Sept 8, 2023
Written By: J.Couch
We were up fairly early, got all our stuff packed up and headed out to find some coffee. We couldn’t find anything right in town that was easy to get to with the trailer in tow, so we just pushed onto Ridgeway to stop there. We stopped at a small coffee shop called Cimarron Coffee & Books and fueled up with coffee. From there we headed north to Montrose, a quick stop for gas, then headed east towards Gunnison. There was road construction along highway 50, so we were expecting an hour or two in traffic delays. We got to the traffic that was stopped and only had to wait for about 15 to 20 minutes before we started moving again. Pleasantly surprised, that put us way ahead of schedule. This area reminds me of the eastern Oregon or Washington area. Very dry and the high butte mountains with a big manmade lake.
We drove along the Blue Mesa reservoir to the turn off south towards Lake City, CO149. This is known as The Silver Thread byway and takes you south through Lake City and Creede. We headed south and through some very pretty areas of high desert rolling hills and valleys. As you get closer to Lake City you drive along the Lake Fork Gunnison River and into some high rock wall canyons.
We pulled into Lake City which is a lot smaller than I had imagined. It’s a little town tucked down in a valley with the river running to the east of it. There are a few shops along the main street which almost takes you back to the wild west days. There are wooden boardwalks along some of them. This area was another big gold and silver area back in the day and at times had ten times the population as they do today. We looked around a few shops and then decided to get a sandwich at Packer Saloon & Cannibal Grill which had a nice outdoor seating area. When we walked in, there was a group at a table that told us that the food was great and they loved coming there to eat. They clearly weren’t plant based but their food did look and smell pretty good. They don’t have a lot of vegan options but they do have a veggie burger or veggie reuben sandwich. We tried the veggie reuben sandwich minus the cheese. It comes with grilled onions, mushrooms and sauerkraut on rye bread. If you want it 100% vegan you can minus the thousand Island dressing too but then it is a little try. It also came with some fries. Overall it was not bad, their outdoor patio area was nice and the service was good.
We were not 100% sure where we were going to stay or how long we wanted to drive that day, but our next destination was Creede. We decided that it was still fair early and we could maybe make it to Great Sand Dunes by the end of the day. I called the Oasis campground that sits just outside the park and they had one spot open, so we took it. It’s a long way but we were determined to make it. With full bellies, we took off again headed east with the destination of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in the GPS. We have been there before but wanted to rent some sand sleds and slide down the dunes. Last time we were there, I was having some sciatic nerve issues and sliding down the sand was not high on my list of things to do that day.
The drive from Lake City is also very pretty and along the way there was a waterfall that I wanted to stop and see, North Clear Creek Falls. We have a picture that Heather’s grandmother took back in 1951 when they traveled through this area. We wanted to stop and see where she had been over 70 years prior. This is a neat waterfall that you would not even really know was there just by driving through. You need to pull off and drive to the overlook to see it, very easily missed if you didn’t know it was there. We stopped and took some pictures and walked up to the viewpoint that looks into the valley below.
From there we moved on to the small little town of Creede. It’s located just at the opening of a sheer rock wall canyon. It’s a cute little town but by the time we got there a lot of the shops had already closed for the evening. We spent about 15 minutes chatting with one of the shop owners about the town and around that area. She recommended that we come back and stay around there for a few days. Maybe next year. There were a couple other shops and art galleries that were still open that we looked in, but then soon moved on to our final destination. It was about another 2 ½ hours from there but down through some more really pretty areas along the Rio Grande River.
We ended up rolling into camp about 6:30pm and was greeted with an amazing sunset across the valley below. We got very lucky with our site, it was the last one on the end facing the sand dunes. We were able to watch the sunset and shadows change across the dunes as the sun went down. It was very pretty to see. We sat outside and ate some dinner while watching the sun go down for the day. When the stars came out, it was amazing how many were visible. This area is one of the dark sky areas and they mean it. You can see the milky way along with the many airplanes going into Colorado springs or Denver and the satellites flying high overhead. It was another good end to a long day. Tomorrow sand sledding!
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
