Yesterday was Kebler Pass, west out of Crested Butte. Today is Cottonwood Pass right up the road from our campsite. We followed the Taylor River all the way up the canyon until it opened up into the Taylor Reservoir. We arrived early enough that the lake was still calm so we got a couple shots of the mountains in the distance reflecting in the lake. It is quite a view, and the Lakeview Campground is right above the marina and has an unobstructed view of it all. Huge, flat campsites have been improved to make this an amazing campground. The only negative is that it's at 10,200 feet and can be a bit cool, I'm sure.
Just a couple miles beyond the reservoir was the turn to the Cottonwood Pass Road. The first few miles were pretty dull as we wound higher through the conifer forest. As we reached timberline, that all changed. These are Colorado mountains with the rounded, gentle appearance; not like the stark beauty of the Sierras or the Tetons. Still, they have their own kind of magic. The valley was wide with two rounded ridges corralling the evergreens. As we stopped to take pictures, we saw a herd of deer cross the road and head down the bank toward the tiny tarn below. I remarked that it would be nice if they would go down and drink in the tarn so they could be in our pictures. We set up and took our first round of pictures and were just finishing up when Carol saw the deer right at the edge of the forest by the tarn. They walked right around the edge of the tarn in a tight single-file row as if it were all planned. It wasn't planned, of course, because I had nothing but my 20 - 35 lens and Carol had her 17 - 85; not great wildlife lenses. Still we have the wonderful view down the valley with the deer along the tarn; although they are a bit small.
From there, it was a short drive to the top of the pass and the million dollar
view. There was a tarn just below the pass, so we hustled down there to
shoot while the water was still calm. When we reached the tarn, we
realized it was one of those "infinite pool" where the edge
drops off so suddenly that it seems like you are at the edge of a cliff
looking out into infinite. It was really pretty cool. After checking out
the tarn, I climbed the trail that went up the ridge above the pass.
Every step took me a bit higher and opened up the view even more. I
finally reached a scree field for a different foreground and shot with my
super wide-angle lenses. Even after I had the shot, it was hard to stop shooting
because it was such a scenic spot. I finished up by taking panorama shots
that I could stitch together later for the panorama view from the pass.
The other side of the pass wasn't nearly as scenic, although there were more aspens along the mountainsides. Our only significant stop was to shoot at Rainbow Lake Resort. It was an older resort with a new lodge and the sense of history; like the older resorts that were found throughout Colorado in the 50's. Old, log cabins dotted the hillside above the lake and a private road circled their lake. It's the kind of place families used to return to each summer as part of their family ritual.
We continued dropping down the valley until we reached Buena Vista, a tiny town along Highway 24. We drove through the original business district and saw a sign for Punky's and their famous barbecue. We drove by and continued down the street until it dead ended in a sports complex and civic center. This is where Buena Vista stopped being small town that hadn't kept up. The soccer fields were full of kids and the civic center was new and had bathrooms and showers for the general public. We returned to Punky's for lunch. Just inside the door was the Buena Vista sports Hall of Fame. Buena Vista doesn't have your average sports program. A high jumper has won a silver medal in the last Olympics. In 2005, the girls basketball team went undefeated and won State. In 2001, the boys basketball team won state. Each boy or girl who had distinguished careers had huge photos of them on the wall. It was great to see a town that supported such a successful program. And yes, the barbecue beef sandwiches were very good.
The clouds had continued to roll in while we were eating, and seemed to fill the pass as we started back up Cottonwood Pass. We made no additional stops as we crossed the pass and returned to our campsite. The rains kindly waited until after we had grilled our salmon and were in for the night.
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