Advertisement
Published: January 21st 2021
Edit Blog Post
After I drove a few miles on private land on Gunnison County 12, I entered a section of the Gunnison National Forest. I turned on FS 759 following Anthracite Creek through the Erickson picnic area then I turned around at the campground fee area. I had a nice short stay by the creek in the free picnic area.
When I returned to Gunnison 12 I crossed the bridge over Anthracite Creek. I drove four miles on private land, and turned South on FS 709 that followed Coal Creek. I entered into the Gunnison NF and found a few very nice free camps by Coal Creek. The FS road was a narrow one lane road with few wide spots to pull over for the occasional oncoming traffic.
The road got progressively worse with rare places to pull over for oncoming traffic. In the USA a wilderness means no motorized vehicles aloud. As I entered the small narrow strip of National Forest and some private land (surrounded by the West Elk Wilderness), road conditions got worse with a hundred foot drop off to Coal Creek and a steep talus slope on the other side of the narrow one lane road. (I
quit shooting pics and was driving slow and carefully trying to find a place to turn around.) Then I saw a sign for a (rock) slide area. There were some boulders on the narrow road, and more down below. Since there was little space for my truck to pass (and my wheels would be close to the drop-off) I kicked in my four wheel drive to get through the slide area. Then I found a narrow spot to turn around carefully. I drove back through that slide area and headed out. Then I saw a six wheeled truck pulling a large gooseneck cattle trailer coming my way. (A possible "Mexican standoff"!) Still in four wheel drive I drove up the talus slope and got most of my truck off the narrow road. The oncoming truck was driven by a middle-aged woman. We exchanged waves and the nice lady told me to be very careful getting out. She drove slowly by and then my four wheel drive powered me out of the loose talus. This was a nice place, but it was time for me to leave.
At Gunnison County 12 I drove three miles West crossing the Gunnison river,
then turned West on Colorado Hwy 133.
I quickly reached some anthracite coal mines before reaching Somerset, Colorado. Then I drove about ten miles West to Paonia, Colorado where I found my favorite Stahl Orchards. Unfortunately that good fruit orchard was closed and had a for sale sign. In the Stahl parking lot an old man came out to greet me. He was Mr. Stahl, and he told me that he retired and put the orchard for sale. We had a nice short chat and I was on my way.
I drove West to Hotchkiss, Colorado and found Big B's Orchards. I purchased some fruit for my trip. Big B's had a campground, restaurant, and wine tasting. I would like to sample their wines, but I had miles to drive.
I drove on to Delta, Colorado; then off to my next camp at "parts unknown" Utah.
completed
Advertisement
Tot: 0.223s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1161s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb