Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

We arrived in Crested Butte in an absolute downpour, with about an hour to kill before we could check into the condo. We let the rain slack off a bit, and then parked at one end of the adorable main street and walked to a pizza place we’d read good things about. Aside from the service being rather slow, it was great. The pizzas were quite tasty, and large enough that we had leftovers for more than a day! Forgive me for not having any pictures at the pizza place – we were all damp, hungry, and grumpy – not an ideal snapshot opportunity.

After lunch we headed up the mountain to the town of Mount Crested Butte to check into the condo. It was, in a word, gorgeous.

Really, these pictures don’t do the condo justice…and this is just the first floor! There are two master suites downstairs, both with king-sized beds and private baths. Up the stairs are two more rooms – one with a queen bed and one with 2 sets of double or queen (I couldn’t tell) bunk beds – and a full bathroom. The place was amazing – it will definitely be on our short list to stay in again; maybe even with another family? (We’ll start taking applications in January.)

The stairs quickly became Sam’s favorite spot to sit (especially for breakfast), and really, can you blame him with views like this?

Staying in Mt Crested Butte was amazing. And it was perfect for the kids. We were walking distance to the Adventure Park (which is the ski base in ski season). We took lots of walks around the base area.

The two towns (Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte) are about three miles apart. They have a free shuttle between the two towns. The buses are painted in all kinds of crazy murals, and Sam quickly dubbed it the “Crazy Bus.” He loved to point them out and talk about them, but he refused to ride in them – they were too loud.

There’s a paved parks and rec trail between the two towns. Bryan and I made use of it for walks and runs.

Close to town, the trail crosses the Slate River, so the boys enjoyed some creek stompin’!

We spent time in Crested Butte, too. The town is adorable and walkable and friendly. I think if we could have just picked out a house to stay in forever, we’d have been happy. There were great parks to run and climb and play in. The boys even played some pickup baseball games with the local kids (sorry, Dad has those pics).

In the Adventure Park area in Mt Crested Butte, the boys enjoyed some bungee trampolining.

Sam discovered how fun putt putt is. His rules included letting Mommy help with the first putt, then just picking up the ball and putting it in the hole for the second “putt.” We didn’t keep score, but I’m pretty sure he won.

We went up to the “ghost town” of Gothic, about 7 miles outside of Mt Crested Butte. I say “ghost town” because it’s actually inhabited year round now as part of a research facility, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. We stopped at the general store and then went on to the Judd Falls trailhead.

This was marked in our books as an easy 1 mile hike to the falls. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA – Easy, my foot. It was only a mile each way, but it was steep (and warm that day) and rocky. But, it was pretty.

While we were in town, there was a free concert in the Adventure Park area. The big boys went off to toss the frisbee with other big kids, and Bryan, Sam, and I camped out to enjoy the music.

We had an amazing time in the Crested Butte area and were sad to leave it when our time was up. But we were excited to pack up on Friday and head to Buena Vista (pronounced Byoona Vista by the locals) where we’d get to spend the weekend with Tori, Sophia, and Austin, and live like locals for a few more days. (Vacation Part 3 – Buena Vista)