Colorado Hwy 50 Monarch pass

[tamrock]

I spent this last Monday night in Salida, Colorado. I got on the road at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning and headed west over Monarch pass. The full moon was just setting as I headed up the pass. At the top were low clouds, but the temperature was allot warmer then I expected up there. The last pic is what I think are called the Dillon Pinnacles on the shore of the Blue Mesa Reservoir west of Gunnison Colorado on highway 50. The road were clear all the way, with only a little ice on the top of Monarch pass.

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

Nice pics, Tamrock. Back in '73, I was running a condo project at Crested Butte. We had to haul 13' x 50' modular condos over Monarch. This was in late October. It got pretty hairy before we got them all hauled.
Jim

 

[tamrock]

Nice pics, Tamrock. Back in '73, I was running a condo project at Crested Butte. We had to haul 13' x 50' modular condos over Monarch. This was in late October. It got pretty hairy before we got them all hauled.
Jim

I'll bet is was hairy. You probably wouldn't recognize Crested Butte today compared to the 70's. I'd go with my buddies from BV over cottonwood pass to party over that way on our days off. I remember the folks over there putting big tires and drum style breaks and beef'n up their bicycles. I ask a guy around 1978 what the heck he did with that souped-up look'n bike. He said they called themselves the stump jumpers and would ride those bike on rough mountain trails down hill. Those stump jump'n bikes later evolved in to today's mountain bikes. They now have a mountain bike museum in Crested Butte, as they think of it a place where the mountain bike craze all began.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

LOL...No, I probably wouldn't. I left CB in March of '74. Haven't been back since. Last time I was over Monarch was 10 years ago, and I was driving a dumptruck.
Jim

 

[TJE]

Some beauty shots TR! Nice.

 

[Gold Maven]

Dad and I had a hair raising time on Monarch years ago.

We were coming back east after a great Elk hunt in a pickup pulling a loaded utility trailer. Sunny in Gunnison, but BLACK up on the pass.

We got to the bottom, and the chain only lights were flashing, snowing like crazy, so we nosed into a salt shed and chained up the front. We tuned the radio in to the pass weather channel, and about the time we got to the point of no return, it said the pass was closed.

Snowing so hard, and piling up so fast, I couldn't see the road. I was afraid to stop, or try to pull over, because pulling over on that hill when you can't see, could be your last mistake.

We crept up and over, some how, and a mile or so down the other side the sun was shining.

If I ever see it that black again, I will not start up.

 

[pong12211]

Beautiful pictures thanks for sharing.

 

[texasred777]

Nice pictures, Tamrock.

 

[coazon de oro]

Howdy Tamrock,

Nice pictures, many are not aware of the meaning of many Spanish named places. Salida translates to exit, I wondered if it was just outside the mountains, then noted that you went up the Monarch Pass from there. So it is named as the exit of an old pass. Now I am wondering what other names that pass had before.

Homar

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Howdy Tamrock,

Nice pictures, many are not aware of the meaning of many Spanish named places. Salida translates to exit, I wondered if it was just outside the mountains, then noted that you went up the Monarch Pass from there. So it is named as the exit of an old pass. Now I am wondering what other names that pass had before.

Homar

Monarch may be the pass the old fur trappers called Buffalo Gate.
Jim

 

[old digger]

Cool pictures!

 

[tamrock]

Monarch may be the pass the old fur trappers called Buffalo Gate.
Jim

I've read in some book about the early mountain men, about the pass they called "Buffalo Gate". That pass is known today as Cochetopa pass today. Cochetopa being the Ute Indian word for "pass of the buffalo". It was a pass that the Buffalo could go traverse the continental divide from the east to west, even in the winter from some of the resources I've read. It was also a candidate for a possible route over the continental divide for the first transcontinental rail road. I enjoy driving over the divide on Cochetopa pass. It's so peaceful and quiet in that region, even in the summer month there isn't all that many folks that head to that part of Colorado. I camped in the area some when I lived in Chaffee county back in the early 1980's. It's a great place to get away and explore. Cochetopa Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... I've also posted some pic'c from my time of going over Cochetopa on the new hwy 114 part of the pass in the fall of 2013. I would head to Questa New Mexico that way after I was done with business in Ouray. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/my-daily-snapshot/381822-cochetopa-pass-colorado.html

 

[tamrock]

Cool pictures!

The 3rd pic is a good area to find artifacts along the shore and in the sage. I've not found anything all complete and unbroken yet, but I could fill a bucket in 2 hours of flakes. Almost all the material is different shades of great fracturing fine grain quartzite stone. The stuff make a great edge.