When I was in Crested Butte in April 2018, I saw a poster on the wall of our rented condo about the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. I knew then that I needed to come back to see so many beautiful, vibrant wildflowers. In early 2020 I booked up a bed & breakfast up in Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival, lodging was quickly selling out.
COVID-19 hit and the wildflower festival changed its programming to a less events with small caps of 8-10 people. I signed up us for 3 events, a watercolor painting class, a photography class, and a mindfulness class. I also figured we’d do a hike or two, but the ones they had space left on was a little too advanced for me. About 10 days prior to our arrival, they cancelled the event, but with only a week notice, we’d lose our money on our room if we cancelled that and they couldn’t rebook it, so we decided to go anyway, it would be nice to get out of town.
Day 1: Bikes were available for our use through the B&B, so we did an easy bike ride through the town in the morning, getting coffee at Rumors. Bucket Hat Rose played golf at the The Club at Crested Butte and I went on the Brush Creek hike. We got takeout from Pitas in Paradise.
Day 2: We hiked the Snodgrass Trail, and hoped to also do the quick hike too see Judd Falls. We had lunch at the Secret Stash Pizzeria and got takeout from Bonez. The Snodgrass trail is a ‘moderate’ hike with approximately 1,421 foot elevation gain over about 3 miles to the Washington Gulch Trail. We walked for about an hour before we turned around. Some of the “best” wildflowers were near Tom’s Cabin and off the jeep trail.
Day 3: We drove to Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and took the longer way back over Kebbler pass.
Snodgrass Trail:
From the trailhead sign [1], walk the steps over the fence (if the gate is closed), that lead you to the left side of the road. Follow the dirt road as it quickly ascends the hillside, providing wide vistas every look back. Wildflowers flourish here in the summertime. Pass a dilapidated cabin on your right side [2] as you get closer to the aspens. The trail eventually splits, just after you walk the steps over the next barb wire fence. Stay to your right and follow the wide road into the thick aspen groves [3].
Views of Gothic valley and its mountains are seen intermittently on the right side [4]. Stay on the main trail up the mountain and ignore the trail junction marked “Snodgrass Trail 1/2 mile” [6] (this route can be taken down the mountain for an alternate route; if you choose to, take a left when you reach the connecting trail junction). The trail follows the main road all of the way up past the aspens and into more coniferous forest [8] to the summit. Pass a weather station about a quarter mile from the summit.
The road dead ends at the top without much of a view, but if you follow the faint trail to the right into the brush for another 50 feet, peek out at some of the Elks. Turn around at any point to shorten the trip.
The Snodgrass trail to Washington Gulch (the early junction to the left) closes seasonally, so be sure to stay off of this when indicated by the trailhead sign.
Purple Mountain Bed & Breakfast
Links
Purple Mountain Bed & Breakfast
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Pitas in Paradise
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