Texas Gypsies: Loop Drive Gunnison to Crested Butte to Somerset back to Gunnison

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Below is a picture of the loop drive we decided to take today.

We ended up adding to this trip. More on that later.

We think this is "crested butte" which the town is named for. We could be wrong but looks and sounds good. Hee Hee

Below are views as we were driving up to Kebler Pass out of Crested Butte.

There were lots of flowers blooming all along the way.

As we got higher we started passing through aspen groves.

Then suddenly in one aspen grove we saw sheep grazing. Neither of us has ever seen this.

At Kebler Pass, 9980' elevation, there was a parking area. We saw one RV trailer dry camping there. This is where we met a couple from California that reminded us of an old mill that is supposed to be the most photographed place in Colorado, so we decided to change our plans and see if we could find it. Below shows a beautiful field of flowers.

Above is a closeup of one of the mountains in the picture below, as seen from Kebler Pass.

Early in this post I mentioned that we added on to our planned trip. Well here it is. We diverted northward a little about where the time marker shows on the map. We were told the Crystal River Mill wasn't too far from this spot so we decided to go see it. We've seen both watercolor paintings and photographs of this very popular historic mill. We learned the mill is located between Marble and Crystal CO.

On way to the Crystal River Mill and before Marble we had this beautiful view of the Crystal River.

We reached the statutory town Marble CO. The marble mined from the Yule Mine since the late 1800s is considered exceptional quality. The marble from here has been used for the Tomb of the Unknowns, as well as for parts of the Lincoln Memorial, and civic buildings in San Francisco. It was also used for the construction of the Equitable Building, an historically important early skyscraper in New York City.

Below are several pictures of solid white marble sculptures for sale at The Marble Gallery in Marble, CO.

The road between Marble and Crystal was definitely a 4X4 road. This was a wide spot next to Crystal River. We stopped here for our picnic lunch. The remainder of the "road" was only one lane with occasional small wide spots for on-coming traffic to pass. Below is a closeup of the river at this stop.

Along the way we saw this little water fall. It was a gorgeous drive following along side of the river.

We made it to the Crystal River Mill. The Mill was built in 1892 and was actually not a mill but a powerhouse.

This setting absolutely gorgeous!

The mountain views on the way back to Marble were stunning.

We are now back on our originally planned route with more spectacular views as seen both above and below.

It started clouding up again this afternoon. Tic got this fantastic black and white!

On Hwy 92, on the bottom of our loop, we stopped at Hermits Rest.