Kremmling is a small town that is "full of Western Spirit." It is also known by the nickname "Sportsman's Paradise" because it is surrounded by "bountiful rivers, reservoirs, and wilderness areas" for hunting, fishing, rafting, kayaking, Nordic skiing, horseback riding, ATVing, Jeeping, and the list goes on. There is also an interesting historical museum located at the northeast corner of 4th Street and Park Avenue (Highway 40) that contains a history of the area.
I have seen a lot of coke ovens in my travels, but I have never seen anything like the Redstone Coke Ovens Historic District. The difference between the Redstone Coke Ovens and all of the other coke ovens that I have visited is that the Redstone Ovens make "coke" from coal, and all of the other ovens made "coke" from wood. The process is the same, but the Redstone Ovens are much smaller and more numerous.
Arriving in Hotchkiss, we found great accommodations at the Dancing Forks Winery; but little did I know that the place was also a Quiltery!
The confluence of the Gunnison and North Fork Rivers is located near the winery; and a short distance up the river is the oldest know archaeological site in Colorado, dated to be 12,960 years old. It is also the only stratified Paleo Indian Site in the world -- dating from between 8,000 to 13,000 years ago, with no gaps in occupancy. Unfortunately, we did not have time to hike up to the archaeological site, so I'll add that to my Bucket List for our next visit.
One day we decided to drive up to Land's End on Grand Mesa and enjoy the beautiful fall colors.
Grand Mesa, at 10,500 feet, is the highest mesa in Colorado and Land's End is a land protuberance on the west side of the mesa that was once the site of an observatory.
On the way up the mesa we stopped for lunch at the old Alexander Lake Lodge, which has an interesting history. The Lodge is also the site of the historic Grand Mesa Feud.
The feud started in 1896 when an English aristocrat arrived on Grand Mesa and acquired fishing rights to the area lakes. To attract fishermen he built the Alexander Lodge.
Even though the Englishman offered fishing permits to the locals, the locals continued to just show up and fish without obtaining a permit. To stop the poaching, the Englishman hired game wardens to guard the lakes.
Then one day a local rancher show up and started fishing without a permit. An argument broke out between the game warden and the rancher and the game warden ended up shooting and killing the rancher. In retaliation, a mob of about 100 locals burned the Lodge and everything the Englishman owned while he was away. The only thing left standing on the site was the lodge's stone fireplace.
When the Aristocrat returned and found that everything he owned had been destroyed in the fire, he returned to England and never came back to Grand Mesa. However, the lodge was later rebuilt by a new owner, utilizing the original fireplace.
After lunch, on the way to Land's End, we stopped by the old Raber Family Cow Camp, which is one of the only surviving cow camps on Grand Mesa.
In the 1800s ranchers that lived in the areas surrounding Grand Mesa would herd their cattle up to the lush grasses on top of the mesa during the summer months and the cowboys would stay in "cow camps" and tend to the cattle. Most of the cow camps had log cabins for the cowboys to live in because during the summer months the weather at 10,000 feet can be wet, cold, and nasty.
In the 1990s the U.S. Forest Service removed almost all of the cow camps because the Forest Service considered the cow camps to be obsolete and hazardous. Somehow, the Raber Family Cow Camp survived.
On a sign by one of the cabins it states that the Rabers started work early in the morning and worked until late at night, which prompted one cowboy to say "It sure don't take long to spend a night at Rabers."
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| Picture taken with an IR Camera |
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| Picture taken with an IR Camera |
The road ends at Land's End, which is the location of the historic Land's End Observatory.
The Observatory was built in 1936-1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but the facility has now been abandoned. However, views from the building area are spectacular!
Returning to the Dancing Forks Winery we went out to check the vineyard and found that the sugar content of the grapes was only 17%, which is too early to pick the grapes for making wine. However, the apples were great!
Since the grapes were within a few days of being ready to pick, I decided that we had better head south or they would put us to work squashing grapes with our feet in large vats. (I saw how they do that on a National Geographic TV show.)
On this trip we did not drive over to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park or Curecanti National Recreation Area, but we have visited both locations on other trips.
