested Butte, and then heading south to Gunnison and back west to Montrose. Not important to know the exact route, only that it is a circle drive around a wilderness area.
I lost count, but I think we went over 7 passes, on paved and unpaved road. The sky was pure blue, not a cloud, and the fall colors at the higher elevations are showing.
Going through Somerset was especially good because this is where my father grew up, in this small coal mining town. He finished his first eight grades there but then went to Delta High School down in the valley to the west where he boarded. My grandfather was a coal miner in Somerset, and quickly became the mine superintendent. We drove up the hill past the now closed mine to the Somerset Cemetery where we could look down on the town.
We continued our drive, and I will post a few photos taken along the way.
We had intended to drive to Crested Butte, but about 6 miles before we got there, we were stopped by a nice young man, a flagger for a road construction crew, and were told that there was a serious road condition ahead involving a marsh area near the road. They were closing the road for two hours at a time, then opening it for 15 minutes to let traffic pass, then closing it again. We were told of another road, also unpaved, that we could take, also beautiful, if we didn't want to wait the 1 ½ hour for an open period. So we elected to take the alternate route, and it, too, was lovely. We just didn't get to Crested Butte.
A totally fantastic day!
