Yankee Boy Basin!

Labor Day Weekend, 2010. Since I haven't been to Crested Butte in quite some time, and Amanda is pretty excited about her new mountain bike, we thought we would use the last 3 day weekend of the summer to reconnect with some old places and old faces. A day with an MTB 101 class down the Lower Loop, followed by a hot lap of Strand Hill was followed by a night camped up in Washington Gulch, which included a visit from a "bear" in the middle of the night that managed to spook us out of our tent into the car. A visit with Frank the next day to secure lodging for a winter weekend and we were off to Ouray, which I visited once when I was 15. Let's just say I didn't appreciate what it had to offer at that time.

We hit town with prepared to bang out either Wetterhorn or Umcompagre, with printed guides for both from our trusty 14ers.com website, just to add another 14er to the scoreboard. After setting up camp in the Amphitheater campground, which sits a few hundred vertical above Ouray, but is still surrounded by thousands of feet of rock wall, we rolled into town to grab a six pack of Budweiser Tall Boys and to stick our head into the local outdoor shop. In a educational discussion with the proprietor, we learned our plan involved far more driving than hiking.

"Of course, Mount Sneffels is right outside of town and an easy hike, what kind of car do you drive? A Tacoma, you'll be fine. Just follow this road up to Yankee Boy Basin. Yep, that is one lane.
Now, I'm not a fan of using bike racks. My bikes deserve better than to be exposed to the elements, bugs, and low rock overhangs.
Easy. Right.
Now, what's so striking about this one isn't how good looking I am, it's how blue the sky is. We didn't see one cloud all day.
The lack of clouds lead to unbelievable visibility. We could see the Elk Mountains, Book Cliffs, etc. Over my shoulder in this one - La Sal Mountains. In Utah.
Telluride Ski area on the left, Mount Wilson, El Diente, and Wilson Peak, on the right. Lizard Head Pass too.
This silhouetted peak is Coffee Pot. Not a 14er, but when we got back to the truck, we ran into 3 guys that stood on top of it while we we climbing Sneffels. One of them was this guy.