The border between Pitkin and Gunnison counties on route 133
is at McClure Pass, at 8,755 feet not one of Colorado’s highest passes but at
the beginning of October perhaps one if its most beautiful because of the huge
aspen groves on both approaches, particularly on the southern (Gunnison) side .
Heading south at sunset the peaks towards my left (east) were lit of
spectacularly and looked as they were glowing.

I continued a little farther into the dusk to the small town
of Paonia in the so-called North Fork Valley, that being the north fork of the
Gunnison River. The area reminds me of a more farming-oriented, less ritzy
version of the lower part of the Roaring Fork Valley northwest of Aspen. Being
some distance from any of Colorado’s more glamorous resort towns, it seems
somewhat more down-to-earth and affordable. Depending how important skiing is
to me (and how big my housing budget is at the time), Paonia is a place I could
someday see living to enjoy a more country lifestyle in Colorado. That’s some
ways off, though. I had a smothered burrito for dinner in a small restaurant on
Main Street and then found a quiet place away from any houses to car camp on
the pleasantly mild night.

The morning dawned glorious, and I backtracked a few miles
to Paonia Reservoir and the forest service road across the West Elk Mountains
skirting the Raggeds Wilderness . It’s another Colorado mountain road I never
made it over during my years of exploring the state. The area between Route 133
and Kebler Pass and then onto Crested Butte is heavily forested, but there are
several good views of the mountains around in what feels almost like absolute
wilderness. The area is supposedly home of some of the largest aspen groves in
the world, and the gold of the changing leaves was about as overwhelming as I’ve
seen anywhere in the state. It truly is an enchanted area but one I’ve bypassed
because there are no fourteeners in the West Elk Range. West Elk Peak in the
West Elk Wilderness just tops out at 13,005 feet, a remote peak I should try to
“bag” someday but one that would require a long backpack trip into the
wilderness to achieve.