Tasting Excellent Local Beer in Ridgeway, Colorado

Image
This is the last of the three articles I wrote for the website Trazzler which is no longer. It's not a ride or hike, just a stop we made on a rest day between climbing 14ers. Photos are from a trip in 2009 For most, the town of Ridgeway is where your turn to go to Telluride or go straight to Ouray. Just off the main road, there’s the Colorado Boy Pub & Brewery. I had pints of the Stout and the IPA, and tasters of the rest. The stout and IPA were excellent. The Irish Red Ale was better than average. The Blonde Ale and Best Bitter were ok, but I wouldn’t get a pint of them. The food selection is simple, four different Paninis with chips, about $7 each. They also have free popcorn to go with the beer. The pints were $3.75 ($4.25 for the IPA) and tasters are about a dollar. They also had mini etch-a-sketches on all the tables. It's a small place, with only 5 tables and small bar, but has a great pub atmosphere. The Colorado Boy Brewery Ridgeway Has Some Nice Views of the ...
Post a Comment

Mt. Sneffels (September 2009)

(San Juans - Part 3)

Mt. Sneffels is third highest mountain in the San Juans, 14,150 ft. The hike up it is short, but steep and fun. The drive from Ouray to the trailhead was very scenic and part of it is a shelf road with amazing views.

Overhanging Rock


An Abandoned Mine


Cascades

We parked at the main trailhead and hiked up the road to the 4x4 trailhead. There we got onto the trail and headed towards a Sneffels with a light dusting of snow.


A Relatively Flat Section of Trail

When we got close we turned and went up a steep slope with loose rock and sand along the side of it.


After that slope we went up an even steeper gully with more snow, but the rocks were more stable. Then there was one more section, not as steep, but more technical with a steep drop off on one side. It started with a crevasse that was the crux of the climb. There was a few hundred foot drop on the left of it, just in case we fell. Once at the top we were rewarded with amazing views (and steep drop offs on all sides).


The View South


The View Looking West...We Were on the Edge of the San Juans

When we got up there, the sky was partially, clear and cleared up more as we got lunch. We had gotten lucky, because earlier in the day it was really cloudy and even cloudier when we left.


The View North with a Clearing Sky

While descending the loose sandy slope, I could slide down like I was skiing in short bursts. Once we got to the 4x4 trailhead, the clouds moved in fast. By the time we got to the trailhead most of the mountains had disappeared. We celebrated the victory at Billy Goat Gruff's the biergarden in Ouray.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blowing Rocks (January 2009)

Image
On Jupiter Island, just north of Jupiter Florida, there's a nature preserve with a unique feature on the Florida coast. The coast is rocky and the waves have worn holes through the rocks so that when they hit, the water blows up through them. Here is a wide angle of a wave crashing into them. This collage shows a wave splashing up through a hole. The best time to go is high tide. At low tide the waves are not big enough to blow up through the rocks. Here's one of the bigger splashes I saw while I was there. These rocks are exposed on a small part of the coast. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Here's another spot where the waves come up through a gap. There were lots of man-o-war along the beach while I was there, which I had to avoid stepping on.
Read more

Mendenhall Lake Kayaking (September 2011)

Image
At the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska is a lake, called Mendenhall. (With an outflow called the Mendenhall River and it's in the Mendenhall Valley...lots of stuff called Mendenhall in the valley) The glacier calves and sends icebergs onto the lake. We kayaked across the lake from a put-in near the outflow, up to the glacier itself. The water is obviously pretty cold (about 34°) so be prepared for it and don't plan on swimming far if you flip. At the beginning you can't see the glacier all the way down to the water due to the rock peninsula sticking out, but once you get around it, it's amazing. The Mendenhall Glacier from the Put In The views were amazing from anywhere, even on a cloudy day. We put in at the West Glacier Trailhead and began kayaking across the lake. We could see some icebergs along with Nugget Falls on the other side of the lake. Panoramic View from the Put-in On the way across we went close to some of the icebergs. ...
Read more

Tasting the Local Wine in Paonia, Colorado

Image
This post is actually an article I wrote for the website Trazzler, which no longer exists. Photos my trip there in 2008 have been added. In the West Elk Wine Region of Colorado there are several small wineries that they don’t sell their wines outside the region. Grapes Vines at Stone Cottage Cellars One of the best parts of stopping at these wineries is that you can talk with the owners. While you taste their wines, you can listen to their stories of how they got started. One of these is Stone Cottage Cellars. The owners built the stone cottage, stone by stone. They have an excellent Alpine Dessert wine. The Vineyards at Stone Cottage Cellars Another winery, Azura, is named after the boat the owners sailed around the world in. Their tasting room is also an art gallery and has great views of the surrounding area. Both of these wineries had four or five wines each and were on top of a mesa above Paonia. What are their stories? You’ll just have to go there to find out. On t...
Read more