(continued from Day 0)

I’ve driven through the town of Gunnison, Colorado on the way to/from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park a handful of times now, but this time Gunnison is my destination. (Well, the first of a few destinations on this trip.) “Why Gunnison?” you ask. THAT’S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS! But I’ll tell you anyway. It’s usually about lunch time when I get to Gunnison, and there are two fast food franchises that sit directly across U.S. Highway 50 from an old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad train, complete with old-school depot and water tower. On more than one occasion, I have taken a driving break by settling down to ingest unhealthy particles while staring across the highway at that train. The last time I passed through, I tried to visit the train and found that it is on the grounds of the Gunnison Pioneer Museum, which was closed that day. That’s why Gunnison is today’s destination; I am here for the Gunnison Pioneer Museum.

It turns out the train is a very small part of the museum’s collection. The museum consists of a couple dozen buildings, each with different types of stuff on display. Their collection is HUGE and includes (to name a very few) horse-drawn road graders, farm equipment, sleds, telephone switchboards, beer cans, and a car collection that could easily be a standalone museum by itself. I spent the entire day at Gunnison Pioneer Museum (less a quick trip to one of the aforementioned unhealthy food vendors), yet I left probably half the buildings unvisited. For those of you familiar with the grand metropolis of Minden, Nebraska: I can honestly say, this is the first place I’ve been that really reminds me of Pioneer Village.

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Despite my earlier mentions of fast food franchises, when it comes time for the evening meal, the town of Gunnison seems quite under-served restaurant-wise. All of the few I could find were very busy and/or understaffed – and this ain’t even tourist season. And it’s Wednesday.

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Now it’s Thursday. Today, I am up early to do a lot of walking around multiple historic towns. But first, let’s drive up the Taylor River canyon. What will we see there? Bighorn sheep and fog:

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About 20 years ago, I bought a book titled simply, “Ghost Towns of Colorado”. I bought it just for the pictures of cool dead buildings, but it ended up being the beginning of my interest in Colorado history and railroad history in general. The author (Philip Varney) includes not just true ghost towns, but also old mining towns that are still inhabited, yet have retained their historic character. One of those is a town called Tincup. And we’ve just arrived…

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The author of the previously mentioned host town book seems to have had an odd preoccupation with cemeteries. He explored and wrote about the cemeteries at each of the towns covered in the book. Normally, I don’t bother checking out the cemeteries, but his description of the Tincup cemeteries intrigued me. He wrote,

Located on a series of knolls, four separate graveyards are connected by paths, catwalks, and bridges. The cemeteries are situated in a place of incredible beauty…

Clearly these are no ordinary graveyards. I had to see this “incredible beauty” for myself…

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Leaving Tincup, we soon find ourselves at Taylor Park Reservoir. It has water. It is wet. It’s also scenic…

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It feels like it’s been awhile since I last mentioned that I enjoy photographing historic downtown areas. So, consider it mentioned and let’s go for a walk around downtown Crested Butte, Colorado…

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This is my first visit to Crested Butte. I must say, this town may have the best scenery surrounding it, of any town in the state. And that’s saying A LOT. Maybe it’s just because I’m visiting at EXACTLY the right time of year – the aspen leaves are truly golden right now – so take a look for yourself. All of the pictures in this next gallery were taken from inside Crested Butte town limits.

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If that warn’t purdy enough, once we get out of town and head further up into the mountains, the scenery gets even better…

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Finally, we reach another non-ghost town that I learned of through the ghost town book. The town originally known as Gothic, which has largely been re-purposed as a campus for the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab. Let’s go on a walkabout…

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That’s it, I’m going back to the hotel. I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow.