Following the wildflowers, we picked a hike that starts around 7,000 feet in elevation. Button Rock Mountain has been on our shortlist for wildflowers because of how many we've seen in previous years, all around this time. The last time we completed this hike was on this same day in 2022. We also attempted this hike last year in early June, but we didn't complete it because that full hike was a little too much for Katie's ankle at the time. So it was nice for her to be in a place that she can enjoy long hikes again.

We took the wrong trail on this hike, which is easy to do because of how many trails there are. There was an unfortunate fork in the trail while the trail was on top of a large flat rock. Looking back on previous maps of the path we took, this isn't the first time that we took this turn. The difference is that last time we realized it much quicker... Once we were positive we were on the wrong trail, we started bushwhacking towards the summit which was easy to find - just hike up. Luckily we got a little bit of cell service at that point which allowed us to pull up a better map than what we had downloaded to get us to the right spot.

Although it was unfortunate that we got a little lost, it ended up being a positive thing because while we were hiking off trail to get back on track we found some Spotted Coralroot Orchids in bloom. We had found a few budding Coralroot's on this hike before this, but it was exciting to find one blooming. This is now the second week in a row that we've found wild orchids!

It was a 5 hour drive to get to Crested Butte. To make the most out of the extended weekend with the long drive we woke up early and hit the road. We stopped at Otto's - a gluten free chicken fast food restaurant in Fairplay - to grab some lunch to go with the intent on eating at an overlook in Buena Vista about an hour away (and closer to a normal lunchtime). The overlook was just a pull off without much of a view so we ended up eating at a trailhead parking lot which was alright.

30 minutes later, we reached the summit of Cottonwood Pass and it was absolutely stunning. This would have been a better spot for lunch but we didn't know we were going to be in such a great spot. There was a parking lot at the top and at over 12,000 feet in elevation the Continental Divide trail went right through the pass. There was a small trail that took us to a great overlook that we excitedly hiked to. The views were so wonderful with all the tall peaks and the amount of wildflowers was incredible. This definitely got us started on the right track for this trip.

As we drove by Taylor Reservoir, Katie spotted a cow moose with two babies. Luckily, there was a great spot for us to turn off and catch them for a few minutes before they went into the brush. This is our first moose sighting of the year.

We got to our Airbnb around 3 pm and turned around to head to our first hike. Exhausted from the long drive, we choose an easy hike that was right outside Crested Butte that had minimal elevation gain and was only 4 miles long. We saw some amazing wildflowers that got us very excited for the rest of the trip.

We had pizza in downtown for dinner (which was crazy busy) and then went to the Airbnb for an early night to rest up for a bigger hike the following day.

We woke up in our Airbnb for the first full day in crested Butte and got on the road to the West Maroon Pass trailhead. Along the way, there were several exciting events:

1. We ignored a sign stating the road was impassable (it wasn't).
2. We saw a fox run across the road with it's morning hunt (a squirrel) in its mouth.
3. A similar-sized car flag us down coming the opposite direction telling us the road got too technical and had to turn around. We made it through by going slow. It wasn't great but we've done sketchier roads in Katie's Crosstrek before...
4. We spotted a bull moose at Emerald Lake and barely got a few photos of it before it disappeared into the trees.

After a successful off-roading drive to the trailhead, we started our hike shortly after 9am. Because of the technicality of the road, there weren't a lot of people at the trailhead which was nice.

The hike started out as a nice walk through dense Forrest. I spotted a mushroom that Katie identified as a Morel, but it was a little beaten up. But that was a really cool find. About 3/4 of a mile into the hike we came across an incredible hillside full of wildflowers. More wildflowers than we've ever seen before that were packed dense and filled with tons of variety. It was the best show of wildflowers we've ever found before by a long shot. This hike definitely goes in the top ten hikes for us.

The hike was long and tiresome. We are lunch early before we hit the summit to give us the fuel to make it to the top. The top was worth the energy giving us a great view of the Maroon Bells. This hike continues through to Aspen which is another 6 miles and something we weren't planning on doing. But there were several people doing this hike from the Aspen side and a few impressive people doing it as a (very long) out and back from Aspen to where we started our hike, then back to Aspen. That would have been a 20 mile hike, which is way out of our league; the 8.5 miles that we did do was more than enough for us.

We took it a little slower today. We woke up a little exhausted from the big hike we did yesterday, so we went on a close-by hike to Snodgrass mountain that promised lots of wildflowers. The hike delivered on that promise with fields of wildflowers just as dense and packed as the hike we went on yesterday, but they were different wildflowers today. There were wildflowers up to our heads which was just insane to process, let alone the fact that many of these we've known to be short and scraggly flowers.

After that easy hike that felt challenging because of how tired we were, we went into downtown to the weekly farmers market to see if there was any cool hand crafted things. We ended up getting a bottle of wine from a local winery in Gunnison but that was about it at the farmers market. There were a few more shops open than the previous two evenings in downtown, so we did a little shopping to support the local businesses. Katie got a book on foraging that was written by the owner of the shop we bought it from (so definitely not something you could find easily anywhere else).

In the afternoon we drove up Kebler pass and stopped at Lake Irwin hoping to spot another moose for the trip. Unfortunately that area was busy with lots of water activities like paddle boarding and fishing - too busy for moose and it was the wrong time of day anyway. But we saw giant bushes of Jacobs Ladder, which is a flower that we don't usually see giant clusters of, so that was fun. The rest of Kebler pass was a nice drive with decent views but not super spectacular. There were lots of aspens so I'm sure this area would be gorgeous in the fall.

We woke up and packed up and left Crested Butte to head back home. on the way, we stopped to hike Ptarmigan Lake, which was right around Cottonwood Pass where we got so many fantastic views on the way out.

There was a slight chance of thunderstorms before noon and thunderstorms likely after noon. So we tried to get the hike done quickly before the storms rolled in. We got the hike done without getting any rain, but we started seeing dark clouds coming over the mountains right as we got above tree line. We heard some thunder when we were less than 1/8th mile from the summit, so we very quickly got to the summit, took a few photos, then hiked back down below treeline where it was less exposed. We were in the bowl of the mountains (so lots of things taller than us), but we still didn't want to get caught somewhere that we couldn't find shelter. That storm ended up skirting the area completely, which was a shame because the area above treeline was the best part that we really wanted to spend more time at. There were tons of wildflowers and the lake at the summit was in a gorgeous bowl with mountains surrounding it.

Even though that ended up being a bummer that we hiked fast for a storm that didn't hit, it was still good to be cautious. Besides, another storm started rolling in as we were finishing up our hike - one that definitely hit that area.