Lisa and I wanted to go backpacking over 4th of July weekend, so we turned to the most spectacular place in Colorado: Crested Butte. I'd settled on the Raggeds Wilderness as our location, but picking a trail was problematic. After numerous books and web searches, I decided that we should start at the Oh-Be-Joyful trailhead, hike in about 6 miles to below Oh-Be-Joyful pass (and Blue Lake), camp, then the next day hike over an unnamed pass into Peeler Basin, following the trail down to Gunsight Pass road and back out to the car. It was an aggressive 17 mile loop (6 miles on day 1, 11 on day 2), but it was spectacular! The wildflowers were not yet at peak (unfortunately) but the surrounding glacial valleys (with the lush green colors and countless waterfalls) were amazing. You really can't go wrong in the Raggeds as far as I'm concerned!
Die hard Crested Butters Just when we thought our packs were awkward, these guys were saddling up at the trailhead
Leading up the trail
Tell me this doesn't look totally artificial...
A glimmer of Democrat Basin ahead
Looking up the Oh-Be-Joyful valley
Flowers against the Dippold Basin in the distance
Oh-Be-Joyful Peak
Brian
The layered ridge of Garfield Peak
Peeler and Garfield Peak
Not a bad view from our campsite Purple Peak visible in the distance
Lisa
Lisa and Brian
A globeflower
Globeflower
Brian, shooting some photos
Brian and Lisa
Our campsite
Garfield Peak and our pass to climb the next day
mmm...dehydrated food
Lisa plays with my camera while I pump water...
Purple Peak
Brian
Brian
Flowers and Garfield Peak
The view from our campsite in the morning
Sunlight on our tent
Lisa mixes up some coffee in the Nalgeen 4
Looking back on our campsite We pitched our tent just below the stand of trees in the center of the frame
Just a few waterfalls come down from Blue Lake
Lisa crosses a stream
A panorama at Blue Lake
Looking across the basin at our trail Our trail cuts diagonally from lower left to the notch in the ridge
Lisa at Blue Lake
Brian photographs the valley
Blue Lake, perched up on a basin shelf
Brian on the pass
Lisa on the pass
Brian and Lisa
Looking down in Peeler Basin from the pass
An ant carries of a piece of cheese that Lisa dropped
Lisa hikes down the Peeler Basin side of the pass
Lisa crosses a stream in Peeler Basin
Brian crosses the stream
Parry's Primrose
Not a bad view of the Elk range
A perfectly natural color for a stream...below a mine.... This was in Redwell Basin below the Daisy Mine
The Daisy Mine in Redwell Basin below Gunsight Pass
Looking along the northern flank of Oh-Be-Joyful valley
If you squint real hard, you can see most of our ascent trail in the Oh-Be-Joyful valley 2000 feet below us
Lisa
The view from Wolverine Basin (I swear - I"m not making these names up)
Mt. Crested Butte from the trail
An old rail car at an abandoned mine
Just to top it off, a light dusting of snow on the top of Cottonwood pass on the drive home
