July 11-15, 2023, Kremmling, CO

 Tuesday, we took another scenic drive and went over Gore Pass, which is at an elevation of 9,527 ft.  After going over the pass we turned off on a Jeep trail and headed towards the Colorado River. 



The Colorado Columbines were blooming along with many other beautiful wildflowers.






We came upon two very large mud holes in the trail, and we almost got stuck going through the second one – glad we have 4 wheel drive.  We did get the Jeep a little muddy.  We’ll have to find a car wash when we get back to Kremmling.






Now we get to head down to the Colorado River.






Shortly after starting down, a small cinnamon colored Brown Bear ran across the road in front of us.   It ran onto the road, skidded to a stop when it saw us and then ran down the other side.  Unfortunately, we were not quick enough to get a picture.   A short distance later 4 wild turkeys ran across the road in front of us.






At the bottom looking back up towards where we came down.

Another beautiful drive and we were happy to see some wildlife!





Wednesday, we started out to drive over Stillwater Pass but when we got about 5 miles up the pass the road was closed.  Consequently, we drove on some of the open roads in that area of Arapaho National Forest. 

This picture is along Highway 125 before we turned onto the Stillwater Pass road and shows the devastation from the East Troublesome Fire in 2020.




More of the damage from the fire.










The Wildflowers were beautiful but do not show up well in the picture.

 

Even though we were not able to drive over Stillwater Pass we had a beautiful and enjoyable drive.





Thursday Rex bought a 5-day fishing license and spent the morning fly fishing on Muddy Creek below Wolford Reservoir.  He caught one trout but lost it in the weeds before he could get it to the bank.  He did find a multitude of hungry mosquitos that were biting even through his clothes.



Rex spent Friday morning fishing again on Muddy Creek but on a different part of the creek.  All he caught this time was lots of mosquitos.





In the afternoon we took a 4-wheel drive trail above Kremmling.  This picture is looking down on Kremmling from 9,700 ft elevation - Kremmling sits at 7,313 ft elevation.  The trail went up to 10,300 ft elevation before starting down again.  The drive, scenery and wildflowers were all beautiful.




We did pick up a hitchhiker on the way down the mountain.

 


Today is Nancy’s 70th birthday so we celebrated by having dinner at The Dean West Restaurant & Brewstillery.  The food and beer were great, and the service was excellent.  They gave Nancy a free piece of chocolate chip cookie dough cake which was delicious.

 

Saturday morning, we did laundry and after lunch took a short drive in the Wolford Mountain Recreation Area.  We drove a different route than we took last week.  We mostly saw sagebrush and a few trees and wildflowers.





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