Somewhere between Marble and Crystal

We set out from Crested Butte on Saturday afternoon, with backpacks and supplies ready, navigated over Kebler Pass (our 3rd time already), all to visit a location less than 20 miles away from camp, as the crow flies. For us land-based-mammals we had to drive more than 80 miles to get there, with roughly half being dirt/gravel road.

The rain started right as as left Crested Butte, with still 30+ miles of gravel road to the West before we got to highway 133 on the other side of the Pass. The traffic was light and the mud was heavy but we made it after an hour’s drive. North was our new compass heading, but only for 20 or so miles before turning back to the East for another 10 miles. Our path, most of the shape of an upper-case C, only brought us to the other side of Mt Baldy to the town of Marble, CO which, as you can imagine, was home of a large marble quarry back in the late 1800’s and continues today. Here we stopped for a late lunch, and the plan was to then hike out the rugged dirt road towards the old ghost town of Crystal before the sun set, but upon asking some advice from a local, we changed our plans.

Instead, we went in search of a natural hot-spring further north, but after repeated attempts to find it and failing we came upon a crowd of cars on the side of the highway which became clear was the location. Only, the hot spring was buried under the current of the mighty Crystal River as it’s swollen mass of spring time snow melt flowed passed us. The opportunity for a natural bath was beyond us, but we spotted our fair share of road-side waterfalls.

Now late into the afternoon we searched for a place to camp. Multiple established campgrounds were at capacity and the same was true for the dispersed camping area. The frustration was setting in. It was the final forest road on our radar that finally did the trick, and we had it all to ourselves. A quarter-mile hike out from the trailhead, pitched tent, cool beer, and a quick dinner finished off the day in quick order. We did not last much longer than the sun.

The following morning we returned to our original plan, somewhat. Driving back into, and through, Marble we started up the twisted more-rock-than-dirt road that lead out of town and even closer to our camp in Crested Butte. Two miles out of town, and roughly 1000 feet above, is the tiny Lizard Lake. Here we found our next night’s spot and quickly claimed it by pitching tent again, this time right on the edge of the lake.

We opted to “stay in” for the afternoon and organize our food stores, explore the nearby trees and lakeside, and have a raging Kerri-built fire to stave off the mosquitoes . Byron and Moose did their thing in the meantime, and before we knew it the sun was setting on yet another successful day of camping. Although we tried to stay up late our eyes were closed before the light drained from the sky.

The final morning was a big one. We quickly repacked all our gear into the truck, but instead of starting back to the Airstream we took off further down that rocky/dirt road which only got worse. 6 more miles of some of the worst dirt, rock, cliff-side road you can imagine – took an hour to drive – and we finally reached our primary destination for the weekend trip; The Crystal Mill just outside the ghost town of Crystal, Colorado (dating back to the 1890’s).

A photo posted by Kerri McHale🌲🌵🌊🇺🇸🇨🇦🇲🇽 (@asolojourner) on Jun 13, 2016 at 5:31pm PDT

Even though our original plan  of backpacking out the 6 mile road and camping along the way did not work out, we had the ability to adapt and change to still have one great adventure. This was the first time we setup and broke camp each of the two day/nights out and we learned a lot on how we can efficiently do all of that as a couple. We are still learning the amount of supplies we need to carry, both for true backpacking – like our last adventure – and for the car-camping we did this weekend… and I must say that learning how to do it all is part of, if not most of, the fun of all this.