We visited Montrose in October 2020, during Big Trip #3. Read about our first visit in 2016 here, during Big Trip #1.

I’ve been on a nice little roll knocking out several quickie posts where we stayed places for a night or two, but don’t get used to that pace–the stop after Montrose is our new favorite place and we kept extending our stay there and it’s going to take me forever to write all the things!

But first, Montrose. We stayed there on our first Big Trip as a base from which to explore Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, and we didn’t remember it being so full of chains and big boxes. The downtown is cute and a nice place to spend an afternoon drinking beer on patios.

Campground

Once again, we stayed at the KOA, a pleasant campground a short drive to downtown.

Stuff we considered doing and actually did

Here’s what we did during our brief time in Montrose:

Colorado-ology is a fun store for gift shopping. We stocked up on some Christmas presents there.

Colorado Boy is a brewery and pizza joint with a small patio practically in the road–it’s probably just there for Covid-times. The beer wasn’t for us, but the server was delightful and recommended the following options for dinner: Horsefly, Stone House, and Guru.

Horsefly Brewing has a great outdoor space and meh beer, and they have fish tacos on their menu! I remember them being tasty from our first visit.

We also remembered yummy Nepalese food from Guru, so that’s what we went with for dinner this visit. Our dishes were way heavy on cream, even when cream isn’t supposed to be an ingredient. We should have gotten carryout from Stone House!

Here’s what we considered doing but didn’t actually do:

We wanted to take Bugsy for a walk on the Umcompahgre RiverWay Trail, a 12-mile rails-to-trails path linking Montrose and Ridgway, before leaving town, but we had to grocery shop instead. Boring.

Hiking in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park–we really want to hike on the North Rim, but it’s an hour and a half from Montrose.