The Haunted Pass

 After three nights we left Crested Butte and drove south out of the valley back to the main highway at Gunnison, then headed east on US 50 and it slowly climbs up the top towards the high Rockies. It was a busy day on the road. Many folks heading the same direction. We stopped and let them pass us while getting gas just before the ascent over Monarch Pass, then went up the road into the high meadows and then along the mountainsides as you approach the summit of the ridge.

We stopped at the top of course. How can one not stop, at least going once a year, just to keep abreast of the changes.  The parking lot was mostly empty. 

This year the tacky throwback souvenir shop and hot dog cateteria, the kind one pines to discover on the archetypal roadtrip, was mostly unchanged. The cafeteria was rearranged. J said the book section was mostly gone. The maps were still there. 

Otherwise it was deserted but for a few people and us. It felt a little haunted, as if from a Colorado that never took off and prospered.

I saw no hikers coming in after reaching the pass, as one does in a normal year.