Colorado Trip Post #2

We woke up in Gunnison and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the family operated hotel where we stayed, then packed up and took off. It was a cool brisk morning and it felt wonderful. Lake City is close to an hour south of Gunnison and our cabin would not be ready until later in the afternoon, so we had some time to explore between here and there. Options: several different gravel roads that lead off of highway 149 that we would otherwise be passing en route to Lake City. Since the road to Powderhorn had a caution sign in front of it and was freshly covered with magnesium chloride, we chose the Blue Mesa Cutoff road. 

We've been down this road before but not for a few years, well Alan has on his fishing outings, but not us. It's a very long gravel road that follows the river, with a few campsites off in the woods or next to the water. I believe the road is where an old Denver and Rio Grande Railroad used line used to be, so it swerves in and out of the canyon along the water. It is a beautiful drive. 

At the end of the sixteen mile road, there is a toilet and a trail head that leads north toward the southern end of the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The moment we let the boys out of the car they ran toward the closest rock and scaled it. It was a big one...

Complete with hooded happy dance.

Although it was still chilly, we decided to walk along the trail a little bit for fun and to stretch legs (okay, let's be serious, every decision is made according to how much kid-energy it will burn off).  

The sun had not yet come over the mountain so my photos are a little "off."

I stood in that sunny spot for a few minutes trying to warm up. All of my boys were fine, but I am a wuss.

Boys... born with the ability to make motor noises and throw rocks in water.

Posers.

My favorite view, even better in the mountains.

On our way back out of that area, I noticed this cabin on the top of the ridge.

 Video of the boys running around and one of our stops in Lake City (see below)...

After our scenic drive and hike, we continued on toward Lake City. As you get closer to Lake City, the scenery gets even better. The highway follows the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, swerving in and out of aspen and pine stands. Thankfully and surprisingly my usual motion sickness was not much of an issue, so I was free to enjoy it. The boys were excited and singing in the back seat knowing we were getting closer. 

Once we were in town we swung in to the Lake City Bakery and picked up a few treats for lunch and went over to the city park to eat and let the boys play on the playground there for a bit. I walked over to a new candy and fudge store that opened in April and Alan played with his panoramic abilities on the phone....

The panoramic is good for sharing via phones, but not so good on the computer screen, so I cropped out the part that shows the shops downtown... 

Me in front of the bustling downtown of Lake City, Colorado.

We stopped in to the office that manages our rental cabin and discovered that it wouldn't be ready for a few more hours so we went to the next phase of finding things to do. We ran a couple of errands and then went to the other town park...

Played at the river...

And on the bridge...

And then in an effort to escape the intense mountain sun, we moved closer to our cabin and Alan and Aaron played on the basketball court at the school for a while.

I remained in the car with the sleeping baby Adam. He was not scared to fall asleep in the car this trip. He stayed out for about thirty minutes with the doors open and the fresh, cool air blowing through. 

We finally made it to the cabin at about 3:30pm, with enough time to unpack and move in before supper. Alan was anxious to go fishing, so while we nested and got ready for bed, he went out for an evening adventure... 

The next morning we woke up slow and decided to go see the Hard Tack Mine. It is a new tour mine about three miles outside of Lake City on the Alpine loop (on the Engineer Pass side).  

It recently opened after the owner purchased the old mine and spent four years bringing it to "tour" code and making improvements. 

The view from in front of the mine.

They were grumpy because we would not let them climb on the above archaic and rusted out mine cart.

We went through the main entrance doors into what seemed like a cave. Off to the side there was a huge room, carved (blown) out of the middle of the mountain, which served as the gift shop and check-in for the tour. Once we selected our hard hats, we were ready. The tour consisted of the four of us and three others, a cozy group. 

The mine is basically a five-hundred foot long rock hallway, complete with periodic displays. There were no lights in between displays, so it was a bit spooky. As you will notice from the attire, it was also quite chilly in there... about forty-five degrees, and damp. 

The tour guide was an old gentleman who came up from Texas with his wife for the summer and operated the mine. What he lacked in excitement he made up for in general mining knowledge.

I think Adam was just confused and a little worried about what was going on.

The "honey wagon." A mine car with a pooper box. Aaron had no problem hopping up there for a picture.

Since it was almost dark, photos were difficult. Oh, and in case you are curious, Adam is not outfitted with the proper personal-protective-equipment and we were aware of this. It was not because his head is harder than most (which it is), but rather that he somewhat refused to wear the hard hat. The tour guide told us we could carry it. Perhaps he knew he would look cooler than Aaron in the photos, although the hard hat adds a nice touch...

Dynamite!

A local man's collection of fluorescent minerals. Pretty neat. Here's more on that.

I am reluctant to even post this next photo. It was one of the last displays in the mine (just before the one that demonstrates that breathing mine dust is not exactly good for you) and I think they were perhaps running low on realistic looking mannequin heads, or maybe they wanted to emphasize the negative effects of working in a mine for an extended period of time. Either way, the dude on the right is the stuff of nightmares. Look close. Thankfully neither one of our innocent children seemed to care, especially the one who willingly volunteered to take his picture with it. 

Another one of the owner's additions was a gallery room toward the end of the tour to display an impressive collection of gems and minerals.

He was climbing the walls, literally.

After the mine tour, we continued down the Alpine Loop road for a little ways in hopes to find a place we could pull off and let the boys run around and Alan could fish. 

This is the dam once associated with the Ute-Ulay mine, which is currently undergoing a major restoration project.

We found a spot to pull off and explore...

Caught in a happy dance.

Alan's first move-fish. Aaron and Adam's first move-pick up rocks and throw them in the water. Conflict of interests.

Then Alan pulled out his Father's Day gift from us... a gold pan. Now I'm fairly certain he had no intention of finding gold, he just wanted to play. We are a little (in number, not in size) nerd family and are not scared to do things like pan for shiny stuff in freezing cold mountain creeks. Well, he isn't and I'll take his picture....

With rumbling bellies we made our way back to the cabin for lunch. We passed a brand new sign on our way in to town, off the Alpine Loop... appealing to the recent influx of the four-wheeling kind. 

Speaking of... All week long we saw this Jeep parked outside Lake City Sweets, the new candy and fudge store I tried the prior day. I believe it caused a small case of Jeep-envy with my husband. It is sort of similar to our Jeep that was at home in the garage, but on steroids. It was a manly Jeep. So much so, there's no room for offspring.

After some food and a brief rest at the cabin...

We walked around and landed at the Lake City Community School again, because the playground was inviting and it was only a couple of blocks from our cabin. It's worth noting that this school has all grades in a little two building complex. Their nearest sports "competitor" is wither Gunnison or Creede, both about an hour a way.

This turned out to be their favorite playground.

Even better than the last playground scenery. I could have sat there and watched/daydreamed for hours. Everything is better in the mountains. It really is.