Lake City - Engineer Pass

When the alarm clock went off at 5:30, I sincerely hoped that my 3:00am headache would be gone - after all, this was my FAVORITE weekend of the year and I sure didn't need or want any complications - but it wasn't - so I downed a couple of headache relievers and we were off to my favorite destination in Colorado - Lake City!!

We had already decided that this year we would stop and eat at Dottie's - it's kind of a hole in the wall at Sargeant's where Glenn hunts about every year! But I KNEW it would be better than McDonald's where we were forced to eat last year!! By this time the sun was well up and it was turning out to be one gorgeous day!!

Alas, Dottie's was NOT open - so into Gunnison we went and the little cafe where we wanted to eat last year was not even busy so we sat right down and ordered our breakfast - large portions, small booths and fairly good food!! While Glenn paid the bill, I told him I was heading next door to get us turtle mochas to go - imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw they ALSO served breakfast - not JUST breakfast, but crepes - my FAVORITE thing to eat in the morning!! So I tucked that little bit of knowledge in my brain, knowing that next year, we would stopping here for breakfast!!

Lake City soon came into view and we stopped at the information building to get a map of the Alpine Loop, which we knew we would be taking!! The guy told us there was an ATV staging area just a little ways up the road and we found it with ease and soon were on our way!!

The aspens were in full color - probably peak weekend was the weekend before but it didn't matter to us - we started up Engineer Pass and it was so beautiful, we didn't know which way to even look!! It's always fun to look back down after you have climbed for a while and we saw several fishermen fishing in the stream below us!

As we climbed higher and higher, the views were even more breathtaking and I was snapping pictures around every corner - the scenery just kept getting better and better!

By this time, we had turned off on a trail called Nellie's Trail and it proved to be my favorite trail out of our 2 days of ATVing.

There was snow on the distant mountains and it made for a dramatic backdrop against the gold aspens!

Most of the aspens are gold - but once in a while you'll find a patch of orange colored aspens and they sure stand out!

We had bought a neat ATV pack to put on the back and it worked out great!! A huge zipper bag for the extra coats and sweatshirts as we shed them during the day and also a great place to hold the maps and a blanket for our picnic! On each side of that were small coolers for our lunch and drinks!

It was a great day on the ATV and I couldn't imagine that Saturday would be any prettier than what we had already seen - but I was mistaken...........

We headed out to Castle Lake Campgrounds where I had rented a cabin for the next 2 nights! The place was as beautiful as always with their 2 private lakes and our cabin was cute as could be! It was naptime for Glenn and a new book to start for me............... To Be Continued.........