July 30, 2026
Today Allen and I headed up to Grand Mesa fishing. We went up the Surface Creek Road. It was surprisingly green up there and not too dusty. We saw a few deer and a couple fawns. We were surprised at how full the lakes were. In a dry year like this they are usually drawn way down for irrigation. We fished first at Neversweat. It was pretty mossy. We didn't get a bite. We then went and had lunch at Meadows Reservoir though we didn't fish there. Then we went over to the Cottonwoods and fished a bit. Allen caught one on a fly. I got one bite on a lure. It was only in the 60's and low 70's up there so a nice break from the endless heat. The best part was I didn't see a single mosquito. I'm not sure why as people have been complaining about them all summer. There were some flies but they weren't bad either. It was a great day! Iphone 15Pro
July 25, 2026
Today Sharon came up and we headed up to Ouray. We also went up the Dexter Creek Road and up the Gold Mountain Ranch road. The fire had burned most of that area. It was pretty sad. The fire had burned completely around a couple houses but at least the structures were saved. We then went up the backroads out of Ridgway. Owl Creek and Cow Creek were still closed. We were surprised how much green there was still in the fire area. There was still some smoke in spots but not much. We then went up to Elk Meadows. Sharon had never been up there. It was beautiful though dry. It was a fun day roaming around in areas that had been closed for quite some time. Nikon Z50 II
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.
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| 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.
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| 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
July 16, 2026
Today on a whim to get out of the heat and smoke we headed up to Last Dollar Road. It was quite busy up there but lots cooler than here - like 25 degrees cooler. We drive to the top and turned around as we didn’t want any part of the Telluride zoo and as little of that highway as possible. At the top we could see it was pouring rain to the south. We got sprinkled on a bit. It was a grand way to beat this relentless heat for a bit. Panasonic G97.
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| House in the movie True Grit |
July 8, 2026
Today we took off to Salida to escape the heat and smoke. We went over Cottonwood Pass on the way over there. It was beautiful, but lots of traffic as usual. There is nowhere in Colorado anymore where there is not lots of traffic. Anyway, we are staying at the Silver Ridge Motel. We stayed there on an anniversary trip a few years ago and enjoyed it. Two years ago when we were here we stayed at the Loyal Duke next door. Both are nice. We definitely made the right choice on coming over here. No smoke and 10-20 degrees cooler. We roamed around town this afternoon and made the usual thrift store stops. I got a couple shirts and Joann got one. Very reasonable and like new stuff. This evening we ate supper at Highway 50 Burger. We then went down to the Frantz Lake State Wildlife area. It was a beautiful evening and stunning sunset down there. Surprisingly, there were very few people and no mosquitoes. We hiked around one of the lakes and then headed back to the motel.
July 9, 2026
Today we had breakfast at the motel. It was a very good free breakfast...biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs, pancakes, waffles, and cereal if you wanted. Then we headed down to Royal Gorge. Joann had never been there and I hadn't been there since I was a kid. It had changed a lot. We took the gondola across the gorge and then walked around to the bridge and walked back to the main building. It was pretty hot. There really weren't that many people there - which surprised us. On the way back we took a detour through the mountains on dirt roads and went to Westcliffe and DeWeese Reservoir. It was blowing hard at the lake so we didn't get out. We saw a few pelicans and lots of geese. We then headed back to Salida and went to the Stone Bridge State area. It was very nice and shady. We walked by the river on the trails and even got sprinkled with rain a couple times. Again, nice and cool and no mosquitoes. An added plus - no people. Then we headed over to Hecla Junction in the Brown's Canyon National Monument. We hiked on a trail by the river a couple miles. We went to the end of the trail at Siedel's Suckhole Rapids. We only saw two people on that trail. It was later in the evening, and cloudy so it was not to hot and not too cool. We had supper at a place in Poncha Springs - turkey sandwich and fries...it was good! It was a wonderful day the Lord blessed us with!
July 10, 2026
Today we headed over toward Buena Vista and went up the road past Clearcreek Reservoir. Sadly, it was nearly dry. We then went on up the road toward Vicksburg. We saw a group of mountain sheep alongside the road climbing on the hillside. There were several little ones in the bunch. It was fun to watch them climb the rocks. We then headed on up toward Vicksburg, but had forgotten how rough that road is and how busy it is. We decided to turn around as we'd seen all that before. We then went on over to Twin Lakes. It also was very busy. So, we decided to head over Weston Pass. It was busy too, but the road is rough enough that people can't go too fast. Lots of people just driving and camping up there. We saw a cow moose and her calf. Others were going so fast they didn't even see them. If you look closely at the cow moose you can see a stick that is stuck in her neck on the left side. It didn't seem to be bothering her. Instead of going into Fairplay, we cutoff over to Hwy 285. What a zoo that road was back to Buena Vista. People in a major hurry and lots of them. It was not a fun drive on that road at all. We then went into town to get some pizza. We ended up at a pizza place down by the river. It had good ratings - but, the pizza was probably the worst we've had. We bought three pieces and ended up giving one of the pieces to a hippy guy sitting next to us listening to the live music. When I asked him if he wanted it, he said yes but asked that we remove the pepperoni. He was a vegetarian. I asked if he minded if we pulled it off with our fingers as we didn't have any forks. He happily said it was no problem as he was a hippy. haha Nikon Z50II, Iphone15 Pro and Panasonic G97
