4. Two spectacularly scenic Roads in Central Colorado

Day 10: Tuesday, July 30

Keeping a photo journal, and making what the IRS calls "contemporaneous entries," is an evening-filling activity. I have learned the hard way that even a day's delay will make me forget to mention something that at the time I considered worthy of including. Although my wife will gladly provide evidence that I forget a lot anyway, it's not old age. It's simply that there are so many impressions that the memory bank can't store it all. Anyway, I didn't get finished with evaluating, editing, and selecting photos until almost midnight last night.

Slept very well, yesterday's problem of being short of breath did not reoccur. However, I do notice that even slight physical exertion at high altitudes makes me breathe harder and gives me a slightly dizzy buzz (about the equivalent of 1 gin-and-tonic.)

Enjoyed a great shower in the deluxe bathhouse and was on the road by 10:00 AM. Downtown Golden isn't a major area, yet I managed to spend a lot of time driving around. In part because I wanted to, but mainly because Street Atlas got totally confused. I think it loses it whenever turns come too quickly and the driver doesn't follow instructions -- because by the time the instructions are delivered, he is already past the turning point.

Nevertheless, found my way to the Colorado Railroad Museum, which has a large collection of steam engines, freight cars, and passenger cars. Worth the $5.00 admission fee, although the blonde at the ticket counter didn't even ask whether I was entitled to the senior discount, she just gave it. No wonder I was less than impressed with the museum.

The feature that had attracted me was that, according to AAA, the museum also houses an extensive model railroad collection, and I'm an afficionado. Well, the models weren't particularly good (with two exceptions) and the HO layout was marginal, at best. The guidebook didn't say that it is operated only on Thursday nights. The rest of the time, if you put a quarter in the box, one dinky Amtrak train will run around for about three minutes, but about half of the running time is in tunnels, so you can't see it. There was a schoolbus-load of kids who wanted to see the moving train but none (including the teacher) admitted to having quarters. Seemed to me that a riot was about to break out, so I gave the teacher about $2 worth of quarters and considered saving her from a mental breakdown to have been my good deed for the day.

Headed for Boulder and Estes Park via Lyon. The stretch from Lyon to Estes Park is quite scenic, and I managed to get the photo I had missed yesterday, when heavier traffic prevented a photo stop.

From Estes Park to Central City it is the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway (SR 7, 72, and 119.) This is an absolutely gorgeous drive along the eastern front of Colorado's Front Range. It snakes across ridges, passes through beautiful valleys, and affords spectacular views of major peaks and portions of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is called the "Peak to Peak" road because on one end is a view of Longs Peak and the other end is marked by Evans Peak, with Indian Peaks in between. The north-to-south drive is spectacular, but I suspect going south to north would be even better. Here are some photos:

The scenic road ends at Black Hawk and from there it is a pleasant drive along the Clear Creek to Idaho Springs and I-70.

Stayed on I-70 to go through the Eisenhower Tunnel and jumped of at the intersection with SR 91, which took me through the Freemont Pass (11,318') to Leadville, a picturesque old mining town that Antje and I visited during oour 2000 trip. Then took US 24 east to follow the Arkansas River to Buena Vista. This road is part of the "Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway" and definitely worthwhile.

Along the way passed this sign and view:

Mt. Massive is Colorado's second highest peak, nearby Mt. Elbert has it beat by 12'.

In Buena Vista I found a site at the Buena Vista KOA. Got it for $22.11 because I don't need water (tank is full) and don't need electricity (batteries are charged, and the evening temperature at 8,000' is in the mid-seventies, so don't need A/C.) Put the screen over the side door and let a pleasant breeze cool me off while I worked on the journal (the campground is modem-friendly, so I'll upload later) and ate a supper consisting of a BMT sandwich from Subway and the rest of the peaches I had bought a few days ago.

Drove 260 miles, was on the road for 7 1/4 hours. Temperatures ranged from 49F last night to 80F at departure to 101F during the day to 75F after sunset.

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