Gunnison to Bogan Flats

As we followed the Gunnison River skirting around the West Elk Mountain Range we were driving through hills covered in sage bushes and sparsely scattered pine trees. Then as we turned northwards along the Taylor River we drove by farming land and the closer we got to Crested Butte the countryside got greener and greener. Nearing Crested Butte we could have been in the Swiss Alps with all the Chalets lining the mountainsides.

The Dragon Slayer welcomes you to Crested Butte

Downtown Crested Butte

Crested Butte is a very attractive town and as you drove in the dragon slayer adds to the atmosphere. It's great to see the locals zipping around on their bikes.  There are no campgrounds in town so we took Dude on another dirt road adventure up Kebler Pass, a bumpy dirt road to the Irwin Campground.  

Spillway into Irwin campground

We arrived at the campground finding we had to drive across a spillway that looked like at any moment the water would burst through the concrete barriers….with so much snow melt this year we saw high water levels everywhere. I wondered if the metal grate would wash away during the night leaving us stranded, but amazingly it was intact the next morning even after raining for most of the night.

Kebler Pass Road

Kebler Pass tops out at 10,007 feet and it's a photographer’s dream location. For 20 miles it is lined with a thick forests of Aspen trees and meadows of flowers. I dreamed that sometime in the future we would ride our bikes along this stretch of road in (fall) Autumn. It would be a memorable experience.

Turning onto the paved road our thoughts shifted from the magic scenery we had just driven through to excitement of catching up with family for a camping weekend at Bogan Flats campground at the bottom of McLure Pass. A wonderful wooded location along the Crystal River surrounded by snow capped mountains. The tradition of fly fishing this weekend was not to be with the high river and rain storms each afternoon but we did enjoy ice creams, fresh cherries we bought from a local farm, campfires inbetween the rain storms and toasted marshmallows…!!



As we waved goodbye at the end of the weekend I was already missing them but work commitments and school holiday programs meant they had to return home and I knew we would be seeing them again in a week’s time.