Finding a Ruby in The Rockies at Redstone

In our escape from Moab, we made our way back to Colorado.  But the heat came with us. The weather map showed the Western Slope and most of the southwest broiling in 100+ degree temperatures. Our next planned layover was at Colorado River State Park in Fruita, CO and the main attraction was to visit the Colorado National Monument.

The James M. Robb Colorado River State Park – Fruita Section is one of the nicest state parks I have visited. The park is just off I-70 and sits along the Colorado River.  The Colorado National Monument dominates the southern horizon.  It has 54 campsites and many have water and electricity. The campsites are all paved with picnic shelters for shade. There is a dump station for RVs.  Here’s a short video of the state park campsites.

I’m glad I had made reservations as the state park was full with people attending Country Jam 2015.  Country Jam is a huge annual 4 day outdoor country music festival held just 10 miles from Fruita in Mack, CO. It attracts over 35,000 people. The key artists performing this year included The Band Perry, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Billy Currington, Kacey Musgraves, and Toby Keith. I talked to a few attendees who were staying in the park and all said it was a great experience. Perhaps it’s something I’ll consider next year as one of my favorite country artists, Brad Paisley, will be headlining.

But, back to the heat. Night-time temperatures where cool in the high 60’s, but by 9:30 am it was over 95 with an uncomfortable hot breeze. The outside temperature gauge on my RV quickly got up to 105 degrees and stayed there until 7:30 pm. It was still in the 90’s at 10:00 pm with a breeze like a hot blast furnace.

The AC in my RV could barely keep up. We spent an afternoon laying down in the RV with wet towels on our heads. The temp in the RV didn’t get below 85 until early evening.  Not fun.  At 61, I don’t handle this type of heat like a young person. I was having some borderline heat exhaustion symptoms, which convinced me to get out of the area as soon as possible.

The next day we were going to visit the Colorado National Monument in the morning, but health safety trumped sightseeing.  So we left a day early and headed up to the high elevations and cooler temps. The temps up in the mountains near Carbondale were forecast to in the 80’s.

My planned route was to take the back roads towards Aspen. We left Fruita and headed southeast on Route 50 to Delta and then got on Route 92 to Hotchkiss. At Hotchkiss, we headed north on Route 133 and followed the North Fork of the Gunnison River up into the mountains. This is a lovely route that travels through some small mining towns of Paonia and Somerset and gently climbs up to McClure Pass.  At the pass (elev. 8,753), the road descends steeply and quickly to the Crystal River Valley.  Here’s a video of some clips from Paonia over McClure Pass and into Redstone.

It’s interesting to see how the terrain and temperatures changed. Up on the western side of pass, the temperature read 93 degrees, but once we descended on the eastern side it was quickly down to 85. The fauna also changed from brown grass with sparse trees to more lush evergreen and aspen covered hills and valleys. It felt so good to be in cool air.

Along the Crystal River much of the land is National Forest. There are three US Forest Service campgrounds along the road between the pass and Carbondale. I had targeted the Redstone Campground as a place to try and get a site and boy did we luck out.

Redstone has 35 sites and about half have water and electricity. Most are first come first serve. We arrived just after lunch and snagged a nice level site with hook ups and a great view. It’s pricey for a USFS campground at $36 per night for a site with hookups but the view makes it worth every penny. Here are some pictures.

We were able to get the site for two nights and do some exploring along the river. Back up the road is the small town of Marble.  It is aptly named. There’s a large white marble mine in Marble. The marble from Marble has been used in famous structures like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.  As we drove into the town, big white chucks of marble dominate people’s yards and the roadsides. The town is small at 130 people and is very rustic and undeveloped.  We went there to see it and eat some barbeque at the Slow Groovin BBQ. I had brisket and Cav had ribs. It was all great.

Redstone is another small mining town now turned into a small quaint resort.  It also has a population of only 130.  It’s named for the red rock valley that it sits in. It calls itself The Ruby in the Rockies. The key mining mineral was coal. Joseph Osgood founded the town and constructed all the buildings to house the miners for his company. He also built a couple of mansions for himself and his wife. One is the Redstone Inn and his wife’s mansion (Redstone Castle) is open for tours.  Redstone sits right on the Crystal River and is a unqiue place. Many of the original miners homes are now homes or small businesses.

The whole Crystal River Valley is sparse but beautiful.  Its one of Colorado’s well kept secret places that you don’t hear about.  I’m so glad we took this back road and lingered for a couple of days at Redstone. The US Forest Service controls much of the land which explains the lack of development. Its a good example of something good being done by the people in Washington.

When we left the National Forest and continued up the valley towards Carbondale, it all changes from the land of few to the land of plenty.