Monday, August 15, 2005
Lake Fork RV Park, Gunnison, CO - Aug 11-15
This is a small (12 sites) RV park located on a bluff overlooking Blue Mesa Reservoir. The views were great! It was a Passport America park that allowed us to camp for half price on weekdays but full price for weekends. Our first order of business, as we often do in new areas, was to visit the Gunnison visitor center for information on the area. This helps in deciding what to do and also gives us an overview of the town. We found some interesting restaurants & shops and also a motel with WiFi that we could use from the parking lot.
Our first day trip was to Crested Butte and some of the surrounding area. There is very much development, of course, especially further into the mountains. Thank goodness for the National Forest land or the houses would probably go on forever!! Instead, the wildflowers, which were at their peak, seemed to go on forever. 
Crested Butte seems to have more flowers than any other town we have visited. Gardens and flower containers were everywhere! There were lots of great restaurants & shops and beautiful, quaint houses. It was a place that made you want to sit on a porch and read a book and people watch.
Our other day trip was through Lake City and over Slumgullion Pass to the top of Spring Creek Pass, where we had a picnic lunch. The road we drove on is called the Silver Thread and is part of the National Byway Road System. The Byway offers spectacular scenery and has informative signs at pullouts explaining the history & natural resources. Much of the land we drove through is part of the Gunnison and Rio Grande National Forests, plus a small amount of BLM land. Lake City is where Alferd Packer, the famous "Colorado Cannibal" was tried and found guilty of murder. It was believed he survived being stranded in a winter storm in 1874 by killing and eating his companions. 
He was sentenced to be hanged, but won a new trial in Gunnison and was sentenced to 40 years in the state pen. Parolled in 1901, he spent his final years in Littleton, CO. We visited a monument in Lake City which honored the victims.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 7:55 PM 
