Camping on the Western Slope

After the Fourth of July in Crested Butte, we headed over the pass to meet my parents at Erickson Springs Campground, just outside Paonia.   I'm not sure if Paonia counts as the Western Slope, but it seems pretty far west to me.  We had a nice drive over the pass.  Noah broke down once so we took a little walk outside of the car but after that it was smooth sailing.  We got to the campground and picked out our spot and my parents showed up about an hour later.  This was Noah's first night in the tent this summer and he did great!  We had pancakes for breakfast in the camper the following morning!  And then stories with Grandpa!

Big Bite!

After breakfast we decided to drive into Paonia.  We really wanted to go see a few of the wineries that are around town and also decided to have lunch on the river.  We had a very nice time sampling some wines before lunch.  At the second winery it started pouring rain so we hung out for a little while and learned about the town till the rain stopped.  We then headed down the hill to the river for lunch.  Noah really enjoyed throwing rocks in the Gunnison River.  After lunch we drove through town and looked for their local brewery but they were closed.  While we had been waiting out the rain the lady at the winery told us that we needed to stop for some of the best strudel, so we grabbed a few slices and hit the road to the next winery  which was the last winery.  It was nice and had a great patio with a wonderful view of the valley.  It would have been a great place to take a picnic lunch.  After we tried their wines we headed back to the campground to get some dinner cooking!

Enjoying the view

The last day we decided to head over to Marble and have a picnic and see if the rain would hold out for us to get a trip up to the Crystal Mill.  We walked around the old marble mining area and then had a picnic lunch before it started to rain.  We skipped driving up to the Mill and drove to Redstone just to look around while Dad went fishing.  

So excited to Drive Drive!

Family photo on some marble in Marble

Come this way Mommy!

Throwing rocks

We got to stop by Hayes Creek Falls on the way and then explored the little town while Mom looked around the antique store.  Then we headed back to find Dad along the river and went back to the camper to get out of the rain!  It rained all night so we slept in the camper and then headed home in the morning.

On our way back home we had a bit of a traffic jam with the locals!  Noah has so much fun Maaa-ing with them!