Linos and road trips and shows, oh my!

I've been on the road a LOT the last few weeks, a circumstance that will continue right up until I leave for my annual trek to Maine in early July. Yesterday I talked a friend in to joining me on a delivery run to Oh Be Joyful Gallery in Crested Butte, just over the Continental Divide from Salida. Well, maybe it's not just over the Divide. It's about a 90-minute drive via Highway 50 over Monarch Pass... but the even-more-beautiful trip over Cottonwood Pass is longer and slower. Guess which way we came home?

Afternoon clouds gathering over Crested Butte South

Crested Butte is famous for its amazing wildflowers (and wildflower festival in July), but of course it's early June, so the bloom has barely started. We did see lots of fields of fading larkspur surrounded by more dandelions than I've ever encountered. They were really quite beautiful.

Dandelions and larkspur, aspen and the edge of the Crested Butte

Cottonwood Pass has only recently opened for the season, as snow lingers long and deep at its 12,126-foot summit. The road is dirt for the last 14 miles of the approach from the west side, which is why I was so happy that the rain held off until we were maybe 3 or 4 miles from the top. It can get really slippery really fast up there.

Looking back towards Taylor Reservoir on the Cottonwood Pass climb.
Rain is definitely coming.

Plenty of snow left on the top, although the rain will melt it quickly.

On the east side of the pass ("my" side) the road is paved, so the rainy descent was no problem.

Whew! Another trip checked off the list. But in just two days I'll be off AGAIN... to......

"Shower with a Friend," reduction linocut, @Sherrie York

The opening of the exhibition Animalia, at the Loveland Museum in Loveland, Colorado. I'll be there both for the museum's Member Preview on June 9 and for the public opening on June 10. I have two linocuts in this show, including an old favorite: the last remaining "Shower with a Friend." (If you have "always wanted one" this could be your last chance!)

From Loveland I'll head to Estes Park for a couple of days, in part to give a short workshop for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. After that I'll return home for a couple of days and then leave AGAIN... but thinking about that too far ahead just makes me more tired.

Believe it or not, there IS a linocut on the carving table. This afternoon I'll get paper set up for it, and maybe print the first color tomorrow before I'm on the road again.