Living Our Dream: Pitkin, Tincup and the Cumberland Pass

Did a little drive yesterday, went just east of Gunnison and picked up the road heading north towards Pitkin. Pitkin was a boom/bust town during the lat 1880s when gold and silver were discovered, went into a decline, then tourism came into being. Pitkin had the most ATVs and dirt bikes I have seen in one place. All going here and there. Seems the road we were on continues up and over Cumberland Pass, towards the Alpine Tunnel (a couple of weeks ago Dee, Rob, Dave and I went up the eastern side of Mt. Princeton to the ghost towns of Hancock and Winfield, and there was a ATV road that continued on to the Alpine Tunnel - we could not go further), on to Tincup - another boom/bust now tourism town, then to Taylor Reservoir, again we could not see this because the Cottonwood Pass was closed. The road then circled back to Almont then to Gunnison. We really are not far from where we were in Buena Vista, just on the other side of the Collegiate Peaks 14teeners.

Lots of traffic nearing Pitkin

I fell in love with Pitkin, cute cute town. Stopped in the general store to grab a cup of coffee, learned a little history, then was told - sure you can drive to Cumberland Pass in your car, not a problem. There are a few sections of the road that gets dicy, but drive slow, you'll make it. Okay, lets go.

Started up the road to Cumberland Pass

Got very busy

Abandoned mines and homesteads

Played leap-frog with 3 Jeeps

Above tree line

Crazy person - a new Cadillac - goin' to get that messed up

Hugging the side while another something passes us, very steep drop-offs

On to Taylor Reservoir, little out of breath up there

Phew! Talk about dicy. The car did great, Dave was impressed with how it handled, we were quite nervous at times with the amount of traffic coming at us and passing us, lots of Jeeps, ATVs, dirt bikes, and a crazy person who was hauling his popup RV over the pass. What was he thinking?? And the occasional car or camper top who should not be on that road, but were. Stupid.

View from the top, wondered how far we could see

We could hear the kids laughing on their way up

The road has no forgiveness, narrow, dicy, steep

Stupid, crazy person. What was he thinking??

Narrow, narrow road down

Gawped at the views at the top of Cumberland Pass, then continued on down the other side. Lots of abandoned mines, terrific amounts of wildflowers, many white-knuckled encounters with other vehicles, but we made it down. Tincup is cute, there are some hearty individuals who live at that 11,000 feet altitude all year, very rustic.

Another nut

Tailings from abandoned mines

Saw Taylor Reservoir and it is also quite low, stopped to look at the dam, then the fishing folks, then drove on back towards Almont and home to Gunnison. Interesting day.