HAPPY "BER" MONTHS & ACTIVITES AT CAMPGROUND & SHORT TRIPS (END OF SEASON LUAU & RAFFLE; PLAYED PO-KE-NO; HAYSTACK GULCH TRAIL) - Sunday, September 1 - Wednesday, September 4, 2024

It's the first of September and the "BER"months are now here. Happy start of September!

Sunday, September 1, 2024

The Blue Mesa Thousand Trails campground held their "End of the Season Luau", which cost us each $5. It was held at the Welcome Center at noon. The luau dinner consisted of: BBQ beef on a bun, fried chicken, ham, potato salad, cole slaw, dessert and lemonade. They had a raffle following the luau. 

If you look at the above picture, you will see the tree that Mel often walked up to on his walks.

There was quite a crowd at the Luau. Each table had a playing card taped down on it. We wondered what this meant -- but soon found out that was how they were going to call each table to get their food, and as luck would have it, our card was called first.

Following the luau dinner, they had a raffle.

Shown below were some of the raffle prizes.

Monday, September 2, 2024 (Labor Day)

Happy Labor Day! Rooted in the the labor movement of the 19th century, the holiday originated during a dismal time for America's workers, who faced long hours, low wages and unsafe conditions. 

As labor unions and activists advocated and fought for better treatment for workers at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the idea arose to establish a day dedicated to celebrating the members of trade and labor unions.

Labor Day became a national holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed a law passed by Congress designating the first Monday in September a holiday for workers. But the federal recognition was hard-won, having come after a wave of unrest among workers and labor activists brought the issue of workers' rights into public view.

From 7 to 8 p.m., Mel and I went up to play Po-Ke-No at the Welcome Center. I had played it before at other Thousand Trails, but Mel had not. 

It was a lot of fun – so much so that we now have our own Po-Ke-No cards and game ready to play with our friends and family.

Everyone playing got to pick a card or two to play PO-KE-NO with.

Mel met the lady shown below at PO-KE-NO and she knew one of our friends, Clay Harper.

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Today we decided to go on a jeep journey today close to the campground. We left around 10:15 a.m. and went off roading on HWY 3233 along Haystack Gulch. Haystack Gulch Road leads to a network of 4WD roads that go through aspen groves near the top of Runaway Point. To access the road, we followed a road that headed up to the left just before crossing onto Forest Service land.

We also went on to Rainbow Lake. We had lunch above the Blue Mesa Thousand Trails Campground.

We didn't have a map to follow, but Mel had his GPS on which helped as with that it wasn't too hard to find our way.

The trail was gravel and dirt for most of the way.

The above sign says were in Haystack Gulch.

In some areas, there were some pretty deep ruts.

The views and the scenery were spectacular.

We could see for miles and miles across the horizon.

Every so often we would come to another cattle grate crossing.

We saw several signs where they had cut down the timbers. Signs listed the acres cut and the date it was done.

And then  we found black cattle strolling along the road.

We finally came to a sign posting the Gunnison Ranger District (see above) and pretty much the end of the road unless you wanted to hike (see below).

Above is an offshoot of the Rainbow Lake that is a high mountain lake in Gunnison National Forest.

We finally arrived at the major portion of the Rainbow Lake. It was getting colder, so we didn't get out of the jeep.

We found another cow along the side of the road.

Mel gets out of the jeep to open another gate.

And once again, Mel has to open and close another gate.

Now I can see the tree that Mel loves to walk up to from our campground in the distance.

Now you can see the Blue Mesa Reservior in the distance.

These lava-type rocks are a little rough to go over, but Mel gets the jeep to climb them.

Above is a pretty view of our campground.

We finally find a great spot out of the wind and on the top of the trail to stop and have lunch.

The cactus were interesting up here.

After lunch, we make our way back down again.

We finished the trail at 2 p.m. and headed back to the campground to enjoy our evening.

Shirley & Mel