WESTERN COLORADO

Jett’s Wild Flight: Gunnison’s Cattlemen’s Days RODEO

By: Jett Lillie, 7/15/23

We drove 4 hours to Gunnison, Colorado and got all set up. We went to rock painting at the campground canopy where we heard about a rodeo called Cattlemen’s Days.

My dad was pumped, so we had to go to the rodeo! We went to the rodeo after we ate dinner, so that we could have snow cones and stay later.

We watched the bucking broncos first and then we watched the rodeo Clown. 🤡

We watched him act like he was whipping balloons 🎈 with a whip over a volunteer’s head that was blind-folded, but he really had a helper guy just pop the balloons with a needle! We then watched some girls ride horses doing the barrel races.

My sister did not like the rodeo. The only thing she liked were the sno-cones.

We then watched bull riders trying to stay on the crazy bucking bulls.

We only saw three bull riders and that was it!? The rodeo was supposed to go till 10 pm but it ended at 9 pm. Boo...We got robbed! But at least the sno-cones were good!

Jules’ Journal: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

By: Julianne Lillie, 7/17/23

We left the RV about 9am to head to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This park has 2 entrances; however, the North Rim is only accessible via a 5 mile dirt road. So, we opted to visit the South Rim! Unfortunately, it took us an hour and 20 minutes with all the construction traffic and at one point we were down a one lane dirt road. So we may have been better off with the North Rim. Oh well!

When we arrived at the Visitor Center, we picked up a park map & Jr Ranger booklet and stamped our passports. We learned there was an 11am Ranger led geology program at Pulpit Rock, so we quickly headed that way down the scenic South Rim drive. The canyon was magnificently steep, and I can see why it’s called the “Black Canyon” … light hardly reaches down to the bottom where the Gunnison River winds through it.

At Pulpit Rock, we listened to Ranger Amy tell us about the geology of the area and why the canyon is so steep. Instead of sedimentary depositing like Glen Canyon and the Grand Canyon, the Black Canyon was formed by volcanic activity and tectonic uplift.

We got to pass around some of the layers of rock that made up these dramatically steep canyon walls like Shist and pegmatite.

After the geology talk, we talked out to Pulpit Rock and took in the views.

Pulpit Rock very much resembled a cathedral pulpit hanging over its congregation.

We then drove to the end of the scenic drive to eat our picnic lunch. And then continued back down the scenic drive, this time stopping at all the lookout points and hikes! Here’s the different views we were able to see:

1. Dragon Point: They named it Dragon Point because they think the top thick line of pegmatite behind Jett looks like a dragon.

2. Painted Wall

This was a helpful sign to put into perspective the sheer height of the canyon walls.

3. Rock Point Overlook

We also got to see a special “cloud rainbow” which we later looked up and learned it’s a rare Circumhorizon Arc that refracts light within the ice of the clouds when it’s near a light source – in this case the sun.

At some points we could see a double rainbow arc. Pretty neat!

Once we arrived back to the Visitor Center the kids earned their 135th Junior Ranger badge.

It was a fun day exploring a very unique, remote, and wild area!

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Crested Butte, CO

By: Jaycie Lillie, 7/18/23

We drove far (1 hour north) to get to this cute ski little town. The main reason we went was so that the boys could do an adventure park. We searched for it, but the address was not correct. After a trip to the town visitor center, we got the right directions! My mom and I stayed and shopped all day in their historic and creative districts.

We just walked around the downtown. It was a cute little downtown with lots of pretty flowers.

Us girls popped in and out of shops.

There was this neat art gallery (local artists) and some toy shops. There were also some fancy shops. For a snack we got sorbet! I got a mango sorbet.

After awhile it was lunch time. We asked a store clerk what the best place for lunch was. She gave us a few options and we chose pizza. It was an interesting place (very eclectic) called Secret Stash Pizzaria.

It had some interesting decorations. The pizza was good, and the crust was delicious! It was all vegan crust, too, which is cool. It was a busy place!

After we ate our fill, we had enough for leftovers. (It ended up being our dinner that night!)

We continued walking and after a while there was a tea and coffee shop! I tried matcha tea for the first time. It was good!

My mom had peach tea! We got a text from the boys saying that they were waiting on us, so we left and made our way back to them.

We passed a lady painting wildflowers. So pretty!

Once we reached them, we got the full report from them on the adventure park. Jett had a lot of fun at the adventure park. He did the gem mining...

...rock climbing walls (all 3 levels)

...and the bungee trampoline park. He did flips!

We all ended up having a great time in Crested Butte doing our own things! Thanks for reading.