July '08    Page 2               | back | index | forward |


Wednesday, July 2, continued

More at the pass:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The road from Guanella pass to Georgetown was equally stunning:

 

There are a few reservoirs on the downside to Georgetown.  At this one, we stopped to have a picnic.

It's a hard life, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

Flowers along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

George town was  a great 1800's historical town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We thought at this point that we had seen it all, but maybe the best was yet to come today...

Georgetown, also is on Interstate 70.  We took the interstate going west again,  then decided to go over Loveland Pass (11990 ft) on US 6 instead of going through the Eisenhower tunnel. 

 

 

The road through the tunnel was blocked because of some construction on the other side.

 

It was cold at the pass..

 

 

 

Lots of winter ski resorts, and summer condominiums iin this area after the pass.

You join the interstate again at Dillon Reservoir (BIG!), where soon you have to choose  between going south on CO 9 to Breckenridge or south on CO 91 to Leadville.  We choose the latter. What beauty around this place, and what amount of people and condos!

Towards Leadville, we passed this enormous molybdenum mine.  It is hard to imagine that man can move that much mountain! In Leadville, we started looking for Turquoise Lake. west of town. 

 

We found there were several campgrounds, but found a tent only campground near the lake called Belle of Colorado.  If you get there yourself, choose the same campsite we did - no.11.

We soon realized when it started to rain that we were at 10,000 ft, that the cold wind we were experiencing was because it was coming over the snow on the side of the mountains on the other side of the lake, and the temperature that night was going to be in the 30's.  Fire again, as many blankets we could find, and we were fairly cozy in our tent.

 

 

 

Thursday, July 3

This was the view of Turquoise Lake the next morning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLD in the morning.  Break camp and drive to town where we stopped at the Golden Burro Cafe (nicknamed the Brass Ass by the locals!) and had a great breakfast.  We recommend it.  After breakfast, it was relatively warmer (in the 40's) and we enjoyed a walk through town.  It was too early for  most stores to be open, but we would like to come back...when it's warmer.

Drove south and east on US 24 all of the way home! We passed some recreation areas south of Leadville, then a series of mountains, called the Collegiate Mountains, all over 14,000 ft, named after colleges: Oxford, 14152; Harvard, 14420, Columbia, 14073; Yale, 14196; Princeton, 14197. (I wonder what Yale feels when told Princeton is 1 ft higher). Just south of Buena Vista, again in South Park, the road turns east to Trout Creek Pass (9346) then to town? of Hartsel (a few buildings),  and east to Wilkinson Pass at 9502 ft.   From here, it was east to Woodland Park then south to Colorado Springs.

390 miles, many on dirt roads, and several passes.  What fun this trip! 

Friday, July 4

New set of Sowers coming in this morning for the July project.  While waiting this morning, we saw a few sheep on top of the ridges near the RV camp:

Amazing, to see these big horn sheep so close.

 

 

 

 

 

Talking about close....We decided to put up some water for the birds in this plastic tray.  But, this is what we saw out of our rear window.  She kept on coming back near every day for more water.

 

 

 

July 4 continued on next page.

 


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