July 23, 2026

We were going to go camping later this week again, but there have been storms each afternoon.  Praise the Lord!  They have pretty much knocked down the forest fires that were all around us.  We've received a half inch of rain this week.  We have also gotten a bit of break from the nonstop heat.  But, it's supposedly headed back beginning tomorrow.  Bummer.  Joann's sciatica is doing much better and she can ride more now.  So, we headed up to Crested Butte.  It had been quite some time since we'd been there.  We stopped in Gunnison at Gene Taylors.  It was partly cloudy and not hot at all in Crested Butte.  We walked the whole Elk Avenue and went in a couple shops.  There sure are a lot of strange people up there.  After leaving the zoo of town we turned off at South Crested Butte and headed up Cement Creek.  It was really crowded up there too.  We only went to the campground and turned around.  We then took the Jack's Cabin Cutoff over to the Taylor River and headed up Spring Creek.  Again - lots of people.  It was surprisingly dusty up there.  In fact it was so powdery it was obvious it hadn't rained up there at all in these recent storms.  After going over the pass an hitting the Taylor Park road we were following a downpour.  It was so cool and smelled so fresh and not dusty...it was fantastic...especially since the road was crawling with motorcycles, atv's and side by sides.  There were hundreds of RV's all over the place.  What a place to camp - no peace at all - constant drone of motors.  That's not my idea at all of basking in the quiet of nature.  We stopped at the cafe at Taylor Park hoping to get another great hamburger and bacon cheese curds like last time.  It has new owners now and nothing was the same.  Very blah and yet expensive.  We won't stop there again.  It was a fun day - way too many people, but that's the new normal in Colorado unfortunately.

The Collegiate Range

 July 20, 2026

Today we went camping on the Uncompahgre....kind of.  It was a beautiful day as we set up camp on the Payne Mesa Road.  We camped in the same spot we'd camped at in 2017 when our air mattress went flat soon after going to bed.  We couldn't sleep so sat up by the campfire.  But, that didn't work due to mosquitoes so we got in the truck and finished the night.  After supper and setting up on this trip we headed up the road to Columbine and then wandered down into Tabeguache.  We saw a couple deer.  It was raining and lots of lightning over by Naturita.  On the way back to camp we noticed the sky getting dark.  Lately it's been unusual as the storms have been coming from the east and not the usual southwest.  As we got to camp the wind was blowing and it was raining lightly.  We went to bed and couldn't sleep at all due to the wind and now lightning.  With large aspen trees looming over head there were thoughts that this wasn't safe.  It seemed it was going to last all night.  So, instead of sitting in the 4Runner all night, we just headed home.  On the way the lightning behind us was nonstop over where our camp was.  We were sure we'd hear of new forest fires the next morning.  We got to bed at home around 11:30.  The next morning we headed back up - hoping we'd have a camp left...not stolen or destroyed by the storm.  Surprisingly, it was all in tact and it appeared it had only rained lightly.  And, a couple new fires were started by the storm, but were quickly extinguished.  It was quite the adventure and we were thankful the Lord had protected us before we got out of there.

Abajo Mtns in the background.  The Babylon Fire burned over 100,000 acres there.

 July 19, 2026

After church today and lunch at Mickey D’s we decided to skip the heat again. We went up on the Uncompahgre and headed down Payne Mesa. On the divide it was quite busy and dusty. The dust was a surprise as the last few afternoons it’s been looking very stormy up there. Down Payne we met one SxS. It was quiet and peaceful. We sat for an hour or so under a big ponderosa pine tha was probably 350 years old or more. We didn’t want to come down, but decided that we are going back tomorrow for an overnight camping trip. It’s supposed to be in the upper nineties the next few days and we are OVER this heat. Yesterday was the first day we’ve seen the San Juans clearly since the Gold Mountain Fire started. Also last night was the first it’s not been choking smoke. We even put cellophane wrap ever our master bath vent as the smoke has been filling the bathroom every night. Praise the Lord. It seems the rain up there is taming that fire. Panasonic G97