Grand Mesa
Ouray
Black Canyon
Places to go within an hour and half:
The best place to go is straight up to the Grand Mesa. Turn right onto Hwy. 65 and go 20 min. up the road to the largest Mesa in the world. The Mesa has 300 trout filled lakes. The forest is covered in aspen and pine trees. I suggest doing the Land of Lakes hike is very easy and will give you the view of pretty much the entire side of the Mesa. Just go up Hwy. 65 for about 20 miles and you will see the sign and make a left turn and there is parking. I suggest going to the visitor center it is about 16 miles up the road. They will have a wealth of info for you, get a map and just enjoy the Mesa. You can see the whole Mesa from the south side of up Hwy. 65 down the north side in about 45 min. There is also Craig’s Crest Trail for the hardy hiker. It is a good hike, get the map at the visitor center. You can also just drive around the Mesa and enjoy the peace and quiet. Be very careful there is a lot of wild life up there, bears especially, so be careful. It will always be around 15 degrees cooler up there.
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For fun facts and up-to-date Grand Mesa Lodge has great information: wildlife, snow totals, snowmobiling, hiking & biking. You always ask, "how deep is the snow?" Spencer at the Grand Mesa Lodge is awesome, follow them on Facebook!
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Another favorite is Ouray Colorado. It is about a 1 ½ hours going south towards Montrose. It is a really cool town and the view’s look like the Alps. The town has good restaurants and nice little shops.
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Next you can go towards Paonia and head over Keebler Pass and drop down into Crested Butte. This is another gem of a town. Again, it has all kinds of shops and restaurants and breweries. Keebler Pass is a great road, it is dirt but very well maintained, no scary cliffs, beautiful wild flowers. You can stop at Lost Lake and do a little fishing. Then come back thru Gunnison to Montrose and back to Cedaredge.
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The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is also a great place for the views. It is about an hour from here going south east. Head towards Paonia and you will see the signs.
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The Town of Cedaredge has some neat things to see. Two great thrift shops, the Shelter shop which all proceeds go to the animal shelter, and the Cedaredge Thrift shop on main. Food town is the grocery store in town, has a really good deli, great fried chicken.
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Pioneer Town is really a wonderful place to visit, it is located going south on Hwy. 65 going south. Pioneer town tells the historic details of Cedaredge. The best part of Pioneer Town to me are my Support Our Soldiers Veterans Monuments! There are 8 marble monuments depicting each war from WW1, WW11, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq-Afghanistan, Veteran’s Creed, Medals of Honor, Battle field Cross’s. I am so proud of these; the marble came from the same quarry that all of the monument’s in Washington D.C. Are made from. Donated by Colorado Stone Quarry in Delta, Co. If you have any questions just ask me, please sign my guest book, let me know what you think.