Moved to Gunnison, CO

Thursday was the 'normal' type day, cleaning, laundry, putting stuff away.  Poor Buddy, he knew something was going to happen, he stayed in the closet for most of the day.  Later in the day Skip, Linda, Dee and Rob came by for a pizza party, to see everyone one last time before we headed out yesterday to Gunnison.

Mt. Princeton to the right, the Chalk Cliffs to bottom left of it

Smoky

Bye, bye Arkansas River

The fire in Fairplay, as of this morning was 37% contained, Skip and Linda are still not allowed near their summer home.  The park we are staying in has a spot for them until the 14th, at which time they hope they will be allowed back in.  But they are not too optimistic.

Gotta get up and over Monarch Mountain ahead

Ski lodge still open for summer hikers

Yesterday we left Buena Vista and headed west to Gunnison.  The town was not on our radar, we wanted to go to Granby which is on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park but there were absolutely no campgrounds with openings.  Anywhere.  Some of the national forests are also closed to camping and any day use because of the numerous fires going on.  The Weston Pass Fire (the fire in Fairplay) is continuing to burn, up to 12,096 acres as of yesterday.  Very smoky in Buena Vista.

Huge abandoned mine right by ski lift

Monarch Ski Lifts on top of mountain

The ride over Monach Mountain and the Pass was pretty, uneventful.  The RV's engine whined as we were going up over the pass and then thankfully the engine held us back as we moved back down.  We then dropped into the Gunnison Valley.  Lush farm/ranchland.

Beetle disease very prominent, sad

And the road down

Found our campground, checked in and all was good.  Not our kind of  camping here, we are in wall-to-wall camping, very packed in.  But we are thankful we have a spot.  Lots to do in the area so we will make the most of it.  Plan to spend 3 weeks before heading to?

Road hugging the mountain on the way down

And down into Gunnison Valley