Another "Cool" Weekend

If your brain is starting to melt in Grand Junction, the Colorado Front Range, Texas, Oklahoma or just about anywhere else, Gunnison, Colorado, is the COOL place be!  Not only are our tempteratures pleasant, we have a weekend of great activities for you to enjoy. 

Friday and Saturday heralds the First Annual Gunny Grass Bluegrass Festival.  The Festival is being held at the I-Bar Ranch, located just on the eastern edge of the City.  The venue offers on-site camping, ample crowd capacity, a stunning setting, and most improtant - "Hot" Colorado and National Bluebrass Bands - in this fantastic COOL setting.  If you're not into camping, Gunnison offers a wide variety of lodging availablity.  For more information about the festival, go to http://ibarranch.com/gunnygrass/ 

Farmers' Market

Saturday morning, after grabbing your favorite espresso or latte and a bagel at one of the locally-owned coffe shops, head on downtown for the Gunnison Farmers' Market.  There's fresh produce, delicious and wholesome baked goods, Western Slope Colorado wines, eclectic crafts, 5-minute massages, food, live music and congenial company. The Market happens every Summer Saturday starting at 9:30am at the corner of North Main Street and East Virginia Avenue.


Mountain biking with
the Wildflowers



Saturday afternoon experience why Gunnison is the  "BaseCamp of the Rocky Mountains"  If you want to be in the beautiful outdoors, Gunnison provides just about everything you can imagine in premier outdoor recreation opportunities, from the largest lake in Colorado (Blue Mesa Reservoir) to the granite cliffs-climbing routes of Taylor Canyon to the challenging and scenic singletracks of Hartman Rocks.  If cooling off is your primary objective, kayak or raft on the Gunnison or Taylor Rivers.  You can even drag a fishing line behind your craft.



Kayak the Gunnison



After a delicious dinner at one of Gunnison's fine restaurants, discover that Saturday night is the start of the Summer Astronomy Program Series at the Gunnison Valley Observatory, located south of Gunnison across from the Hartman Rocks Recreation Area.  Saturday, June 29th is "Family Night - Astronomy 101".  Dr. Suzanne Taylor of Western State Colorado University will talk about the constellations of the summer night sky.  The www.gunnisonobservatory.org for details. 

Gunnison Valley Observatory

Observatory opens at dark (you can't see the stars until then :-) No reservations are required and there is a small donation entry fee.  Go to

On Sunday mornng, after having a hearty breakfast at one of Gunnison's fine cafes or restaurants and then playing in the great Gunnison outdoors, finish up the weekend by kicking back, relaxing and listening to the "Sundays @ 6" outdoor live-music concert at Legion Park presented by the Gunnison Arts Center.  By the end of the weekend, you will be cooled off and relaxed! 

Base Camp to GOLD

Gunnison has been the Base Camp to the Rocky Mountains for hundreds of years.  And for over the past 130 years, Gunnison has been Base Camp to GOLD,  first, as the supply towns for the gold-seeking miners and rowdy gold mining camps of the Valley, now for the golden aspen seekers.
The large aspen groves in the mountains surrounding Gunnison, are starting to turn golden in the warm autumn sun.  Aspen trees - also known as quakies - shed their green leaf cholorphyll as the temperatures drop and the resulting golden diplay is awe-inspiring! 
Use the City of Gunnison as your Base Camp for your gold-seeking adventures.  Start the day off with a hearty breakfast at one of the local cafes or restaurants, fill up the gas tank or pump up your bike tires, put together a picnic lunch and then head for the hills. Remember to bring the camera.  Try out a couple of these routes that should satisfy your "lust for gold":



Golden Aspen on Kebler Pass

 Head north of Gunnison on Highway 135 and take a left on Ohio Creek Road.  You will pass by local historic working-ranches on your journey up the valley.  About 12 miles up the valley you will see "The Castles".  These eroded rock pinnacles are remnants of volcanic debtris from the long-extinct West Elk Volcano.  The Castles are surrounded by stands of golden aspen trees, making this a spectaular photographic opportunity.  Continue on the Ohio Creek Road, with spectacular views of the Anthracite Range, until it continues to the top of Ohio Pass.  You will see golden aspens at nearly every turn.  Over the top of Ohio Pass, near the top of Kebler Pass, turn right onto the Kebler Pass Road and head down into the Town of Crested Butte, with its quaint National Historic District.  Return to Gunnison south via Colorado Highway 135 while you view the golden aspens along the East River Valley into the Gunnison Valley at Almont.  Take your time and make it a day-long trip. 

The "Golden" Castles
photo copyright protected

Another spectacular day-long golden aspen trip is the West Elk By-way.  This is a day-long 204-mile route.  Start in Gunnison, head west on US Highway 50 to Highway 92 (Black Mesa Road) that crosses Blue Mesa Dam.  Drive over Black Mesa with it's stunning views of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the often-snow capped San Juan Mountains coated with golden aspens to the south.  Continue onto the quaint towns of Crawford to Hotchkiss where you will turn right onto Highway 133.  Drive through Hotchkiss and then Paonia (stop at some of the local fruit stands and wineries), and connect up with the Kebler Pass Road (Highway 133) near Paonia Reservoir.  On Kebler Pass, you will be back in the thick of the aspen forest groves.  You will pass by one of the largest known organisms on the entire planet, an inter-connected aspen grove near the top of Kebler Pass.  You'll want to pull off the road at nearly every turn to take spectacular phtographs.  Dropping over Kebler Pass, you will once again make it to the Town Crested Butte as described above.  There are several side trips out of Crested Butte where you can enjoy more golden aspen.  

Anthracite Range
photo copyright protected


A couple of other Golden Aspen Tours out of your Base Camp Gunnison include the Parlin to Pitkin to Cumberland Pass to historic mining town Tincup into Taylor Park.  The golden aspen trees and mountains reflected in Taylor Park Reservoir are not to be missed.  Keep your eyes peeled out for meandering moose on this trip.  A gold seeking trip south of Gunnison, is east on Hwy 50 to Highway 114 then onto good gravel roads through the old Los Pinos Ute Indian Agency and onto Los Pinos Pass.  The Pass was the original route by the early gold and silver-seeking miners into the rugged San Juan Mountains to the south.  You will travel onto the Cebolla Creek Valley and into Powderhorn.  You will return to Gunnison via Highway 149 and drive past Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest man-made body of water in Colorado.  Visit the Gunnison Chamber of Commerce, located in Legion Park in Gunnison or the US Forest Service Office on North Colorado Street in Gunnison to pick up more route information for each of these adventures.
Remember to get out of your vehicle or off your bike, walk off the road into the golden aspen groves and lie or sit down on the forest floor.  It is a truely memorable site to look up into the sky through the golden trees while the leaves float gently down around you - coating you with golden sunshine. 

Base Camp to History

The City of Gunnison is the Base Camp to the Rocky Mountains.  In the surrounding Rocky Mountains are not only a plethora of outdoor recreation opportunities and stunning scenic vistas, but a treasure trove of history just waiting to be discovered! 
Start your day in Base Camp Gunnison by fueling up on a hearty and delicious breakfast at one of the local restaurants.  Then grab a latte, mocha, espresso or a plain cup of "joe" at one of the locally-owned coffee shops and start your discovery in Gunnison with a walking or biking tour of the historic buildings.  Get a brochure of these eclectic and fascinating old buildings at www.cityofgunnison-co.gov/Community%20Development/programs/historic_walking_tour_brochure.pdf  

Downtown Gunnison in the 1880's


Now that you've wetted your appetite for the Valley's history, visit the Gunnison Pioneer Museum, located on East Tomichi (US Hwy 50) across from McDonalds, for an in-depth look at local history.  There's information on when Gunnison was the Base Camp for archaic hunter-gathers who stayed in the Valley thousands of years ago.  Archaeological evidence of their presence is found just south of the city up on W-Mountain.  Continue forward in history at the Museum and learn about when Gunnison was the Base Camp for Ute Indian hunting parties, and then for the hardy early ranchers.  Gunnison's Base Camp role really kicked into high gear when it served as the supply center for the mining camps located in the Elk Mountains to the north and then the San Juan Mountains to the south.  The railroads rushed to serve the growing towns. You can even ring the bell on one of the early narrow-gauge locomotives at the museum.
In later years, Gunnison was the Base Camp for the Valley's ranching community, for summertime fishermen who came to the "Land of the Rainbow" to pursue the wiley rainbow trout, for the construction workers on the Wayne Aspinall Unit dams located west of Gunnison on the river, and consistently since 1912, the Base Canp for the college students at Western State College of Colorado.
After your museum visit, purchase a picnic lunch, fill up the gas tank in town, and head into the hills to visit some of the historic mining towns, millsites and even the awe-inspiring Alpine Railroad Tunnel, www.narrowgauge.org/alpine-tunnel/html/index.html  located in the area.  Some sites are populated towns and some are  now "ghost towns".  A brochure showing historic circle tours of the area can be obtained at the Gunnison Chamber of Commerce located in Legion Park across the highway from the Pioneer Museum.  For more info go to www.gunnison-co.com/index.php?pid=historicsites  
Remember to respect private property, take lots of pictures and leave only light footprints at these historic sites. 
Enjoy your day seeing and learning about the history of the area and Gunnison's long-time role as historic Base Camp to the Rocky Mountains.